Crack down on illegal wildlife trafficking gangs

Early this month, about 400 kilograms of tiger meat – alongside zebra, wild buffalo and elephant carcasses – was found at a slaughterhouse, not in some remote border village, but in the heart of Bangkok. Suspects were caught only after the police accidentally spotted one of them, stained with blood, walking to a 7-Eleven shop to buy ice to chill the meat. In the townhouse that was turned into a slaughterhouse, suspects had been chopping up the animals minutes before the raid. The police also found one whole tiger and a lot of bones in an icebox, plus white tiger, elephant and lion hides. 

A month earlier, national park officials arrested Karen poachers accused of slaughtering two wild elephants in Phetchaburi’s Kaeng Krachan National Park near the Burmese border, for their ivory, meat, sex organs and trunks. The poachers implicated a Thai businessman in nearby Ratchaburi province for allegedly paying them Bt90,000 for the job. Others said the slaughter of these beasts was done so baby elephants with the herd could be captured, “broken in”, then sold for a hefty sum to facilities that put on tourism shows.

Damrong Phidet, director-general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, claimed that elephant meat was ordered by restaurants in Phuket. The meat was to be consumed without cooking, like sashimi, while the penises were savoured by diners looking to boost their sexual prowess, he alleged. However, the governor of Phuket, Tri Akradecha, rejected this, saying he’d never heard of bush-meat restaurants operating in the popular resort.

The bottom line is elephant and wildlife poaching in Thailand continues unabated despite existing preventative measures. Clashes with poachers in Thai national parks, especially near the Burmese border, are happening more frequently. Most involve members of ethnic minorities from across the border supported by Thai businessmen. Elephant calves are being caught and sold to elephant camps around the country because of loopholes in existing laws. 

Poaching is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s part of the lucrative wild meat and wildlife trafficking racket, which has tarnished Thailand as a widely known source of wildlife meat smuggled overseas, says assistant national police chief Chalermkiat Sirworakan. 

Chalermkiat believes Thailand is not the origin and hub of the wildlife trade, but a transit point for gangs that supply animals and meat to China, South Korea and Japan. The fact Thai police have made a number of high-profile arrests involving the smuggling of ivory from Africa to Thailand for re-export, has added to the bad publicity. But there’s no denying that wildlife poaching goes on here and fuels a wild meat racket. This crime is closely connected to the drug trade, money laundering and fraud – facts highlighted at Interpol’s “3rd Meeting of the Wildlife Crime Working Group” held in Bangkok two weeks ago. 

The meeting highlighted some worrying trends. First, wildlife crime is a US$10 billion a year industry and run by syndicates that carry out detailed planning, have significant financial support, and are often well armed. These groups have international management of shipments and do not hesitate to use violence against those who stand in their way. They constantly adapt tactics to avoid detection and prosecution, making national borders increasingly irrelevant. 

This crime can result in high profits, gained at the expense of local people and the national and global environment. Yet all too often they carry a low risk of detection and prosecution – and relatively low penalties when people are caught. This is driving some iconic animals towards extinction. Last year, for example, there were record levels of illegal trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn, with 448 rhino killed by poachers in South Africa alone. In 2011, a sub-species of the black rhino was declared extinct in the wild in West Africa, and we also saw Vietnam lose its last Javan rhino, thought to have been killed by poachers. Today, tigers in the wild number little more than 3,000 – and we will hear much more about their plight in coming days. 

Asia is a hub of the illegal wildlife trade. At the meeting, it was claimed that Thailand is not just a transit point, as some reckon, but a source and destination country. One could argue that the illegal trade in endangered animals driven mostly by China – and demand from restaurants, medicine shops and private collectors. 

But Thailand must take urgent and swift action to stamp out this illegal practice. Elephant camps nationwide, plus private zoos in Bangkok and the provinces must be investigated. Some are accused of “farming” endangered species like tigers and zebras for their meat, and others are suspected of supporting wildlife poaching one way or another, in the hope of finding more elephant calves to be trained to entertain tourists. 

But efforts to crack down on wildlife poaching in Thailand may be useless given the sorry state of our law enforcement. Thailand simply needs to get tougher on wildlife poaching and those behind it, no matter how well connected they are.