Impact of Hunting in South East Asia : interview with Richard Corlett

[Guest guest]

*http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1108-hance_corlett.html*

*Hunting across Southeast Asia weakens forests' survival, An interview with

Richard Corlett

**Jeremy Hance* <http://news.mongabay.com/news-index/jeremy_hance1.html>

*mongabay.com

November 08, 2009

 

 

**Seventh in a series of interviews with participants at the 2009

Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) conference.*

 

A large flying fox eats a fruit ingesting its seeds. Flying over the

tropical forests it eventually deposits the seeds at the base of another

tree far from the first. One of these seeds takes root, sprouts, and in

thirty years time a new tree waits for another flying fox to spread its seed.

 

In the Southeast Asian tropics an astounding 80 percent of seeds are spread

not by wind, but by animals: birds, bats, rodents, even elephants. But in a

region where animals of all shapes and sizes are being wiped out by

uncontrolled hunting and poaching�what will the forests of the future look

like? This is the question that has long occupied Dr. Richard Corlett,

professor of biological science at the National University of Singapore.

 

 

Corlett, a British native, has lived in Southeast Asia for thirty years

giving him a unique perspective on the changes forests have undergone

recently.

 

" The destruction and degradation of forest ecosystems in tropical East Asia as a

whole over the last 30 years has been simply appalling. Thirty years

ago there were still large, near-pristine areas with more or less intact

faunas: now almost everywhere is degraded and even the best-looking forest

has lost some or all of its large vertebrates to hunters, " Corlett told

Mongabay.com.

 

Already fragmented and degraded, Southeast Asian tropical forests require

seed dispersing animals more than ever to move seeds from one forest patch

to another. But in the near-future another threat will make seed dispersers

even more important.

 

" As the climate changes, plant populations must adapt, move or die, and seed

dispersal is the only way to move. Outside the tropics many plant species

have moved towards the poles or to higher altitudes as a result of warming

over recent decades. Changes within the tropics have so far been relatively

small, but the much larger changes predicted for the next 50-100 years will

almost certainly require tropical plant populations to migrate, " Corlett

explains.

 

Two key animals for moving seeds large distances are the flying foxes and

fruit pigeons, however both are targets of hunters. Flying foxes, once

incredibly abundant, are vanishing from Southeast Asian forests due to

unmanaged legal hunting. A recent study predicted that the large flying fox

(the world's largest bat) will face extinction in 6-8 years due to hunting.

 

" The decline in flying fox populations is one of the most conspicuous

changes in the region in the 30 years I have been here, " Corlett says.

 

Hunting has occurred for thousands of years in Southeast Asia, yet few

species are known to have faced extinction from it. Then in the Twentieth

Century something changed.

 

" Accessibility of both forests and markets " has transformed hunting from

sustainable killing for food to widespread commercial destruction, according

to Corlett, who adds that " subsistence hunters have no incentive to track

down rare species, but markets compensate for the extra effort by paying

more. "

 

While Corelett describes China's black market for animal products as " huge " ,

he adds that China " is not the only Asian consumer of wildlife " .

 

To combat the wildlife trade, Corlett says that enforcement of existing laws

is key, as well as new laws to save unprotected species like the large

flying fox.

 

Corlett has also proposed an innovative idea to tackle hunting in which

local communities would be compensated for protecting biodiversity, and the

ecosystem services that the species provide. He imagines that communities

" would be paid an annual sum tied to the abundance of vulnerable wildife,

such as gibbons or tigers, giving them an incentive to control hunting. But

this will only work if social networks are strong enough to prevent cheating

and if the villagers can keep out outsiders. "

 

In a November 2009 interview Mongabay.com spoke with Richard Corlett about

the importance of seed dispersers, the continuing threat of hunting to

species and forests, and ways to turn back the tide on Southeast Asia's

hunting crisis.

 

INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD CORLETT

 

*Mongabay:* *What is your background? *

 

*Richard Corlett:* I am from London and first became interested in the

tropics while an undergraduate at Cambridge, where a friend and I got

funding to carry out research in Malaysia in the summer holidays. I then did

my PhD at the Australian National University with fieldwork in the highlands

of Papua New Guinea. Since then I have lived in tropical Asia, teaching

first at the University of Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, then at the

National University of Singapore, then at the University of Hong Kong for 20

years, and now back in Singapore as Professor of Terrestrial Ecology.

 

*Mongabay:* *Most biologists like to study the most pristine ecosystems

available. What led you to study the ecology of deforested and degraded

tropical landscapes? *

 

 

*Richard Corlett:* If you live outside the tropics and do research only

while on expeditions it makes sense to visit the most pristine sites

available. But I have lived in the tropics for 30 years, teaching at

universities in deforested and degraded landscapes, so it has been natural

that I study the areas around me. It is important that we know what survives

and what doesn't, and as these landscapes expand at the expense of pristine

ecosystems it becomes increasingly important that we learn how to modify

them so that they can support more native species. Most research in Europe

takes place in equally deforested and degraded landscapes, but the authors

rarely mention this - and, indeed, may not even be aware of it!

 

*Mongabay:* *You have lived in Asia for many years, both Singapore and Hong

Kong. How have the tropical ecosystems changed in the time you've been

there? *

 

*Richard Corlett:* Not so much in Singapore and Hong Kong, which were highly

developed when I first visited them, but the destruction and degradation of

forest ecosystems in tropical East Asia has a whole over the last 30 years

has been simply appalling. Thirty years ago there were still large,

near-pristine areas with more or less intact faunas: now almost everywhere

is degraded and even the best-looking forest has lost some or all of its

large vertebrates to hunters. Developing countries needed to trade some

forest for development, but inefficencies and corruption have made the

process much more destructive than it needed to be. Much of the destruction

has benefited only a few individuals and done nothing to lift the majority

of the population out of poverty.

 

SEED DISPERSING

 

*Mongabay:* *What is the role of seed dispersers-birds, bats, rodents, and

some large mammals-in the Asian tropics? *

 

*Richard Corlett:* All plants need seed dispersal agents but the importance

of animals (rather than wind) increases in the tropics, reaching a maximum

in the tropical rainforest where around 80 percent of trees, shrubs and

climbers are animal dispersed. In the Asian tropics, birds are most

important, followed by primates and fruit bats, civets, and a variety of

terrestrial herbivores, including elephants, rhinoceroses, tapirs, and deer.

Rodents are probably important too, but have been studied very little in

this region.

 

*Mongabay:* *Why are seed dispersers especially important in the face of

climate change? *

 

*Richard Corlett:* As the climate changes, plant populations must adapt,

move or die, and seed dispersal is the only way to move. Outside the tropics

many plant species have moved towards the poles or to higher altitudes as a

result of warming over recent decades. Changes within the tropics have so

far been relatively small, but the much larger changes predicted for the

next 50-100 years will almost certainly require tropical plant populations

to migrate.

 

*Mongabay:* *Which seed dispersers are able to carry plant species far

enough for them to adapt to a warmer world? *

 

*Richard Corlett:* In very steep topography a species need only move a

kilometer or two to compensate for 2-3 degrees of warming and many animals

can move at least one seeds this far. In the lowland tropics, however,

climate gradients are very shallow and species may have to move 100s of

kilometers to compensate - probably an impossible task without human

intervention.

 

*Mongabay:* *You point out that two types of Asian seed dispersers are

particularly important: large fruit bats and fruit pigeons. What makes these

species unique? *

 

*Richard Corlett:* Both regularly move seeds over distances greater than a

kilometer and at least sometimes move them more than 10 km. This sort of

distance can bridge gaps between forest fragments in human-dominated

landscapes, which other potential long-distance dispersers, such as

elephants, will not cross. Fruit bats only do this for tiny seeds, since

they drop larger ones at " feeding roosts " near the fruiting tree, but fruit

pigeons can swallow huge seeds - although we don't know for sure how far

they will fly when weighed down by these. Unfortunately, both are heavily

hunted at present.

 

HUNTING IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

 

*Mongabay:* *Hunting has been going on in Southeast Asia for millennia and

there have been few recorded extinctions. What has changed recently? *

 

*Richard Corlett:* Accessibility of both forests and markets. Subsistence

hunters have no incentive to track down rare species, but markets compensate

for the extra effort by paying more.

 

*Mongabay:* *What role does China play in hunting across Southeast Asia? *

 

*Richard Corlett:* Huge as a market for species that are seen as health

foods - such as pangolins - and/or have specific roles in traditional

medicine. In practice, this includes hundreds of species and their parts.

But China is not the only Asian consumer of wildlife and there have been

some recent efforts at cracking down on the trade.

 

*Mongabay:* *What is the link between hunting and seed dispersers? *

 

*Richard Corlett:* The most-hunted species in tropical Asia are almost all

important seed dispersal agents, with pigs and pangolins the major

exceptions. Hunters favor larger species that can move bigger seeds longer

distances. Most surviving forests in the region have now lost most or all of

their largest frugivores (fruit-eaters), or the survivors are too rare to

disperse many seeds.

 

*Mongabay:* *A recent study found that the large flying fox (the world's

largest bat) could face extinction in 6-8 years due to LEGAL hunting. Does

this finding surprise you? *

 

*Richard Corlett:* Not at all, but it is depressing. The decline in flying

fox populations is one of the most conspicuous changes in the region in the

30 years I have been here.

 

*Mongabay:* *What other ecological roles do hunted species play in the life

of the forest? *

 

*Richard Corlett:* All the roles played by vertebrates: seed predation,

browsing, pollination, predation, scavenging.

 

GOING FORWARD

 

*Mongabay:* *What actions would you recommend to save ecologically important

species from over-hunting? *

 

*Richard Corlett:* 1. Enforcement of existing laws in protected areas and in

local and regional markets. 2. New legislation protecting key species (e.g.

flying foxes) outside protected areas.

 

*Mongabay:* *Why do you think many Asian countries have not been able to

provide effective law enforcement regarding hunting and trapping? *

 

*Richard Corlett:* I don't think it has been seen as big a problem as

deforestation and logging. Plus it is seen as a sensitive livelihood issue,

despite the fact that it makes a very minor contribution to subsistence in

the region.

 

*Mongabay:* *Do you think education programs or greater awareness of how

hunting impacts the forest could lead to changes in the demand for medicines

and meat from wildlife? *

 

*Richard Corlett:* Yes, but too slowly, and enforcement is the best

publicity.

 

*Mongabay:* *You have recommended direct payments to local communities in

relation to their wildlife abundance. Can you explain this concept? What are

the advantages/disadvantages? *

 

*Richard Corlett:* I have recommended trying this - I am not sure if it

would work. The idea would be that a local community would be paid an annual

sum tied to the abundance of vulnerable wildife, such as gibbons or tigers,

giving them an incentive to control hunting. But this will only work if

social networks are strong enough to prevent cheating and if the villagers

can keep out outsiders.

 

*Mongabay:* *If hunting is not better managed what will Asia's future

forests look like? *

 

*Richard Corlett:* Empty, and increasingly dominated by plant species that

are dispersed by wind or the ubiquitous small frugivorous birds and fruit

bats.