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TRAFFIC
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The Illegal Wildlife Trade
The problem is most acute in southeast Asia, where easy trade routes to key markets in China, the USA and the EU, lax law enforcement, weak border controls and poverty conspire to strip the countries of south east Asia of their wildlife. International laws and agreements, such as CITES, are designed to prevent this trade, and many countries have their own local laws to do likewise, but despite this, wildlife and wildlife products are openly sold in markets and shops in Asia, for the gourmet restaurant trade, traditional medicine, exotic pets and luxury furs and trophies.
Furget-Me-Not is concentrating on otters as they are such an important ambassador for a healthy environment. Because they use both the land and the wate,r it is vital that both habitats are protected, which is important for all species, including our own. The hairy-nosed otter, the rarest otter in the world, was believed to be extinct in 1998. Since then six tiny unconnected populations have been found in south-east Asia and there is now an estimate of just 1000 animals in the world. And yet this species is frequently found in seizures of skins – see the picture above - so if we don’t act now to protect this animal it will be gone … … and extinction is forever” |
Worldwide,
only the narcotics trade exceeds the wildlife trade in volume
and value, with arms and ammunition being less important. The
trade is worth between $10 billion and $20 billion per year according
to Interpol. 
The global protection organisations tend to concentrate on the macrofauna
such as tigers, elephants, orang-utans and so on, yet all of these
are well-represented in captivity. Otters, like pangolins and
bears, are forgotten, yet all of these species are being hunted and
trafficked in enormous quantities. One
siezed illegal shipment in Tibet contained 776 otter skins, and recently seven tons of pangolins
were also found in a single shipment.