In January this year, blood ivory weighing 1.5 tonnes was set on fire at Galle Face Green with President Maithripala Sirisena presiding over the occasion. It was to be a message to smugglers that trafficking would not be tolerated in Sri Lanka.
Environmentalists, however, claimed that illegal wildlife trade was still on the rise, with Sri Lanka fast becoming a hub for the illegal wildlife trade. They pointed to the lack of law enforcement and regulation as the root cause of the problem.
The observation was made at a panel discussion titled “Illegal Trade in Wildlife”, organised by the Base for Enthusiasts of Environmental Science and Zoology (BEEZ) in collaboration with the Institute of Environmental Professionals of Sri Lanka (IEPSL), through the Biodiversity Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka Business and Biodiversity Platform) at College House, University of Colombo.
According to a report on “Rise of Environmental Crime” by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and INTERPOL in 2016, the cost of the global environmental crime was estimated to be as high as $258 billion –26 percent higher than previous estimations. Environmental crime encompasses illegal wildlife trade, forest crimes, exploitation of minerals, illegal fisheries, trafficking of hazardous waste and carbon credit fraud.
Law enforcement agencies as well as environmentalists have brought up the need to include CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) into local legislation to combat the issue. They stated that it was high time Sri Lanka adopted the international treaty. Internal administrative issues, including the resignation of the Director General of Wildlife, have caused instability within the Sustainable Development and Wildlife Ministry. This has led to it delaying the drafting of CITES into domestic legislation.
Inside job
Customs former Deputy Director Samantha Gunasekara was quick to point out that without the support of certain government and private institutions, organised criminals could not engage in illegal wildlife trade in Sri Lanka.
“Wildlife criminals cannot function easily. Certain government as well as private institutions have connections with these illegal wildlife traders. The criminals target species with ornamental or medicinal value and colour,” he said.
He added that with Sri Lanka being one of the world’s top eight biodiversity hotspots, it has become an easy target for criminals to carry out their illegal activities.
The illegal wildlife trade, however, is not confined to animals, and expands to include plants. The customs former Deputy Director said smugglers concentrate on a few targeted species to make it easier for them to find the network they need to conduct the operation.
“Many endemic species are distributed in the south-western part of Sri Lanka where the human population is high. Several foreigners have contacts with locals and knowledgeable people who are well aware of where the animals are, that makes it easier for wildlife traders to collect the animals they want within a few hours,” Gunasekara said.
Hub for wildlife trade
Whilst the government aimed to make Sri Lanka the centre of many hubs given its strategic location, traffickers have used its busy international shipping routes to turn the island nation into an ideal hub for wildlife trafficking. It is also convenient as most of the container ships, particularly, from Africa and the Gulf region, to the East Asian regions, pass through the Port of Colombo.
“Illegal wildlife traders operating between Africa and the East Asian region use our country as a point for their operations,” Environmentalist Vidya Abayagunawardene said.
The importance of the smuggling route was proven to be true through detection and seizure of a container carrying 359 pieces of blood ivory weighing 1.5 tonnes, en-route to Dubai from Kenya in 2012 by Sri Lanka Customs. In 2014, there was another seizure of a consignment of 28 container loads of Madagascar Dalbergia timber (Rose Wood) worth $7million, which was being transported from Zanzibar to Hong Kong via Sri Lanka.
The illegal wildlife trade is the second largest illegal trade in the world, with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) figures estimating that it amounts to between US$91 billion and S$258 billion annually.
Gunasekara said the wildlife trade was not confined to Sri Lankan, but spilled over to many other countries. An instance of an animal or plant is killed or taken from the wild, despite the laws to protect them – the transaction becomes illegal wildlife trade.
“Even though many claim that the illegal trade is associated with endangered species; that is not true. The sale of timber from illegal logging and even the sale of fish caught in restricted areas or through illegal fishing methods, can be considered part of the illegal trade in wildlife,” Gunasekara said.
He said that illegal trade was on the rise given the increase in demand for wildlife based commodities, such as, bush meat, leather, fur and animal skins, carvings, jewellery and ornaments from ivory, rhino horn as well as substances, ornamental plants, medicine and even pets.
According to Gunasekara, there are many aspects to the illegal wildlife trade ranging from agricultural, economic and ornamental stuffs to pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. These are all relevant to the species in our country.
“Sri Lanka is a hotspot in terms of biodiversity, but this creates a great threat for the animals and plants in the country and makes it a target for illegal wildlife trade,” emphasised Abayagunawardene.
“For 3,000 years, we had the best pearls in the world. Our biggest competitor was the Arabian Sea. Now, they produce the best pearls because our pearl industry was exploited by foreigners and our own people,” Gunasekara said.
Out in the open
Environmental lawyer Jagath Gunawardene, however, explained that the illegal trade was on the risen due to lack of concern or interest to curb the illegal activities.
“How many people are aware of the severity of this issue?,” questioned Gunawardena. He pointed out several lapses in the law enforcement agencies in connection with the illegal wildlife trade.
“For an example, a place like Diyatha Uyana contains several imported aquatic plants. But if you look at the regulations under the Plant Protection Act, no aquatic plant can be imported to Sri Lanka under regulations made in 1981. Yet, some of these plants are imported and openly sold and are even becoming invasive species in the wild,” he said.
According to Gunawardena, there are three significant areas in which the country, for several decades, has been struggling with when it comes to curbing illegal wildlife trade; they are domestic trade, the illegal export of animals and plant resources and the illegal imports of animals, plants and their resources.
“The Wallapatta issue and the illegal domestic trade of killed leopards and the bush meat trade is rarely spoken of. No one is willing to speak about these issues,” he said when speaking about the domestic dimension.
He said that bird nests, seashells, coral and aquatic organisms were being exported illegally from Sri Lanka. This was a practice which was being largely ignored, he said.
Gunawardene went on to highlight that plants which are endemic to Sri Lanka were always under threat.
“Certain plants from Sri Lanka were illegally transported to make beauty products to send to foreign countries, but this was never brought into the lime light,” he said.
Legislation
As the struggle to curb smuggling continues, many environmentalists have expressed interest in Sri Lanka joining the global battle to save wildlife. They point to the disturbing trends in elephant poaching and ivory smuggling that require a sustained and collective international effort across the entire illegal supply chain to address both demand and supply. It is in this context that they ask that CITES be introduced into local legislation.
“Sri Lanka is currently making progress to introduce national legislation to implement CITES.
Compared to Africa, Sri Lanka does not contribute to the world illegal blood ivory. Nearly 75 percent of our elephants do not have tusks. But, Sri Lankan ports have become a transit hub for the illegal transportation of ivory,” Abayagunawardene said.
Minister Gamini Jayawickrema Perera has appointed a committee to draft a national legislation for CITES. Without such a national legislation, Sri Lankan ports are safe havens for international illegal wildlife smugglers, he said.
“Certain rules mentioned in CITES should be drafted in a way that suits our country. As there are many other issues that need to be addressed first, there is a delay in drafting it,” Minister Perera said.
Abayagunawardene said Sri Lanka has been a signatory to the Convention since 1979, but has failed in passing any national legislation on it. This has led to authorities facing major issues when tackling the illegal wild life trade.
Gunasekara, in the meantime, said if Sri Lanka does not include the convention into its domestic legislation, the country would be blacklisted. He revealed Sri Lanka is among 47 countries under the category three which have not adopted CITES into domestic legislation.
“CITES is not a commercial enterprise. Sri Lanka pays the member fee and attends the meeting every year and yet some environmentalists are not willing to include it to the legislation,” he said.
“The government is working hard to get back the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP Plus) to Sri Lanka which was withdrawn in 2010. CITES is one of the conventions which comes under the GSP Plus. Introducing local regulations for CITES will benefit with the ongoing negotiation process,” Abayagunawardena said.
Stating that the Flora and Fauna Act alone was not sufficient to curb the situation, Abayagunawardene said Sri Lanka also needed to implement the laws which could remove Sri Lanka as the transit point in the supply of ivory to China and Vietnam.
“The authorities are not in a position to apprehend the illegal cargo. It is a global perspective that Sri Lanka is a hub for illegal transit. Sri Lanka needs to have a new Fauna and Flora Protection Act without delay since the present one is outdated. The act was last amended in April 2009,” Abayagunawardene said.
Environment lawyer Gunawardena, however, was of the opinion that Sri Lanka needed to pay more attention to the implementation of the law than legislate new ones.
“Sri Lanka has a strong domestic legislation pertaining to flora and fauna. The problem is in implementing them. If measures are taken to implement the legislation, the rising situation can be curbed,” he said.
(Source : Daily News : 23-06-2016 http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=2016/06/23/features/85422)
