Clamp down on illegal traps in Singapore

Straits Times Forum 18 Aug 09;

IT WAS heart-rending for me to find yet another stray dog suffering as a result of illegal traps laid in the forested areas of Lim Chu Kang.
The sight of stray animals with their limbs torn off is too much for me to bear in silence. I hope the authorities will put a stop to these illegal traps.

It was reported in June that a stray dog had been found with its right hind leg severed by one of these traps ('Dog found with hind paw severed', June 30), and it is disappointing that yet another stray has suffered a similar fate.

Such illegal traps are also a danger to people. Will action be taken only after a human has been injured by them?

Michelle Sng (Miss)

Stop setting cruel and illegal animal traps
Straits Times 20 Aug 09;

I AM shocked to find out that Singapore allows the public to lay illegal traps in forests to trap stray dogs and cats ('Clamp down on illegal traps' by Miss Michelle Sng, Forum Online, Tuesday).

This is such an inhumane way to trap animals and is dangerous to humans walking in the area. This is wrong and barbaric. We live in a civilised world.

Please do something about it. Please ban illegal traps.

Pauline Tan (Ms)

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Wildlife crime 'not taken seriously' in the UK

Andrew Fletcher, BBC 18 Aug 09;

A shake-up of wildlife policing is being called for by conservationists including The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and The Wildlife Trusts.

They say an inconsistent and often poor response to wildlife crime from police means criminals are able to break the law with little fear of detection. But why are so few perpetrators being brought to justice?

Mark Thomas opens a brown cardboard box which has been delivered to the office in Bedfordshire where he works as an investigator for the RSPB, and lifts out the contents.

"It's an absolutely immaculately-plumaged young peregrine.

"It was found in a location in north Wales...we've now got the job of trying to ascertain how this thing died."

It is not a new problem for Mark, who rates this as one of the worst years on record for peregrine persecution.

I accompany him as he takes the falcon to a nearby vet's practice for an X-ray which will provide some clues as to the cause of death.

"Poisoned"

The image reveals no signs of shot wounds, which would have shown up clearly as white circles.

But Mark is suspicious that the "crop" of the bird, a section of the throat close to its mouth, appears full.

"This could be a poisoned bird," he says.

"It looks as if it's had a meal and then has died quite shortly after that.

"So one route now is to send it away for examination."

This will take place at a government laboratory, but only if Mark can make a convincing case for the peregrine to be analysed.

The number of birds which can be examined each year is limited.

Even if this obstacle is overcome and poisoning can be proved, finding the culprit will not be an easy matter.

"We jokingly say it's like running a marathon, and in the final third of the marathon hurdles begin to appear, and when you get right to the finishing line the hurdles have got spikes on, and the spikes have got poisonous tips."

Last year the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) recorded 3,514 reported incidents of wildlife crime, but just 51 convictions.

Expertise "lacking"

Often these offences, such as egg theft or badger baiting, take place in rural locations, making the gathering of evidence difficult.

Securing a conviction usually requires expert knowledge from police and prosecutors.

Nonetheless, conservationists believe more could and should be done.

The RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts are now calling for a fundamental review of the way crimes against wildlife are dealt with in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The charities say the lack of national standards has led to an inconsistent and often poor response to wildlife crime from police.

The RSPB's head of investigations, Ian West, says the quality of the police's response to wildlife crime is very patchy.

"If you've got some people with particular knowledge, such as in Norfolk with a specialist prosecutor, you can get some very good prosecutions.

In other areas they don't have that expertise."

There has already been a review of wildlife crime policing in Scotland which recommended the appointment of a full-time wildlife coordinator within each police force area and minimum standards of investigation.

But the chief constable of Lincolnshire, Richard Crompton, who speaks for the Association of Chief Police Officers on wildlife crime, warns that a similar review in England is unlikely for some time.

"I'm not sure that at the moment our Inspectorate would be able to carry out such a review", he says.

"It might be put on the agenda for later, but at the moment I know they are heavily engaged in a whole range of other reviews which must come before this one."

Mr Crompton does expect to see an increase in the conviction rate in the coming years, though, and says he will try to raise the profile of wildlife crime.

Mark Thomas thinks that with a bit of extra effort from police and prosecutors, those who persecute peregrines and other wild creatures will be less likely to get away with it:

"We just need to all work together, and work better and more efficiently… that is the way to be successful at fighting wildlife crime."

Wildlife crimes pushed to the back of the queue, say conservationists
More than 100 organisations led by RSPB call for review of how police protect Britain's rare animals and plants
Press Association, guardian.co.uk 18 Aug 09;

Conservationists accused police chiefs of pushing crimes against wildlife "to the back of the queue" today.

More than 100 organisations, led by the RSPB, called for a review of how police protect the nation's rare animals and plants.

They said a lack of agreed standards across forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has led to an inconsistent approach.

A shortage of specialist officers and the low priority given to wildlife crimes means criminals can break the law with little fear of getting caught. Ian West, head of investigations at the RSPB, said the review should be led by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

He said: "Strong laws to protect our wildlife are a sign of a civilised society, but they are only of value if properly enforced."

Wildlife crime was targeted in October 2006 with the formation of the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU). It gathers information about wildlife crime and supports police forces and customs officers across Britain. .

"The NWCU has listed priorities for wildlife crime enforcement in the UK, including the killing and persecution of birds of prey. Yet, in parts of the English uplands and on the edges of some towns and cities, bird of prey persecution continues at unacceptably high levels.

"There are many competing demands on our police, but wildlife crime is all too often pushed to the back of the queue," he added.

Based in East Lothian, the NWCU's most high-profile priority is protecting rare and endangered species such as birds of prey. Members also work to safeguard badgers, fish and hares from baiting, poaching and hunting.

Lesser known priorities include protecting roosting bats and identifying people who steal and damage fresh water pearl mussels.

In June, an annual report revealed just nine people are manning the unit after bosses were unable to secure permanent funding. They have been swamped with tip-offs and other information from police forces, local authorities and charities.

The number of offenders monitored by the unit continued to grow with 1,503 recorded in the last financial year, an increase of 161 on the previous 12 months.

Senior members said they are struggling to counter the surge in sales of endangered species on the internet.

Paul Wilkinson, of The Wildlife Trusts, said: "It is important that we achieve much greater clarity and rigour in our approach to wildlife crime. The current uncertainty around what constitutes a wildlife crime is surely unacceptable. This grey area helps those who commit wildlife crimes and puts the enforcement agencies, and wildlife itself, at a disadvantage."

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Widespread killing of primates in Sarawak

Stephen Then, The Star 18 Aug 09;

MIRI: Native folks and some city dwellers are slaughtering primates – in some cases mother and baby – to have them as exotic meat which is said to ‘‘very tasty”.

These practices are widespread and despite repeated complaints and reports to the State Wildlife Department and State Forestry Department, it seems to be getting worse.

In northern Sarawak, the killing of primates has become a “normal” practice in rural longhouses.

A senior reporter for Sin Chew Daily’s Miri office, Vincent Lo Kiun Shin, recently witnessed the horror of a mother gibbon and her baby being slaughtered for food by longhouse folks in Ulu Baram.

Expressing disgust with what he saw, he said: “These longhouse folks are supposed to value the forests they live in and protect its resources but they seem to be killing these wildlife blatantly without any mercy.

He said the animals were shot with guns and blowpipes and slaughtered.

“These animals are already in danger of extinction. Loggers are killing them and chasing them out of the forest.

“Now, they are being hunted and killed by the natives. Unless this sort of killing is stop- ped, soon there will be no more primates left in the forests,” he said yesterday.

Even here, monkeys and macaques are also being openly sold in the native markets and backlanes.

When The Star reported a case of a native trader selling a monkey in a small cage near the city bus station to a Miri Wildlife Department investigating officer, his response was: “I am off today. I will tell my boss about it.”

The next day, when asked what had happened to the case and why no enforcement officers showed up at the scene, this investigating officer replied: “I don’t know”.

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Malaysian Wildlife Dept moves to overcome illegal trading of wildlife

Yeng Ai Chun, The Star 18 Aug 09;

PETALING JAYA: The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) views illegal wildlife trade as a serious crime and has created 13 border posts – with three more to be created – to check animal smuggling.

The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said Perhilitan was committed to conserving wildlife and would take all necessary action to overcome illegal trading of wildlife.

The department came under fire after an expose in The Star about Malaysia being a wildlife illegal trading hotspot.

“The term ‘old story’ and ‘story of the past’ did not by any means relate to the issue of smuggling and illegal trade.

“It meant that the report was covered by the reporter repeatedly over the years. It is an issue which the ministry has placed much focus and efforts on and its fullest commitment to,” it said in a statement yesterday.

The Star reported that Malaysia is a transit point, a source country for illegal trafficking of wildlife and its parts, as well as a consumer hub for endangered wildlife and Perhilitan director-general Datuk Abdul Rasid Samsudin labelled the report as an “old story”.

The ministry added that Perhi- litan’s inter-agency cooperation with Customs, Anti-Smuggling Unit, maritime, army and police led to the confiscation of 254 Malayan Pangolins in 2005, 850 in 2007 and 227 in 2008; 17,062 Clouded Monitor Lizards in 2006 and 2007; and 729 Water Monitor Lizards in 2008.

“It is difficult for Perhilitan to estimate the value of wildlife seized. However, the volume of wildlife seized from January 2008 to June 2009 consists of 14,771 animals, 589 skins and 6,252.7kg of carcasses,” it said.

It stressed that Perhilitan had never organised any auction for its confiscated wildlife in the past three years.

“Any wildlife confiscated will be returned to the country of origin (for exotic species) or released to the wild (for local species). The skin or carcasses will be disposed, used in DNA research or awareness programmes,” it said.

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Pandas could be extinct in 2-3 generations: report

Yahoo News 17 Aug 09;

BEIJING (AFP) – China's giant panda could be extinct in just two to three generations as rapid economic development is infringing on its way of life, state media said on Monday, citing an expert at conservation group WWF.

The problem is that the pandas' habitat is being split up into ever smaller patches, preventing the animals from roaming freely for mating partners and in turn endangering their gene pool, the Global Times reported.

"If the panda cannot mate with those from other habitats, it may face extinction within two to three generations," said Fan Zhiyong, Beijing-based species programme director for WWF. "We have to act now."

The risk of inbreeding is increasing, threatening to reduce the panda's resistance to diseases and lowering its ability to reproduce, the paper said.

Fan said that highways pose major restrictions on the panda's free movement.

"We may have to give up building some infrastructure," Fan said. "I don't know the solution to this problem."

There are about 1,590 pandas living in the wild around China, mostly in southwestern Sichuan, northern Shaanxi and northwestern Gansu provinces. A total of 180 have been bred in captivity, according to earlier reports.

In addition to environmental constraints, the animals' notoriously low libidos have frustrated efforts to boost their numbers.

Breeders have resorted to tactics such as showing them "panda porn" videos of other pandas mating, and putting males through "sexercises" aimed at training up their pelvic and leg muscles for the rigours of copulation.

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Kenya may lose all its lions in 20 years

Reuters 17 Aug 09;

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's lion population could disappear altogether in the next 20 years because of climate change, habitat destruction, disease and conflict with humans, the country's wildlife authority said on Monday.

Lions are one of the so-called Big Five along with elephants, buffaloes, leopards and rhinos that are the major tourist attraction in Kenya's game parks.

Kenya, heavily reliant on tourist dollars, lost an average 100 lions in each of the last seven years; from 2,749 lions in 2002, to some 2,000 of the big cats now, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said.

"The trend of lion population decline is disturbing and every effort needs to be made to ensure that Kenya either stabilizes its population at the current 2000 lions or increases the numbers to an ecologically acceptable level," KWS said in a statement.

It said it has tracking devices fitted on five lions to monitor their movement and better understand the human-lion conflict in the southern Amboseli ecosystem.

The southern Tsavo National Park -- famous for a pair of man-eating lions that devoured scores of railway construction workers by dragging them from their tents at night in the 1890s -- has only 675 lions, KWS said.

The saga of the man-eating lions of Tsavo was illustrated in a 1996 film by Vil Kilmer and Michael Douglas titled The Ghost and the Darkness.

(Reporting by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Kenya losing 100 lions every year: conservation group
Yahoo News 17 Aug 09;

NAIROBI (AFP) – Kenya's lion population has been dropping by an average 100 lions each year since 2002, the Kenya Wildlife Service announced Monday, warning that the big cats could be extinct in the next two decades.

Cattle herders who kill the lions in retaliation for attacks on their stock have been blamed for much of the decline, the organisation's spokesman Paul Udoto told AFP.

Habitat destruction, disease and the rising human population also played a role in the drop from 2,749 lions seven years ago to the current 2,000, Udoto said.

"We need to take measures to stabilise that number at 2,000 or increase it," he explained. "Communities are the largest threat to the lions and other cats."

Udoto added that educating people on the behavior and importance of the cats to tourism is a priority among other efforts to save them.

Tourism, which relies on Kenya's renowned wildlife safaris and sun-drenched Indian Ocean beaches, is a key foreign exchange earner.

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Frogs Find Home in Elephant Dung

Andrea Thompson, livescience.com Yahoo News 17 Aug 09;

They may not be the best-smelling homes, but Asian elephant dung piles provide certain frog species with shelter, one researcher has found.

Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, of the University of Tokyo, found the dung-dwelling frogs in Sri Lanka's Bundala National Park, while searching for signs that Asian elephants acted as ecosystem engineers in their environments.

Ecosystem engineers are "organisms capable of controlling the availability of resources for other organisms by modifying the physical environment," Campos-Arceiz said. The beaver is probably the most well-known example of an ecosystem engineer, Campos-Arceiz said. "The construction of their dams modifies the landscape, creating a new type of ecosystem."

Big animals, such as elephants, are particularly good at ecosystem engineering, because they can have such a proportionately large impact on their environment, Campos-Arceiz said.

Previous studies have shown that African savanna elephants (Loxodonta Africana) impacted their ecosystem by creating refuges for tree-dwelling lizards - when the elephants broke off twigs and branches while feeding, they left behind crevices in the trees. The research showed that lizard communities were more diverse in places where elephants also lived.

Campos-Arceiz wondered if Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) might have a similar impact on their ecosystems.

During August 2008, Campos-Arceiz was in Bundala National Park inspecting Asian elephant dung piles looking for seeds (the feces can act as a nutrient source for plants and fungi, which will germinate and grow there). Instead, he found an amphibious surprise: six frogs representing three different species (Microhyla ornata, Microhyla rubra and Spaerotheca sp.) in five dung piles.

"I was looking for seeds in the dung. And was ready for some insects and other invertebrates. But I never thought about a vertebrate like a frog staying inside of the dung," Campos-Arceiz told LiveScience.

Accompanying the frogs in the dung piles were beetles, termites, ants, spiders, scorpions, centipedes and crickets, "suggesting that a dung pile can become a small ecosystem of its own," Campos-Arceiz wrote in the study, entitled "Shit Happens (to be Useful)! Use of Elephant Dung as Habitat by Amphibians," detailed in the journal Biotropica.

"I don't really remember how it came up, but it happened as soon as I decided to write a paper. I created a folder in my computer called 'Shit Happens!' and this project name made the work funnier for me," Campos-Arceiz said.

The frogs Campos-Arceiz found live among the leaf litter on the ground. But that litter can be scarce in the dry season (when Campos-Arceiz was visiting), so he suspects the dung may provide an alternative habitat for the frogs.

Campos-Arceiz suspects that Asian elephants may act as ecosystem engineers in their environment in other ways as well.

Read more!

Land of the giants

Katherine Smith, ScienceAlert 17 Aug 09;
University of Melbourne

The first humans coming to Australia some 65,000 years ago came face-to-face with giant goannas and wombats the size of motor vehicles.

Herds of overgrown wombats the size of a Toyota RAV 4, horned tortoises as big as a Volkswagen, and short-faced kangaroos that hopped nimbly about on two feet munching on treetops are among the creatures that emerge rather alarmingly from the pages of Dr Danielle Clode’s new book about the Australian Pleistocene.

Prehistoric Giants: the Megafauna of Australia, tells the story of the giant animals that once inhabited the massive, forest-fringed continent that comprised the Australian mainland, all of what is now New Guinea and the Torres Strait, and extended across the Bass Strait to encompass Tasmania.

“When people first spread across Australia around 65,000 years ago, they would have come face to face with a very different suite of large animals from the ones we have today,” she says.

So while the human species was busily evolving in Africa and spreading across the globe, megafauna appeared in Australia, growing in scale over the period of the Pleistocene, until giant goannas and crocodiles terrorised the land, looking for food and possibly using their vast heads as wrecking balls on each other, before a sudden extinction.

Based in the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne, Dr Clode began her career with a doctorate in animal behaviour, and says one of her main enthusiasms is the ‘behaviour of dead animals’.

The book has been created with artwork by Peter Trusler that helps bring these animals to life, and is intended for middle school students, or anyone who is interested in learning about Australia’s megafauna.

Dr Clode says that what gave rise to the era of megafauna is unknown, and the cause of their extinction “even more contentious”.

“There have been a great many weird and wonderful beasts on Earth in the past, but the megafauna were so close – they seem to have existed within human history – and it is this relative proximity that makes the lives and demise of these great beasts so fascinating,” she writes.

Dr Clode explains that it’s too simplistic to attribute this extinction to humans, at least directly, despite strong “circumstantial evidence” against the species. “Wherever humans went, megafauna disappeared.”

She says what is clear from the history of extinction of species in both prehistoric and modern times is that some species are more vulnerable to environmental change than others.

“Large species, slow-breeding species, specialist species and isolated species are all vulnerable to extinction when their environment changes. And the one feature that characterises humans above all else is their remarkable ability to change the environment, including the climate, whether intentionally or not.”

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Trees defy warming predictions

EurekAlert! ScienceAlert 18 Aug 09;

A new study reveals that treelines are not responding to climate warming as expected.

The research, the first global quantitative assessment of the relationship between climate warming and treeline advance, is published in Ecology Letters and tests the premise that treelines are globally advancing in response to climate warming since 1900.

Treelines are the elevation or latitudinal limits where trees are capable of growth or survival and are considered to be early indicators of climate warming because they are constrained primarily by cold temperatures. Summer temperature is widely considered to be the primary control of treeline formation and maintenance, whereas winter temperatures have previously been considered less critical because of the insulative effects of snow.

This study reveals how winter warming has overturned this prevailing view.

"Average temperatures have risen over the last century, with a more pronounced and rapid change at high altitudes and latitudes", said Ms. Melanie Harsch from the Bio-Protection Research Centre in New Zealand. "Within these zones, treelines are thought to be more temperature sensitive and so the rise in summer temperatures should result in an advance of treeline position."

Harsch and her co-authors conducted a multivariate meta-analysis, using a global dataset of 166 treeline sites with temperature data taken from the closest climate station to each site. The team used this data to analyse treeline advance throughout the 20th century and consider the contributing factors to that advance.

The team found that only 87 of the 166 sites (52 per cent) had advanced while simultaneously the mean annual local temperatures had increased at 111 of the 166 sites at an average rate of 0.013˚C a year (or 1˚C in 77 years). Of the remaining sites, 77 (47 per cent) remained stable and only two (1 per cent) had treelines that receded. Both of the receding sites showed evidence of disturbance, indicating that regardless of form, location or degree of temperature change experienced over the last century, treeline positions have either advanced or remained static.

"Surprisingly these results reveal that treelines are not universally responding to climate warming by advancing, as expected," said Harsch, "However they demonstrate the importance of temperature on treeline advance over other factors such as disturbance, latitude, scale, elevation and distance to the ocean; none of which demonstrated strong relationships with the probability of treeline advance."

Another surprising result of this study was the association with winter, rather than summer, warming. These results provide no evidence of the prevailing view that high altitude and latitude treelines are controlled only by summer temperatures. Instead they show that treelines are more likely to advance at sites that had warmed during the winter months. It is known, at least in northern latitudes that climate-associated changes in winter conditions are on average more extreme than changes in summer conditions.

"These results show that treelines are responding to warming, but are not consistent in that only half of the sites showed signs of advance despite most sites experiencing warming. Several studies on plant species' responses to climate warming have shown mixed results and this study provides a possible explanation – both winter and summer conditions control treeline position," concluded Harsch. "Our expectations of response depend upon which factors are limiting the current treeline distribution. Where summer temperature is the primary limiting factor we can expect to continue seeing advance, but at other sites treeline advance is unlikely to occur until other limiting factors are first lessened."

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Brazil's Amazon Fund to finance for-profit projects: report

Yahoo News 17 Aug 09;

SAO PAULO (AFP) – Brazil's Amazon Fund, which collects money from around the world to protect the Amazon rainforest, could bankroll for-profit environmental projects as well as non-profit ones, the newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo reported Monday.

Environment Minister Carlos Minc told the daily that "some for-profit companies could benefit, but they will be small ones that create sustainable employment."

The revelation undermined initial suggestions that the fledgling fund would finance only projects from non-governmental organizations promoting environmental preservation of the Amazon.

Minc said the fund's board, which included government and indigenous representatives, approved the move as long as "very rigid criteria" were applied to the companies.

The fund has already received 110 million dollars from the government of Norway, which has pledged a total one billion dollars over the next seven years if it is shown deforestation has slowed significantly. Germany has also promised 18 million dollars.

Official data released early this month showed that Amazon deforestation in June was four times more devastating than in May, based on satellite images analyzed by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research.

A total of 578 square kilometers (223 square miles) of Amazon woodland was burned or cut down by ranchers and farmers.

Between July 2008 and June 2009, more than 4,700 square kilometers of Amazon jungle has disappeared.

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Herbs 'can be natural pesticides'

BBC News 17 Aug 09;

Common herbs and spices show promise as an environmentally-friendly alternative to conventional pesticides, scientists have told a major US conference.

They have spent a decade researching the insecticidal properties of rosemary, thyme, clove and mint.

They could become a key weapon against insect pests in organic agriculture, the researchers say, as the industry attempts to satisfy demand.

The "plant essential oils" have a broad range of action against bugs.

Some kill them outright while others repel them.

Details were presented at the Fall Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Washington DC.

These new pesticides are generally a mixture of tiny amounts of two to four different herbs diluted in water.

The research was led by Dr Murray Isman, from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Some spice-based commercial products now being used by farmers have already shown success in protecting organic strawberry, spinach, and tomato crops against destructive aphids and mites, Dr Isman explained.

"These products expand the limited arsenal of organic growers to combat pests," he said.

"They're still only a small piece of the insecticide market, but they're growing and gaining momentum."

Unlike conventional pesticides, these "killer spices" do not require more limited approval from regulatory bodies and are readily available.

An additional advantage is that insects are less likely to evolve resistance - the ability to shrug off once-effective toxins - Isman says. They're also safer for farm workers, who are at high risk for pesticide exposure, he notes.

But the herb-based pesticides also have shortcomings.

Since the essential oils made from these herbs tend to evaporate quickly and degrade rapidly in sunlight, farmers need to apply them to crops more frequently than conventional pesticides.

Some last only a few hours, compared to days or even months for conventional pesticides.

As they are also generally less potent than conventional pesticides, they must be applied in higher concentrations to achieve acceptable levels of pest control, Dr Isman said.

Researchers are now seeking ways of making the novel pesticides longer-lasting and more potent, he added.

"They're not a panacea for pest control," Dr Isman explained.

Conventional pesticides are still the most effective way to control caterpillars, grasshoppers, beetles and other large insects on commercial food crops, he added.

"It comes down to what's good for the environment and what's good for human health."

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China must adapt to EU rules on fishing: study

Yahoo News 16 Aug 09;

BEIJING (AFP) – China, the world's leading exporter of marine fish products, needs to adapt its fisheries if it is to meet new EU regulations to combat illegal fishing, according to a report released on Monday.

Under the legislation which comes into force in January 2010, all fish materials imported into the European Union will have to be accompanied by catch certificates validated by the nation under whose flag the fishing vessel sails.

The move is aimed at combating illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing, wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC said in its report titled "Understanding China's Fish Trade and Traceability."

"The ability of China, as the leading exporter of marine fish products and the world's fastest growing major economy, to meet such requirements is regarded as vital in the process to curb IUU fishing worldwide," TRAFFIC said.

The report funded by the British government examines whether the systems used by Chinese fisheries to trace the origins of catches will be able to cope with the new EU requirements.

"By illuminating the role China plays in fish reprocessing, the report highlights the extent to which China must be involved in solutions to the problems of overfishing and IUU catches," the report's author Shelley Clarke said.

China's fish processing industry has grown rapidly from 2.8 million tonnes in 1993 to 9.3 million tonnes in 2006, TRAFFIC said, with about 9,000 reprocessing plants in operation.

Despite the statistics, a lack of publicly available data has resulted in misperceptions about China's reprocessing industry.

TRAFFIC cited a recent US government report which appeared "to have been motivated by a desire to explore a booming market for US seafood in China, only to conclude that more than 90 percent of US seafood exports to China are re-exported by China for consumption elsewhere, often back to the US."

Customs systems in China and some importing countries lack the detail to determine the quantities of species of fish being reprocessed and usually do not check whether fish imports are properly classified, the report found.

Tracing catches was complicated by the fact that fish may legally change hands several times while in China, it said.

The report recommended China streamline its monitoring systems into a single, integrated system and develop formal requirements to certify and document catches.

It also recommended additional help from the EU and others to help China comply with the new legislation and to provide intelligence for fisheries enforcement in countries which may be the source of imported illegal and unregulated fish into China.

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