(MY) monkeys for export

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2007/08/17-New Straits Times

 

Possible open season on monkeys?

By : Elizabeth John

 

 

 

These macaques were saved from the cooking pot after a raid by

Wildlife and National Parks Department officials in Kluang last month.

The lifting of the ban in the trade of wild monkeys may affect the

macaque population.

 

 

KUALA LUMPUR: Thousands of wild monkeys could soon be trapped and

shipped off to countries like China and Taiwan, ending a 23-year-old

ban on the trade in primates.

 

The New Straits Times has learnt that the trade ban — put in place by

the government due to dwindling numbers and global concern about

animal cruelty — was lifted recently.

 

The move is largely expected to affect macaques which were heavily

traded in the years before the ban.

 

A news report in March spoke about government plans to export the

species for the exotic food market or as pets.

 

At the time, Natural Resources and Environment Ministry parliamentary

secretary Datuk Sazmi Miah was quoted as saying that the macaque

population had grown to such an extent that it had become a nuisance

and had caused many problems.

 

He said it was better to export the primate rather than cull it.

 

He had also said that the ministry was in negotiations with Taiwan,

Korea, Japan and Hong Kong on the export of macaques.

 

A trade quota or limit would have to be set before export licences can

be issued.

 

Sources have described the quota as " considerable " .

 

Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid is scheduled to explain the ministry's

decision at a press conference today.

 

In the 1970s, an average of 10,000 macaques were exported each year,

said the Wildlife and National Parks Department manual on

human-macaque conflict.

 

The manual says they were exported to the US for biomedical research

and to other countries as food or pets.

 

The trade is believed to have decimated the macaque population,

prompting the cabinet to order a study on the primate trade and its

impact on population levels.

 

This eventually led to the ban. This move was the last in a series of

steps the government took to halt trade in all types of monkeys from

the country.

 

The macaque is a protected species under Malaysian law and is listed

on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered

Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

 

This means it can be traded but within strict limits, determined by a

scientific study. A CITES permit is also required.

 

Malaysia banned trade in macaques and other primates at a time when

awareness was growing around the world about animal welfare issues.

 

Other countries like India banned primate trade in 1974 while Bolivia

did it in the same year as Malaysia.

 

In recent years, macaques displaced by an expanding urban area have

come into conflict with humans.

 

Complaints of disturbance and attacks by macaques are among the most

frequent the department receives.

 

Wildlife experts have long discouraged taking macaques as pets, saying

they could turn aggressive upon reaching sexual maturity, triggering

attacks on their owners.

 

This could lead to them being abandoned or put down.

 

Environmentalists have also warned that macaque problems would

continue to persist as long as the issue of displacement was not

addressed.