Vendors hail drive against bird smuggling

Vendors hail drive against bird smuggling

JAKARTA (JP): Over 250 Pramuka Bird Market vendors responded
positively Sunday to the government's drive to raise the public's
awareness of the 1990 ruling on the smuggling of endangered
species.

"The government needs to improve its, and the public's,
awareness of the illegal trade in animals," said Sutarno, a
Pramuka market vendor.

"I believe almost all the traders here support the campaign,"
he said.

Sutarno said unlicensed animal vendors outside the market
earned up to Rp 500,000 (US$206) for a single red lory parrot.

"Endangered birds, such as the Rothschild starling, hornbills
or the Nias talking myna, are often bought by buyers who
discreetly approach sellers. Because sellers only display their
rare birds when they are sure no police are around."

He said the increasing number of unlicensed vendors had cut
the market's bird sellers' incomes.

"Sometimes we only earn Rp 25,000 a day or even nothing."

Sutarno and another vendor, Haji Sulaiman, said the campaign
would protect endangered animals and improve their income. They
said the government needed to take action against any officials
or individuals involved in smuggling.

"We cannot compete with people who have financial support and
backing," they said.

Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo, who launched
the information campaign Sunday, said the government needed to
remind the public of the 1990 natural resource conservation
ruling.

It says endangered species must not be caught, wounded,
killed, stored, possessed, bred, transported or traded, alive or
dead, without government permission.

"The Indonesian government has been criticized by
organizations from the United States, Britain and Australia
because of its inconsistent law enforcement," Djamaludin said.

He said Jakarta was allegedly an international animal
smuggling route.

Governor Surjadi Soerdirdja said at the launch that the high
prices on the heads of endangered indigenous species caused the
buying and selling of rare animals for status and profit.

East Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma Airport and sea ports were
often used to smuggle animals overseas.

Surjadi said the city had rescued 169 rare animals from
smugglers in 1996, and another 51 between January and March this
year.

Djamaludin called on citizens not to take protected animals
overseas with them without official permission. He said he
expected the police to catch all syndicates and personnel
involved smuggling.

"Anyone caught smuggling could face five years in prison and a
Rp 100 million fine," he said.

The minister called on elementary educational institutions to
support the drive by taking their students to zoos and national
parks, to increase their students' awareness of loving and caring
for endangered species.

A Golkar faction city councilor, Amarullah Asbah, said
citizens and authorities new little about which species were
endangered, so the ministry needed to step up its information
campaign about protected animals.

According to the Directorate General of Forest Protection and
Nature Conservation, Indonesia has 218 endangered species,
including 82 rare indigenous birds.

Only the breeding of protected species, with government
permission, is allowed under the existing law. (10)