Cambodia Announces Plan to Protect Wildlife
11/2/96
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Headline: Cambodia Announces Plan to Protect Wildlife
Source: Associated Press
Date: 11/2/96
Author: Robin McDowell, Associated Press Writer
Copyright 1996 The Associated Press
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) -- Fook Lum Moon's is dropping delicacies
such as snakes and soft-nosed turtles from its menu -- responding to a
crackdown against Cambodia's bustling trade in rare animals.
Government inspectors this week visited the wildlife and seafood
eatery and several other Phnom Penh restaurants offering wildlife
cuisine, seizing rare animals and warning owners they face fines and
even jail time if they continued the practice.
Though dining on wildlife poses only a minor threat to Cambodia's
exotic fauna, conservationists see the crackdown as crucial for
the government's plan to next year join the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species.
"If we don't act now to protect the animals, especially rare species,
soon there will be none left," said Sabu Bachar, undersecretary of the
environment ministry.
Cambodian wildlife is threatened by heavy domestic and international
demand for rare species. Poorly enforced hunting laws, rampant
deforestation, and millions of deadly land mines left from decades of
civil war are also serious dangers.
The profits from poaching and trading in exotic species are an
attraction to Cambodia's poor farmers, who earn as little a $1 a day
from their crops.
But Cambodia is only one of several nations struggling to control the
trade.
The Environmental Investigation Agency, a British-based watchdog
group, earlier this year estimated that the illegal trade in
endangered species is worth an estimated $5 billion a year
worldwide, second only to the world drug trade.
One of the largest wildlife trade monitoring programs, Traffic,
estimated recently that Cambodia still has 123 species of mammals, 82
of reptiles, 28 of amphibians, 429 of birds and at least 215 of
freshwater fish.
Endangered species still found in the country's dense but rapidly
dwindling forests are the kouprey, a jungle cow; the guar, a large
wild ox; the pileated gibbon; Corbett tigers; and Asian elephants.
Street 166 in Phnom Penh is lined with several shops selling guar
skulls, tiger teeth, ivory and antlers. In one, which often has tiger
skins for sale, the coats of two clouded leopards are pinned to the
wall. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists the
leopard as "vulnerable" to extinction.
Much Cambodian wildlife ends up in Vietnamese markets or is sold in
Thailand. The trade also flourishes in several provincial markets,
including the border town of Poipet near Thailand.
"One of the largest assortments of wildlife products to be found in
Southeast Asia was discovered at Poipet's covered market, including
products from some of the most endangered animals in the region,"
Traffic wrote in a recent report.
However, there are some signs that the trade may be waning. David
Ashwell of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature said
the presence of wildlife parts and skins in local markets seems to be
on the decline.
Consequently, it's getting harder to find elephant skins, monkey
heads, tiger bones, tortoise heads.
But environmentalists question the effectiveness of the current
crackdown, warning that as prices rise for rare species -- such as the
pangolin, a scaly anteater -- increase, they could find their
way back on the menu.