Former Customs official charges delay in CITES listing of endangered reptiles
A delay by the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) to submit a proposal to include newly discovered endangered reptiles to the CITES list (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is preventing international action against those smuggling reptile species out the country, a former Customs Deputy Director claimed.
Mr. Samantha Gunasekara, the founder of the Customs’ Biodiversity Protection Unit (BPU) told the Sunday Times that he provided the DWC a Scholarly Document requesting rare engendered reptile species be added to CITES ensuring that action could be taken internationally against those smuggling these species.
However, he said though he provided the document well ahead of time, the DWC provided the document to the Foreign Ministry only two days before the closing date.
Therefore the proposal could not be included before the 17th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES held at Johannesburg from September 24 to October 5. A delegation from Sri Lanka too participated in the convention and proposed the inclusion of Thresher Shark in the CITES list.
However, DWC Acting Director General W.S.K.Pathiratna said though he was unaware of any document being provided on proposing endangered Sri Lankan lizard species to be included in CITES, yet support for anyone who submits such a document would be given.
However, Mr. Gunasekara said the document was submitted through the Ministry to the Department, but the officials had taken up the position that there was no necessity to submit the document.
Mr. Gunasekara claimed at first a foreign scientist had provided the document to the DWC but due to lack of response it was forwarded to him.
Thereafter he had informed the minister in-charge of Wildlife Conservation and appointed a committee of foreign and local scientists who were willing to send a proposal to CITES free of charge.
“Meanwhile I investigated and learned that several organised groups were engaged in smuggling Sri Lankan endangered reptile species” he said.
He explained that he was unable to identify individuals but was able trace how the highly organised smugglers operated their multi-billion rupee business of capturing and exporting endangered and newly found rare species avoiding international detection by exporting reptiles not included in the CITES.
Mr. Gunasekara explained that many Sri Lankan gecko species, lizards and snakes are endemic and make rare exotic pets for which there is a high demand.
The trade is carried out in a process where experts pinpoint where the reptiles are found and inform a separate capture team to go to the selected region of the forest. Then they provide the transport to fly the animals abroad.
The CITES is an international document which covers endangered species in captivity and therefore is stronger than the Flora and Fauna Protection Ordinance which does not cover animals bred in captivity.
“The CITES protected species is an animal which has to be exported with a CITES document from the DWC and when the animal is internationally recognised as an endangered specimen Interpol, Customs and foreign countries can ban or place restrictions, or take legal action against the smugglers,” he said .
Fined for keeping endangered lizards
A businessman who was arrested during a raid by Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) officials for keeping 18 endangered Horned and Leaf-nosed Lizards was released on bail of Rs. 200,000 after being produced before the Negombo Additional Magistrate Kapila Dushayantha Epitawela.
He pleaded guilty to four offences including removing an animal from its natural environment and keeping animals illegally. The man was fined Rs. 50,000 for each offence
The man identified as Suren Cooray (41) was arrested at Kanuwana in the Ja Ela area by the DWC flying squad on a tip-off.
DWC Acting Director General W.S.K.Pathiratna said the man was engaged in the reptile smuggling racket and providing reptiles to foreign dealers.
“According the Wild Life Act it is illegal to capture, exhibit or rear wild life specimens mentioned in the Protected List. Even the remains of a dead specimen cannot be kept in custody,” he said.
Source : Sunday Times http://www.sundaytimes.lk/161009/news/former-customs-official-charges-delay-in-cites-listing-of-endangered-reptiles-211920.html
Sri Lanka reiterates its commitment to combat illegal trafficking of wildlife
June 07, New York: Sri Lanka stands ready to combat illegal trafficking of wildlife which has become one of the largest transnational organized criminal activities alongside drugs, arms and human trafficking, a top diplomat to the United Nations said Monday.
Delivering a statement at a special high-level event at the United Nations Headquarters in New York Monday, Ambassador and Chargé d᾽ Affaires of the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN, Sabarullah Khan said that while the world marked another World Environment Day on 5th June, wildlife and forests, flora and fauna are at this moment being ravaged due to transnational organized crime, impacting vulnerable communities and the fragile environment.
In his statement, Ambassador Khan noted that Wildlife and forest crime is today one of the largest transnational organized criminal activities alongside drugs, arms and human trafficking. “This is why our response must be a global effort,” he said.Sri Lanka Monday participated at a special event titled “Wildlife Crime and New York Launch of the World Wildlife Crime Report organized by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) together with the Permanent Missions of Germany and Gabon.
“Every country is either a source, or transit, or destination for these illegal products,” the Ambassador noted.
“My country stands ready to combat with utmost vigor the illegal trafficking of these products. In January this year (2016) Sri Lanka crushed and burnt its stockpile of confiscated elephant ivory comprising 359 elephant tusks. This ivory came from a single shipment weighing 1.5 tons seized in the Port of Colombo in May 2012,” Mr. Khan said.
He said that In a symbolic gesture that deeply affected our entire nation, Sri Lanka accompanied the crushing of this ivory stockpile, with an observance of two minutes silence, and a religious ceremony, led by Buddhist priests, and attended by all other religious dignitaries, to formally apologize on behalf of human society, to the elephants, who were so cruelly victimized by these heinous crimes. As one of the panelists noted it is the moral imperative that matters most he said.
The Ambassador said Sri Lanka has strict domestic laws for the protection of flora and fauna, within the broad framework of the convention of international trade in endangered species of wild flora and fauna.
He noted that Sri Lanka has a high level of biodiversity and a remarkable high proportion of endemic species, among its flora and fauna. In order to preserve their habitats, all natural forests in Sri Lanka have been set apart for the conservation of soil, water, and biodiversity.
Ambassador Khan added that Sri Lanka’s national policy on wild life conservation has been updated to respond to the evolving needs of Sri Lankan society.
The governments, scientists, civil society, academia, of the world have a shared responsibility to work together to end this crime, he said.
The launch of World Wildlife Crime Report will provide a key opportunity to take stock of international efforts to address wildlife crime, as countries work towards implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the UN last fall, the UNODC says.
The Goal 15 of SDGs calls upon all governments to “Take urgent action to end poaching and trafficking of protected species of flora and fauna and address both demand and supply of illegal wildlife products,” and to “Enhance global support for efforts to combat poaching and trafficking of protected species, including by increasing the capacity of local communities to pursue sustainable livelihood opportunities.”
(Source : 07/06/2016 Colombo Page http://www.colombopage.com/archive_16B/Jun07_1465280658CH.php)
Zimbabwe lobbies neighbors on ivory trade, will not burn stocks
(Photo: Philimon Bulawayo)
Zimbabwe is seeking support from its neighbors to be allowed to engage in international trade in ivory and will not burn its 70 tonnes of ivory stocks as Kenya did last month, the environment minister said on Wednesday.
Zimbabwe and Namibia are bidding to open up international trade in elephant ivory, against initiatives led by Kenya for a complete global ban.
Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri told diplomats from the Southern African Development Community that Zimbabwe was counting on their support at the next U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in September.
Muchinguri said banning trade in ivory would not stop poaching and gave the example of how the rhino population remained under threat 40 years after trading in the rhino horn was outlawed by CITES.
“There is no tangible evidence that trade bans have ever saved a species from extinction,” Muchinguri said. “It is imperative for our regional economy that SADC countries unite in defending our right to sustainably use our natural resources.”
Muchinguri said plans by the European Union to ban hunting trophies from Africa, as the United States did after the killing of Cecil the lion last year, would cause hunting revenues to fall and push people living near wildlife to resort to poaching.
Cash-strapped Zimbabwe says trade is the only way to pay for the costs of protecting its 83,000 elephants. Zimbabwe says it has 70 tonnes of raw ivory in government storage estimated to be worth $35 million.
“To us, burning is not an option, we need the resources for sustainable wildlife conservation,” Muchinguri said.
On May 3, Zimbabwe put the wild animals in its national parks up for sale, saying it needed buyers to step in and save the beasts from a devastating drought.
Democratic Republic of Congo ambassador Mwampanga Mwana Nanga said his country supported Harare’s proposals and was talking to Zimbabwe on the possibility of importing wildlife, including elephants.
At a meeting of African countries in Uganda on Wednesday on protecting lions, delegates agreed that carefully controlled hunting could help keep the species from extinction.
The final communique from the meeting of 28 states convened by CITES said: “the benefits that trophy hunting, where it is based on scientifically established quotas … contributed to the conservation of lion populations.”
Trophy hunting has been in the global media since Cecil the lion was killed in Zimbabwe by an American dentist after it strayed outside Hwange National Park.
Lion numbers in Africa fell 43 percent between 1993 and 2014. But in Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, which have regulated hunting industries, the lion populations have grown, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature
(Source :02/06/2016 : Planet Ark :http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/74518)