Oceania Illegal Trading of Endangered Species
The amount of endangered species around the world has increased highly since the trading on the black market of exotic animals has become more popular. This commonly happens because in countries were these animals have their habitats are very rich of species, but other habitats don’t, so there is where the trade of animals became, not only for money, but also as a hobby and as a regular thing. The legality of this trade depends of the rules and beliefs of the countries.
Surprisingly the rate of animal extinction has increased incredibly fast over the last year. It is really exceptional that endangered spaces are mostly threatened by human, although there are other reasons such as smuggling, climatic changes and deforestation.
On Oceania it is really common to find hot spots of the black market, such as Australia and New Zealand. The variety of species that these countries have is really extensive, and some of the animals that have their habitat there are really rare and exotic. In these countries, even though they have certain rules to protect animals, the black market acts secretly by getting legal permission to have some animals (most exotic ones) as pets, but the truth is that some of these people that get those permissions use it to trade animals to countries such as China, Japan, Europe and America.
AUSTRALIAEven though in Australia exporting some animals in some conditions is now legal, it still is a concern as it was when it was illegal, because the lives of animals are putted on risk. The illegal trade in Australia is 46% of exportation and 34% of importation. Reptile percentage of illegal trading is 43%, birds are 26%, and plants are 11%
Several researches show us how the illegal trade can cause danger in the variety of species. The main issue is that people do not have the conscience of understanding the alarming changes that these situations are causing in different countries; people are just killing animals for their own interests. There are many different causes of why people trade these animals in this area. Some of them do it for cultural development, such as making medicine and rituals. One example of this are the Aboriginals in Australia which are allowed to kill animals for cultural interests such as dressing themselves with their skin, eating their meat or trading animals to other similar cultures. According to the Australian law they have a limit to kill animals. Australia’s law is very strict with animal trading, but many people living in other places, specially from Asia, use that kind of animals for their traditions, particularly the Chinese Traditional Medicine which contains wildlife derivates such as rhino horn or tiger bone. Many of these are used for sexual performance, fever, epilepsy and rheumatism. Also, many people in Oceania kill whales and their excuses are commonly for “scientific purposes”. “What hope do animals have?” The high level of exporting animals in Australia attempts against the life of some animals, even though there are not endangered species. We can call this cruelty that it is the worst form of immortality. Animals in these cases are the victims of humans. There are certain facts that we have to worry as well, not only the life of animals, but also the black market is really dangerous to the ecosystems, causing extinction of some species. In Australia illegal trade seems to be really small but highly lucrative. Some Australia species are sold in America and Europe for exorbitant sums. Such as: $100.000 for a mating pair of palm cockatoos $20.000 for Australian pythons $40.000 for gang - gangs €17.500 for crocodile skin $200 for spider $150 for a scorpion $10.000 for birds $4.000 for shingle back lizards $1.400 for oblong turtle Anyone who keeps trades or breeds red-eared slider turtles faces fines of up to $110,000 and/or jails terms of five years under Commonwealth law. For the people that commit this crime they only pay $30.000 and it is not enough to fix all the damage they cause. This happens 70% of the cases. The prison sentences increased to 10 months in 1994 to 2003 and between 2004 and 2007 they increased up to 28 months. For all this cases the Australian Wildlife Forensics Network and Australian Federal Police did some proposals to save the territory of endangered animals. There are also other animals that their costs are uncertain such as: turtle, Thylancine, whales, dugongs, corals, kakapo, Takahe, Komodo dragon, lizards, birds, etc… The most common animal illegal trade is with birds, because Australia is known for having the most beautiful birds (especially brightly colored rare species), but also animals such as the sea shell, spiders, insects (scarab beetles) and mammals are some of the most common animals around the black market. In Cairns, Innisfail and Gordovale (Australia), is common to kill dugongs and turtles for selling illegally their meet, apparently for an amount of money between $25 and $50 per kilogram. Other animals illegally sold are the snake for a price of $1500, spiders for $200, and the scorpions for $150, however they also sell crocodile skin, in different colors, between $159 and $169, for 20 cm each. Australian’s exotic wildlife smuggled by humans, trafficking them under cloths as already said, they do this for business and then export them to Asia, Europe and USA. The illegal traders sell these animals to private collectors, zoos or also sell them as pets, as meals or for the use of clothes. The transportation the Australians use are ships and planes. Eggs are carried by individuals or they trade these in specially modified cloths. Some of these animals are also transported by mail. In Sydney, the “Sydney Morning” magazine reported that a shingle back lizard was mailed incorrectly to another direction in Germany, and while the lizard returned to Australia it took 3 months. This little animal survived without eating or breathing, and when they opened the envelope, the lizard was with its legs bounded. That is just an example of how cruel people can be. Mr. Medway reported on an article that 50% of these animals that are traded either die in transit or shortly afterwards. The Interpol reported that live animal smuggling industry brings international profits of up to $10 billion a year. The worst thing is that in Australia this business can cost you a penalty of 10 years a prison, plus a fine of $110.000. |
NEW ZELANDOn October of 2003, there was an international meeting that occurred in Auckland, hosted by New Zealand’s wildlife enforcement group, to stop the illegal trading, and to take care of animals.
In New Zealand some persecution found parrot eggs and chameleons that some traffickers were up to send to other countries. New Zealand geckos worth up to $2.500 each and they have become very popular in Europe and the US in the last 3 years. A reptile fair in Germany attracted 11.000 visitors, and one in Florida turned over $US 6 million in reptile sales only in one weekend. It also causes spreading of infectious diseases from smuggled animals into humans. It caught the authorities’ attention after a class was infected with the west Nile virus (a virus that started with birds and is now spreading through humans and other animals), in the US. The black market and the illegal trading of animals and endangered species are the third largest operation behind drugs and arms trade. The fact that these activities are illegal makes them more attractive to people that work on the black market. People are beginning in this business not only for money but also as a hobby. IMAGES |
Paola Iza, Natalia Cardona H, Juan Jose Ocampo 12°
Editor: Maria Andrea Ramirez