Buyer tokek 2015
What are the economics of captive breeding? In short, much of the international trade in captive-bred animals is a scam. Yet in many cases captive breeding operations pose a major threat to the conservation of a species because they’re not breeding animals but laundering huge volumes of wild-caught animals. The general thinking is that captive breeding is a good thing. In most cases, enforcement authorities don’t scrutinize shipments declared as captive bred. So numerous, in fact, that it’s very hard to believe-and therefore this study was carried out. Indonesia exports exceptionally high numbers of animals declared as captive-bred, with Tokay geckos being among the most numerous. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that so-called captive-breeding facilities are being used to launder large numbers of wild-caught animals into the global market. The report concludes that trade in those high quantities can be sustained only through the routine laundering of wild-caught individuals and their export as dead specimens.įrom TRAFFIC’s Southeast Asia office, in Malaysia, Chris Shepherd, coauthor of the report, explains that it’s low-profile species like Tokay geckos that are often hardest hit by illegal, unsustainable trade.
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While there’s no legal trade in dead Tokay geckos from Indonesia, according to TRAFFIC, Indonesia exports an estimated 1.2 million dried Tokay geckos annually. Instead they export wild-caught Tokay geckos, dead, for the medicinal and meat trade in numbers far greater than permitted. Commercial breeding is allowed, and the government has given permission for six companies to export three million live captive-bred Tokay geckos a year, specifically for the pet trade.īut the TRAFFIC study found that the exporting companies don’t breed Tokay geckos in those commercial numbers-the logistical requirements would be too costly. In Indonesia, the harvest and export of wild-caught Tokay geckos are subject to quotas. Rather, it finds that wild-caught Tokay geckos are regularly laundered through Indonesia’s captive-breeding facilities on a massive scale.īecause Tokay geckos aren’t listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), their international trade isn’t subject to regulation. While it’s often argued that captive breeding relieves pressure on endangered species by providing an alternative source for trade, the report, Adding Up the Numbers: An Investigation into Commercial Breeding of Tokay Geckos in Indonesia, demonstrates that the opposite is true. The animals are captured, gutted, dried on sticks in kilns, and exported, mainly to China but also to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and elsewhere.
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There’s no proof of their efficacy in any of these uses. While there is some demand for them as pets, the real demand is for their use as traditional Asian medicines-everything from an aphrodisiac and energy drink to treatments for diabetes, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. Tokay geckos are nocturnal lizards that live in Southeast Asia. Now, a new report by TRAFFIC, a wildlife monitoring NGO, on captive breeding of Tokay geckos in Indonesia suggests the same holds true for captive breeding. For instance, recent studies showed that Hong Kong’s domestic ivory sales provided cover for illegal stocks. For many species threatened by the illegal wildlife trafficking, such as rhinos, elephants, tigers, and bears, debates persist as to whether a legal trade in their parts and products can reduce smuggling.īut increasing evidence suggests that a legal trade instead acts as a conduit for the illegal trade.