Cambodian monkey trafficking

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Articles on Illicit Wildlife Trading in Southeast Asia

 

 

 

Cambodia's Crab-Eating Monkeys Face Drastic Decline While Foreign

Companies Export Them

 

Authors: Bun Khy, Reasmei Kampuchea, Kompong Thom

 

People who visit Kampong Thom first look for the sculptures of an

elephant stepping on a tiger or a tiger riding on an elephant's back.

It has been explained that former Kampong Thom Governor Tong Hav

built the sculptures in the 1960s to show that Kompong province had

numerous elephants, tigers and other wild animals.

 

Unfortunately, 40 to 50 years later the elephants and tigers in

Kompong Thom are almost extinct. Meanwhile, crab-eating macaques

(primates that are also known as long-tailed macaques) are gradually

disappearing due to increasing capture efforts aimed at export to

foreign countries.

 

Investment companies have set up monkey breeding farms at over 10

sites in Cambodia. It is suspected that these breeding efforts are

phony, resulting in a serious loss of wild Cambodian monkeys. Most

monkey breeding investors are Chinese companies who have bought land

for their farms in the provinces surrounding the Tonle Sap Lake.

Officials at the Forestry Administration's Wildlife Office said the

macaques are still numerous and had not been the subject of strict

conservation efforts.

 

Mak Panha, Deputy Head of Staung District Forestry Administration

Office, said he admitted that his team " is failing in efforts to

crackdown on monkey trafficking, " particularly monkeys smuggled by

motor vehicles that the authority could not stop and check on the way.

 

He said the crackdown succeeded when the team received clear

information to prepare an ambush and checkpoints.

 

Sok Sarorn, aged 40, living in Kompong Thom's Prey Peal village, said

he was catching monkeys for the Golden China Group. He said he was

sent to Kratie to buy monkeys there. After collecting enough monkeys,

they sent them to a farm located in Prasat village.

 

Soth Mary, Deputy Head of Tbaing Meanchey Forestry Administration in

Preah Vihear province, said there was a company based in Preah Vihear

to buy the macaques. In Siem Reap, there are at least two places

where monkeys are bought and sold, including one in Chikreng district

and another near the provincial capital.

 

An official at the Forestry Administration said that despite the lack

of written instructions from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry

and Fisheries about correct techniques to catch monkeys, the Ministry

gave permission to the Golden China Group to buy adult monkeys to be

raised on the farm as the law stated. For example, each farm is

expected to buy or catch only 5,000 adult monkeys.

 

However, in reality the companies do not send trained experts to

catch monkeys. Instead, they just set up places to buy monkeys from

local people. They do not care whether or not the capture complies

with the approved techniques.

 

Pou Sok, who lives in Sre village, Salavisay commune, Prasat Balang

district near Boeung Per bird sanctuary, says the villagers are

causing damage to the forests when they catch monkeys. Usually, they

force the monkeys onto one or two trees by cutting down the

surrounding trees. Then, they spread nets around the trees to catch

the monkeys.

 

The companies do not care that their efforts to catch monkeys destroy

the forest. They just want to buy the monkeys. In addition, although

the companies have been buying monkeys for three to five years, they

do not seem to catch enough of them.

 

A Forestry Administration official said there was corruption at all

of the monkey farms, even though each farm has been inspected by

Forestry Administration officers. In an announcement issued by the

Ministry, the official states that: " raising and breeding crab-eating

monkeys is aimed at producing baby monkeys for export. " But the

companies have secretly bought and exported adult monkeys without

following the law.

 

Sok Sarorn, who used to buy monkeys for Golden China Group, said

monkeys are divided into three categories: Category One is a monkey

weighing from 1.7 to 3 kilograms with a price tag of 180,000 Riels

each. Category Two is a monkey with the same weight as Category One

but has wounds or scars, with a price tag of 120,000 Riels each.

Category Three is a monkey weighing over 3 kilograms, with a price

tag of 60,000 Riels each.

 

Sou Sokun, Deputy Head of Kampong Thom's Forestry Administration

Office, said that Chinese people prefer to eat meat from wild

animals. He added that Chinese are good at cooking new food and they

thought that meat from wild animals would give them more energy than

that of domestic animals.

 

According to a report from World Wild Fund (WWF), crab-eating

macaques are being bought in Snuol district, Kratie, for 200,000

Riels each for Category One monkeys. The monkeys are exported to

neighbouring countries for sale. WWF said monkeys were eaten, but the

report did not say where, and the monkey trade has a market both

inside and outside the country. Though the international price for

monkeys is not known,1 Ros Sokha, a Forestry Administration officer

based at a farm belonging to Angkor Primate Company in Prasath

Village, said the owner of the farm ordered the security guards to

pay 1,000 USD when the guards let monkeys escape from the farm.

 

There is more than one farm that raises monkeys. There are two monkey

farms in Kampong Thom. One belongs to Golden China Group, which

recently transferred its license to Angkor Primates Centre INC. The

company has been operating on 10 hectares in Prasat village.

 

Chuon Nhep, a 39 year old labourer, said that in addition to 10-20

Chinese technicians and supervisors there were 70-80 Cambodian

workers in large buildings where 10,000 monkeys are caged. Another

farm called KF Cambodia Ltd is located in Prey Preal. Previously, the

farm only covered 3 hectares, but now it has been enlarged to 10

hectares. The company built another farm with around 10,000 monkeys

and it is supervised by Chinese.

 

A worker at KF who asked not to be named for fear of losing his job

said he was responsible for producing food for the monkeys. They eat

from 1.5 to 2 tons of food every two or three days. He said: " The

company has its own food processing machine that mixes sugar with

beans, rice and flour and the food is nice for the monkeys. "

 

Another labourer said he was once sent to work on a monkey farm in

Kompong Speu province. He said he didn't know what village or commune

the farm was in, but it was 2 kilometres off Highway IV. He said the

farm was very large and was a branch of KF. The same labourer said

the monkeys had been brought in frequently by car or SUV.

 

A Forestry Administration officer said it was wrong to buy monkeys

this way, because the companies were only allowed to breed female

monkeys and export the babies. However, Yem Sokan, a Forestry

Administration officer based at the farm, said there was no illegal

purchase of monkeys. Bun Tha, Representative of KF Company, said by

phone September 11, 2007, that he was busy and could not clarify the situation.

 

Ros Sokha said that the company where he is stationed, Angkor

Primate, was operating according to the appropriate technical

procedures. He said the Golden China Group had committed violated

many laws, including illegal purchase of monkeys. He said he worked

for the old and new companies for three years.

 

Apart from the breach of technical procedures, he said the two farms

were criticized for building on the bank of Prey Pros River, a

provincial tourism site. The monkey's dung was drained into a pond by

the river. When the pond was full, it overflowed into the river.

Furthermore, the smell from the monkey's dung disturbed the tourists

and villagers.

 

According to sources from Pursat province, there are two farms

operated by Mony Company in Sras Srang village, Prey Nhy commune, Sam

Povmeas district. The sources revealed that the company built another

large farm in Takeo Krom village, Boeung Kantuot commune, Kra Kor

district, where they raised more than 3,000 monkeys. Other reports

indicate that in Kamponng Chhnang province there is a farm with more

than 10,000 monkeys in Kork Banteay commune, Rolea Phea district.

According to the same source, there is also a monkey farm in Kandal

province, and another farm operated by Chhang Huor Company in Khna

village, Sdoeung Chay commune, Choeung Prey district, Kompong Cham

province, with 7,000 monkeys.

 

In November and December, 2006, before Golden China Group's farms in

Prasat village were sold to Angkor Primates INC, Golden China Group

provided secret scholarships to nine officials of Forestry

Administration to visit Shenzhen province in China which borders Hong

Kong city.

 

In Shenzhen province, there are farms with tens of thousands of

monkeys, most of which are suspected to have been imported from

Cambodia. There were two batches of officers who went to China at the time.

 

According to one of the officials who visited China and asked not to

be named, the Golden China Group paid for the travel, including

airfare and lodging for three days and two nights plus $100 per diem

for each official. The company estimated that it had spent $1,000 to

$1,200 for each official for the trip, including an air ticket that cost $700.

 

It is suspected that providing money to officials to go to China

without going through the Ministry was to cover up offences committed

by the company. The official who went to China said it was a study

tour because the company took them to visit farms where many monkeys

were being raised.

 

He said the company explained that it was not true that the company

exported monkeys to China so that their brains could be eaten. The

company explained there was a single monkey whose brain was eaten

alive. It said they were just raising the monkeys for export to the

United States of America (USA) for use in pharmaceutical laboratories.

 

Ros Sokha, a Forestry Administration officer who used to work with

the Golden China Group, said according to the plan he was also on the

list to go to China but that it was cancelled after the farms were

sold to Angkor Primate.

 

" The number of crab-eating monkeys in the inundated forests

surrounding the Tonle Sap Lake has gone down by 70% to 80% [compared

to the previous amount of monkeys that used to live there] and only

20% to 30 % are left, " said Heng Huot, Head of Department of

Environment in Kampong Thom who is in charge of the wetlands of the

Tonle Sap area.

 

He said the problem was due to the rise in the price of monkeys,

which led villagers to catch them for sale. Another problem was that

more people were moving into the area and the frightened monkeys ran

away. He said it was difficult to crack down on the monkey catchers,

because they were protected by armed men.

 

In general, monkey babies are more expensive than the older ones. He

said that officials might have collaborated with the companies by

letting people catch baby monkeys to be kept on the farms. He said

after they were kept for a while, the baby monkeys would be exported

as baby monkeys raised on the farms.

 

There were two separate licenses issued by the Ministry of

Agriculture for the Golden China Group. One of them was License No

061, dated February 5, 2003, which authorized Golden China Group Cheng Sin Kua to set up farms for breeding monkeys for

export in Cambodia on a plot of 1,599 hectares of land in Trapaing

Russei commune, Kompong Svay district, Kompong Thom province.

However, this company changed its name to KF. The other was License

No 181, dated May 5, 2005, authorizing Cheng Sin Kua to set up

another farm on a plot of 8,954 hectares of land in Prasath village,

http://www.earthjournalism.org/CM_monkey_article01_200801.htm

 

Trapaing Russei commune, Kompong Svay district.

 

The two licenses confirm that the farms belong to Cheng Sin Kua. On

the other hand, Bun Tha, who worked for Golden China Group, now works

for the KF company. The authorities seem to ignore the serious role

of money in this business. The officials in charge refuse to provide

information regarding the number of monkeys that companies have

exported to China.

 

In 2005, 250 crab-eating macaques from Cambodia were sold and

exported to the U.S. In 2006, Golden China Group exported 1,912

monkeys from Cambodia to the U.S., while KF company exported only 620

monkeys. However, the companies exported many more monkeys to China

before they were sent to the U.S.

 

According to the 25 November 2006 issue of the Cambodia Daily, Golden

China Group spokesman Bun Tha said thatthis company was founded to

conduct research and breed monkeys for pharmaceutical experiments.

 

The article addedthat Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun, who issued

permits for three monkey farms in Kompong Chhnang, Kandal, and

Kompong Thom provinces, said that he was not worried about the monkey

business, because " those monkey nurseries are under our control. "

 

An official at the Forestry Administration said that neither the

Agriculture Ministry nor the Forestry Administration ever provided

instructions on monkey catching techniques. He said they just gave

permission to companies to buy the monkeys without any impediments.

 

WWF has raised concern over the capture of monkeys in Cambodia. It

said that although the crab-eating monkeys are still numerous, the

way the monkeys are being caught is of great concern.

 

WWF added that the government should examine the technical procedures

used by companies that buy monkeys, and that the number of monkeys

caught should be limited to the number permitted by the Agriculture

Ministry. WWF also said the Ministry should inspect the monkeys

exported to China, to determine whether they were really baby monkeys

bred in the farms.

Many people remember that 30 to 50 years ago, Cambodia was abundant

with wildlife, including elephants and tigers, which are now

disappearing. Warned Heng Huot, head of Kompong Thom province's

Department of Environment: " Crab-eating monkeys will be gone if there

are no strict measures [to control their capture]. "

 

1 According to the articles published in Vietnam (see adjacent

stories), monkeys traded there can be sold for between $200 and $500.

 

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