The unholy combination of South Africa as a main source of "goods" Mozambique as a transit station Laos and Vietnam as trade centers quenches Asia's thirst for the black trade in wildlife parts
The unholy combination of South Africa as the main source of "goods" Mozambique as a transit station to Laos and Vietnam as trade centers quenches Asia's thirst for the black trade in wildlife parts.
Despite public announcements, presentations to the media and the signing of a memorandum of understanding, the countries are doing little (if anything) to combat the criminal networks that flood the markets with products derived from African wildlife. The four countries form a central axis in the web of international crimeי which competes in its scope with the trade in weapons, drugs and people, in the scope and size of the profits.
Activity of organized crime groups that hired Vietnamese to hunt rhinos in what is known as "like a hunter" (pseudo-hunting) although discontinued. except thatAccording to a current report by the Environmental Research Agency (Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)
, the flow of rhino horns from South Africa continues unabated.
The budget of South Africa's environment department is less than one percent of the government's budget, which leaves conservation and wildlife officers vulnerable to corruption. According to the report, corruption among the nature guards in South Africa is the main obstacle to effective monitoring and guarding activities against poachers and traffickers. For example: in 2015, 11 police officers were arrested in connection with the trade in rhinoceros horns. A year before, 39 rhinoceros horns and 75 horn parts were stolen from a safe at the Mpumalanga Reserve management office. Not long ago, two inspectors were arrested in connection with rhino poaching.
Corruption reaches high levels: last year they were published Evidence of politicians' ties to rhino poaching, the Minister of Internal Security (David Mahlobo) who is responsible for the intelligence services was involved in the nefarious trade.
Not just rhinos. The ivory trade goes "under the radar". In the past five years, customs officials have seized more than a ton of ivory on its way to Asia. This is only the tip of the iceberg as the quantities of ivory that reached Asia are enormous. As a result, South Africa has been declared a troubled country that requires attention By me CITES inspectors
Many lesser known species such as: gray parrot, pangolin, abalone (mollusk) are smuggled in hidden boxes on their way to Southeast Asia. Curiously South Africa is a source of trade in tiger parts, According to a report by Traffic (TRAFFIC) About 280 tigers are kept in 44 sites in the country. At least one site with about fifty tigers belongs to a Vietnamese citizen. Because, despite the corruption, there is supervision in the ports of South Africa, the "goods" pass through Mozambique, since the Mozambican authorities are notorious for their inefficiency in enforcing laws, which at best turned out to be defective.
It is reported that 539 poachers were arrested in 2014-2012, but only 17 were fined. In January 2014, seven police officers were arrested on charges of robbery and trade in rhino horns, all of them were released, and a Vietnamese who was arrested in Maputo with seven rhino horns in his possession was seen about a week later in Bangkok with the horns in his possession. In the Niassa Reserve in Mozambique, 10.000 (ten thousand) elephants were slaughtered within five years, often in cooperation with the authorities.
DNA samples Needles seized in 11 cases elsewhere were shown to originate in northern Mozambique, probably from the Pemba reserve.
Karl Ammann is a wildlife researcher and screenwriter who follows the Nivazi trade, according to him from time to time the Vietnamese are "happy" to publish the seizure of a container in the world media - and then return the goods to the "importer". The owner of an ivory processing "factory" told Karl that all confiscated ivory containers were returned by order of the Deputy Prime Minister. Like South Africa, Vietnam was also declared "problematic" to be noticed as a country used beyond ivory and as a consumer. Since 2005, Vietnam has been involved in the trafficking of 46 tons of ivory seized elsewhere.
at a public hearing in The Hague It turned out that in a small village 579 rhino horn products, 220 parts of tigers and a thousand pieces of ivory were sold openly. Vietnamese make up the majority of those arrested in South Africa and Mozambique in connection with the wildlife trade. According to Karl "the worst offenders are the people of Laos who for more than a decade have been trading ivory and all parts of wild animals.
Laos, which shares a border with Vietnam, is under CITES supervision with no purpose as the government does not respond to the organization's demands and does not act to stop the crime. Although PJ. SMore than 11 tons of ivory have been seized on their way to Laos since 2010, until today not a single person has been arrested, despite seven dedicated laws and a special agency that are supposed to enable the fight against the despicable trade.
According to the agency's data, since 2009 lion parts have been "exported" from South Africa to Laos. Although PJ. SThere is no licensing or registration of a resident of Laos who has received a hunting license, today Laos "controls" the trade in lion bones which are sold as tiger bones, as the tigers are becoming extinct due to the demand for their parts. In South Africa, the "sporting" hunting of farm-raised lions is common. The hunter receives the head and the fur and the bones are exported to Laos for about 1500 dollars per skeleton, according to Carl, after the bones arrive in Laos they are smuggled to Vietnam, in Vietnam the bones are "processed" by boiling and "baked" cakes, each of which is sold for about a thousand dollars to "manufacturers" ", the "manufacturers" add the "cake" to the rice wine and sell the wine as "Tiger wine" which is considered a strengthening, healthy drink and of course stimulates and strengthens the man's strength.
The whole process takes place in gross disregard of international lawsיsea. It turns out that the criminal organizations have decided that they can circumvent the conservation laws without risk and without negative consequences from the government,
Julian Rademeyer (Julian Rademeyer) researcher and writer Summarizes the situation in a contemporary analysis In his article: "Time and again the effort to fight against super crime organizations is failed By me Corrupt governments that are unwilling or unable to act, the lack of information flow and the approach to dealing with the crimes through advertising and emphasizing "false" arrests are a measure of success when there are no convictions following the arrests and the "goods" are returned to their robbers, here we come?
When many species are in danger of extinction comes the news of the Chinese government's decision to completely ban the ivory trade. At the same time, the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf prohibits the breeding and keeping of wild animals for the purposes of pets. Perhaps redemption is approaching for wildlife in Africa?
