CNN/Bangkok's illegal wildlife trade

[Guest guest]

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/

Monday, March 19, 2007

Inside Bangkok's illegal wildlife trade

I haven't been to Bangkok, Thailand, in more than 10 years, and a lot has

changed since then. This city's growth has been explosive. There are now

highways built on top of the old highways I remember, though the roads still

seem clogged through much of the day, just as they were 10 years ago.

 

We've come to Southeast Asia this week to focus on trafficking. When most people

hear that word, they probably think about drug trafficking, and that is clearly

the major item being trafficked around the world, but many of the criminal

enterprises that smuggle drugs use the same routes to traffic women and children

and also animals.

 

We'll head to Cambodia later this week to investigate the trafficking of women

and children in the sex industry, but tonight, we are investigating the illegal

wildlife trade in Thailand. Bangkok has become a major hub for the buying and

selling of endangered and threatened species.

 

Over the weekend, our hidden cameras captured several endangered primates and

turtles being sold in shops in the market. Today, my crew and I went along with

Thai police as they raided the main animal market here in Bangkok. It was an

interesting experience, though also a frustrating one for police and animal

welfare workers.

 

When the police arrived, many of the shops were locked-up, and under Thai law,

the police couldn't break-in. They did manage to recover more than 100 birds.

The conditions in which they were kept were pretty depressing. A bunch of the

birds were dead, lying in the bottom of dirty, cramped cages. But it wasn't a

big find, and no arrests were made.

 

We are traveling this week with wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin, who also joined

us recently in the Amazon rainforest. We also are working with Steve Galster,

who is helping Thai police on behalf of a conservation organization.

 

This past weekend, Jeff and Steve crossed the border into Myanmar, formerly

known as Burma, and tonight, Jeff will show you the illegal trade in animal

parts and skins. A lot of animals are being killed for " medicinal " use in Asia.

Rhino horns and tiger claws and all sorts of body parts are dried and ground up.

It's a multi-billion dollar business, and a number of species are nearly extinct

because of it.

 

Tonight's program will be broadcast from the main animal market in Bangkok, so

it should be a pretty colorful show.

 

The other major focus tonight will be Iraq. We'll talk to Michael Ware, who has

been covering this war from the beginning, and we'll also hear from New York

Times reporter Michael Gordon. See you soon!

Posted By Anderson Cooper: 2:54 PM ET

37 Comments

 

Umm, are those spider fangs in your leg?

We're heading to Asia's so-called " Golden Triangle " to report on the problem of

species loss and the black-market trade of wildlife. The trip is part of our

ongoing series of reports we're calling Planet in Peril.

 

Thailand and Cambodia are largely recognized as ground zero for the illegal

wildlife trade, an underground market the UN estimates is a $5-8 billion

industry, the world's second most lucrative black market behind the drug trade.

Most of the animals -- dead and alive -- are sold at open-air markets where

buyers make their purchases for culinary consumption as well as for traditional

medicines. There's quite a bit of trophy collecting of rare cat pelts and skulls

as well.

 

The governments and law enforcement from both countries recognize the problem

and along with U.S. representatives have recently beefed-up their enforcement

efforts. But it's a tough challenge. There's a great abundance of species in the

region's forested areas and it's easy to slip back and forth across the borders

of both countries. Then there's China. The region's eastern neighbor is a

consumption machine and along with the United States is a massive consumer of

illegal wildlife.

 

The black-market trade is only a small part of the overall problem of species

loss. Many biologists believe the earth is in the midst of the sixth great spasm

of extinction. The first five were naturally occurring (ice age, meteors, etc),

but this one's man-made. The pressure humans are putting on plants and animals

is enormous. From deforestation to habitat encroachment to pollution, it's all

adding up to rates of extinction that are profound. American Scientist Magazine

recently estimated that three species are lost per hour -- that's 72 species a

day, 26,280 per year.

 

Like almost all environmental problems there aren't any easy answers. The fate

of many of these species are weighed against economic interests and population

growth. Anderson and wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin will investigate all the

angles.

 

It's almost time to take off now and Jeff Hutchens, the still photographer from

Getty Images who joins us on these trips, has just arrived. We haven't seen each

other since Brazil and he just pulled up his pant leg to show us all what he

thinks is a small parasite creeping around his ankle. They don't have those in

Thailand, do they?

Posted By Charlie Moore, CNN Senior Producer: 9:07 AM ET

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