Please help the slow lorises of Asia!

[Guest guest]

IPPL has circulated a last-minute Action Alert on the slow loris

proposal to our e-list around the world. We are asking listers to

contact their CITES authorities supporting the proposal, and our

alert includes a nice color photo of a slow loris. We would be

pleased to send a copy of our text/photo to any group with an e-list

(or concerned individual). I can only send the plain text to AAPN as

I know many can't handle photos. More messages would really help the

loris' cause. Of course any group using the alert would be free to

remove IPPL's name and substitute its own! Or prepare your own alert!

 

Asian participation is really important. Shirley

 

------------------------IPPL's alert in plain text------------------

 

The Lorises Need Your Help!

Dear E-Friends,

 

The Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in

Endangered Species (CITES) will meet in The Hague June 3-15. There,

international representatives from governments, wildlife trade

organizations, and animal protection groups will meet to decide the fate of

many species who rely on this treaty for protection from traffickers.

 

Cambodia has made a proposal to increase protection for three species of

slow loris by upgrading them from CITES Appendix II to Appendix I (the

listing providing most protection). This would mean that these primates

could no longer be legally used in international commercial trade.

 

Most people have never heard of lorises. Because they are small and

nocturnal, they are rarely seen. At night they use their large eyes to

search for food, such as insects, in the forests of Southeast Asia.

 

Many organizations, including the Species Survival Network (to which IPPL

belongs), are supporting the Cambodian proposal. IPPL is sponsoring loris

pins that will be provided to CITES delegates and observers as part of the

pro-loris publicity campaign.

 

A decision to oppose the proposal has come from a strange source: the

wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC, which is part of the World Wildlife

Fund. We asked Stephen Broad, Executive Director of TRAFFIC, to " please

identify the names of those involved in the decision-making process and

provide IPPL with their e-mail addresses. " However, he refused to respond.

 

IPPL knows that many experts in SE Asian primates, such as Dr. Ardith Eudey

and Dr. Ulrike Streicher, were not consulted. Unfortunately, TRAFFIC shares

the same position as many of the trade lobbies, such as the International

Wildlife Management Consortium, which works to promote sport hunting,

whaling, ivory trafficking, and other animal exploitative activities.

 

Such groups claim that lorises are not deserving of increased protection

because the number of " official " trafficking cases reported to the CITES

Secretariat has been small. Sadly, these quiet little animals would be very

easy to smuggle, and IPPL has reported on several attempted incidents in

IPPL News. Surely we would wish to prevent such trafficking from escalating.

Please help me to prevent further loris exploitation!

 

Sincerely,

Dr. Shirley McGreal, IPPL Founder/Executive Director

 

Action Note: Please ask your nation's CITES authorities to support

Cambodia's proposal. Go to

http://www.cites.org/common/directy/e_directy.html and click on your country

of residence.

US residents should contact managementauthority and

scientificauthority

UK residents should contact cites.ukma and

hilary.thompson