Antithesis of Desire

There were two major seizures of illegal elephant tusks Kenya’s Mombasa airport this month. The largest – 3 tonnes worth an estimated $700,000 – was being exported as large bags of peanuts. The other, seized earlier this month, was composed of tusks that had been cut up into smaller pieces and covered in fish remains to pass as fish exports. The illegal animal parts trade, much like drug smuggling, is ever inventive when it comes to moving product.

Large-scale ivory shipments originating from Africa have almost exclusively been seized in containers at major ports in Asia, where there is an established customs inspection system. Shipments mainly originate from Dar es Salaam, Mombasa and West Africa. Graphic: Riccardo Pravettoni, GRID-Arendal via whyfiles.org

Large-scale ivory shipments originating from Africa have almost exclusively been seized in containers at major ports in Asia, where there is an established customs inspection system. Shipments mainly originate from Dar es Salaam, Mombasa and West Africa.
Graphic: Riccardo Pravettoni, GRID-Arendal via whyfiles.org

A new technique for identifying illegal elephant tusk products – ivory – has been under discussion. Carbon dating of living animals, based on radioactive fallout from atomic testing during the mid-20th century, could be used to determine whether ivory specimens are legal – i.e. were gathered during the still-legal era which overlapped with atomic testing – or are from a more recent culling and thus illegal.

A Kenyan official is quoted in this Washington Post article as saying that “unless wildlife poaching is declared ‘an economic crime’ with heavy penalties, the problem is likely to persist in Kenya and elsewhere in the region where poachers do not face serious consequences if they are caught.” This is an issue for national and international governmental regulation.

But with this, as with other illegal animal part markets from rhino horn to snakeskin, the real challenge is getting at the end consumer. The market for ivory had dropped dramatically during the 1990s, when the end consumers in North America and Europe had decided owning ivory was no longer acceptable. The market has risen again in Asia with newfound economic purchasing power.

There is also a very interesting piece from National Geographic linking the carving of religious sculptures, across all religions, in Asia with the illegal ivory trade. Reporter Bryan Christy suggests that if a moral and ethical argument could be made from within the various religions, that might go some way toward stemming the trade.

The elimination of a species, not to mention the blood trade in their parts, needs to come to be seen as the antithesis of what makes a desirable object.

Elephant Eye Artist: Kristan Benson

Elephant Eye
Artist: Kristan Benson

 

 

 

 

Fragile Armour

The eight pangolin species Via: http://novataxa.blogspot.fr/2013/02/pangolin-manidae.html

The eight pangolin species
Via: Novataxa.blogspot.fr

Pangolins, or the scaly anteater, are a strange branch on the phylogenetic tree of mammals. A single order, Pholidota, with one extant family, Manidae, with one single genus, Manis, comprised of the eight remaining species at left. They are the only mammals with hard keratin scales, and this undoubtedly is part of the reason they are both popular for hunting as well as endangered.

Pangolin skin makes for interesting and unusual leather products, similar to armadillo, while the odd scales considered to have (unsubstantiated) medicinal properties for asthma and lactation. As pangolin scales are little different from toenails, it seems unlikely that humans would derive much more benefit from their consumption that we would by becoming nailbiters. Pangolin has been a bushmeat favorite for many years. On a habitat level, when they aren’t rolling themselves into impressively armoured balls, pangolins are important for controlling insect populations.

It’s been illegal to trade pangolin products since 2002, and yet, when I did a quick search today for pangolin products, it turns out they are being openly offered on the Internet. Whether the dealers offering pangolin meat and scales for sale can actually deliver the goods is something I don’t intend to explore. It’s an oddity of human nature that the more endangered and rare a product, be it pangolin products or platinum, the more hotly we imbue that product with delicate and rare qualities.

So when a Chinese “fishing” ship carrying approximately 2000 frozen pangolins destined for illegal trade ran aground on reefs in Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Philippines, the main source of surprise wasn’t the illegal cargo. After all, the Chinese market has to be sourcing its pangolin habit somewhere, so it makes sense the traders were flying under a Chinese flag.

The real surprise, for me, is the irony of traders who deal illegally in endangered and protected animals traders being undone by an endangered and protected reef.

More:

Project Pangolin website

Associated Press article (via Huffington Post) – Pangolin Meat from China

Annamiticus article

Mongabay article

Tree pangolin (Manis tricuspis)
Source: Valerius Tygart/Wikipedia