Ban Wildlife Transport by Ship!

Protection of Forest & Fauna (PROFAUNA) urges the government to issue a regulation prohibiting wildlife transport by ships, without official permit from related authorities. This demand is deemed necessary to curb the number of wildlife smuggling from Papua and North Maluku by passenger ships, like the most recent case of a smuggling attempt of 22 Sulphur-crested Cockatoo foiled at Tanjung Perak seaport, Surabaya, east Java on 4 May 2015.

Tanjung Perak has long been an important hub in illegal parrot trade from Papua and North Maluku. PROFAUNA notes that in the past 5 months, authorities have unveiled 5 smuggling attempt in Tanjung Perak.

In 2002, PROFAUNA published a report entitled 'Flying Without Wings', which exposed smuggling routes of parrots from eastern Indonesia to Java, up to overseas. In the report, it was revealed that Surabaya is a vital hub on the illicit network.

Most of the eastern Indonesian birds entered Java through Tanjung Perak, before being distributed to other cities such as Surabaya, Malang, Jember, Yogyakarta, Bandung, and Jakarta.

The pattern and method apparently have not changed much since 2002. This shows that the supervision in the place of origin is still seemingly weak.

Concerning the rampant wildlife smuggling from eastern Indonesia to Java,:

  1. PROFAUNA urges the seaport and airport authorities in Papua, Maluku, and North Maluku to improve the security check system for passengers' luggage. Local authorities must dismiss any passenger carrying wildlife yet fails to provide proper documents.
  2. PROFAUNA urges the Ministry of Transportation to issue a prohibition to transport any wildlife species by public transportation like airplanes, ships, trains, and buses. This is to prevent wildlife crime, which violates the Law no.5/1990 Concerning the Conservation of Living Natural Resources and Its Ecosystem.
  3. Prohibition of transporting wildlife species in public transportation without proper documents will also protect the general public from the possibility of contracting zoonotic diseases like tuberculosis, rabies, hepatitis, etc.
  4. Wildlife transport by public transportation contains a lot of cruelty, for example the parrots that were stuffed into plastic bottles, sedated and tied up primates, small cages, and lack of food during transport. PROFAUNA estimates that 40% of the traded wild animals die during transport.

For further information, please contact:

Swasti Prawidya Mukti

(Campaign Officer, PROFAUNA Indonesia)

Email: asti@profauna.net

 

© 2003 - ProFauna Indonesia

ProFauna Indonesia is an Indonesian society for the protection of
wild animals and their habitats