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CHARITY BLOG
WWF: FOREST COMMUNITIES PAID TO HUNT TIGERS
Criminal syndicates pay tiny amounts for hunted endangered animals
WWF says Malaysian forest communities are being paid by wildlife crime syndicates to trap and kill wildlife, including the critically endangered tiger, in order to meet illegal trading demands in China.
As China prosperity has risen in recent years, the demand for exotic animal parts to be used in traditional medicine has increased, so increasing the pressure on endangered species such as tigers.
Dionysius Sharma, executive director with WWF-Malaysia, said: “Local tribesmen are being used by the middlemen to collect the forest products as they are familiar with the jungle. The demand for wildlife from Asia’s forests to be used in China for traditional medicine is strong.”
Sharma says the poachers are often members of Malayasia’s indigenous peoples, without the resources to market the animal parts or smuggle them out of the country. As a result, a syndicates pay the hunters tiny amounts for the kill before sending the parts off for illegal trade.
The syndicates, who have not been identified, are likely a mix of foreigners and Malaysians and see most of the profits from the trade, according to WWF.
The revelations come as a four-year old tiger was found dead with gunshot, spear and snare wounds in Northern Malaysia.
According to Shabrina Shariff, a wildlife Department Director in Perak State, the animal was killed by a group of seven men, who first caught the tiger in a snare trap before killing it.
The men admitted that they were offered “thousands of ringgit” to kill the animal from an undisclosed party, and also said they had previously killed another tiger and a panther for a similar deal.
Malaysians aren’t the only ones trying to catch and kill tigers in the region according to Sharma who says that there is “a lot of evidence” that “very organised” hunters from Thailand and Vietnam have also set up traps in the area.
Loretta Ann Shepherd, coordinator with the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers, called for “swift action” in order to deter other poachers.
Malaysia has recently pledged to double its tiger population of wild tigers to 1,000 animals in order to mark the Year of the Tiger.
By Taylor Turner
