{"id":36920,"date":"2020-03-20T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-06-22T12:15:49","modified_gmt":"2020-06-22T12:15:49","slug":"11920-photographers-join-forces-against-wildlife-crime","status":"publish","type":"photo_story","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/11920-photographers-join-forces-against-wildlife-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographers join forces against wildlife crime"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The ongoing spread of Covid-19, which is thought to have originated from a wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, is focusing increased attention on human interactions with wildlife. In February, scientists pointed to pangolins as a possible source of the virus, although new research<\/a> has now questioned this link. The critically endangered mammal, most likely illegally smuggled into China for use in traditional Chinese medicine and as bushmeat, was one of many wild animal species thought to be on sale in the Wuhan market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of their response to the virus, the Chinese authorities rushed in a temporary ban on the consumption of all wild animal meat<\/a>. The prohibition is expected to be included in revisions to the country\u2019s Wildlife Protection Law later this year. But it does not apply to wild animal parts used in traditional Chinese medicine or ornamental items. It also does nothing to mitigate the myriad other threats facing wildlife across the world as a result of human activity \u2013 the demand for exotic pets, the use of wild animals for entertainment and the destruction of habitats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new book, published bilingually in English and Chinese late last year, seeks to raise awareness of all these issues in an effort to end wildlife crime within our lifetimes. Photographers Against Wildlife Crime<\/a> is an eye-opening collection of over 130 images by some of the world\u2019s best-known wildlife and environmental photographers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally published in English in 2018, the new bilingual version is affirmation of the central role China could play in global efforts to protect wildlife. Chinese demand is one of the main drivers behind global trafficking in wildlife and wild animal parts, which photographer Britta Jaschinski calls \u201cthe world\u2019s fourth largest organised crime\u201d. Ending this trade is key to determining what naturalist David Attenborough, quoted in the book, calls \u201cthe fate of all life on the planet\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are some of the photos that make this collection so special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>
The bodies of approximately 4,000 pangolins defrost after being seized at the port of Belawan in Sumatra, Indonesia. Hidden in a shipping container behind a fa\u00e7ade of frozen fish, it\u2019s thought the animals were on their way to China and Vietnam, where there is high demand for their meat and scales. Pangolins are thought to be the most trafficked mammal in the world. All eight species are targeted by this\u00a0illegal trade<\/a>, and three are now considered critically endangered, including the Chinese pangolin, once widespread across southern China and parts of Southeast Asia. This seizure of the animal, made in 2015, is one of the largest on record. (Image\u00a0\u00a9 Paul Hilton)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A family of Bornean elephants edge their way along the terraces of an oil palm plantation being cleared for replanting in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. A sub-species of the Asian elephant, there are thought to be fewer than 2,000 Bornean elephants still left in the wild, the result of widespread deforestation. Malaysia is the world\u2019s second largest palm oil producer \u2013 much of the state of Sabah has already been cleared of its rainforests to make way for oil palm plantations. The elephants often wander into these plantations to feed, where they come into conflict with humans and can sometimes be shot or poisoned. (Image \u00a9 Aaron Gekoski)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Named Oliver\u00a0by his rescuers, this brown bear spent 30 years trapped in a small cage on a bear bile farm in China\u2019s Shandong province. He was rescued in 2010 by the NGO, Animals Asia, and spent the last four years of his life in comfort at their Bear Rescue Centre in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Bear bile is an ingredient in traditional Asian medicines and is extracted from living bears via a number of techniques, including the insertion of permanent catheters. Vietnam made extraction illegal in 2005, and in 2015 pledged it would\u00a0end the sale<\/a>\u00a0of bear bile products by 2020. The same has not happened in China, where bear bile farms and products are still legal. There are regulations aimed at improving conditions for bears on Chinese farms, but it\u2019s thought these are rarely followed or enforced. (Image \u00a9 Britta Jaschinski)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Discarded fishing nets, known as\u00a0\u201cghost nets\u201d, pose a significant threat to marine life. Tangling with other gear, they create floating islands of waste that can travel for thousands of miles. This olive ridley turtle was found caught in ghost nets in the Indian ocean. She was successfully released, but the mass of nets was too large to be removed. (Image \u00a9 Tony Wu)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Helmeted hornbills are critically\u00a0endangered, in large part due to the high demand for their unusual solid casques, especially in China. Known as \u201cred ivory\u201d, the casques are carved into luxury ornaments. International trade in the species has been banned since 1975, but to little effect. There has been a\u00a0spike in trafficking<\/a>\u00a0in recent years, especially between Indonesia and Hong Kong, with increasing seizures by authorities. (Images \u00a9 Tim Laman)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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In the wild, the helmeted hornbill has a limited range, restricted mainly to old-growth rainforests on Peninsula Malaysia and the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. The birds need the large trees in these forests to build their nests. Forest destruction, especially to make way for oil palm plantations, is also playing a key role in their decline. (Images \u00a9 Tim Laman)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Confiscated elephant tusks in Zimbabwe\u2019s ivory vault in Harare. In June 2019, the cash-strapped country called for the global ban on trade in ivory to be lifted so that it could sell this stockpile, arguing that the US$300 million would fund conservation efforts for the next 20 years. The proposal was rejected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. CITES has allowed one-off sales in ivory in the past, and trade in tusks from some populations of elephants in Africa is controlled rather than illegal. China had long been the world\u2019s biggest market for this legal ivory, but the country banned all trade in the material in 2018. Yet an illegal market still exists, fuelling a rise in smuggling. Ivory also remains popular in some other Asian countries, such as Japan and Vietnam (Image \u00a9 Adrian Steirn)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Endangered ring-railed lemurs\u00a0in Wenzhou zoo in China\u2019s Zhejiang province. This photo was taken in 2012, but conditions in many of China\u2019s zoos, especially at the provincial level, remain poor, with animals housed in ageing concrete enclosures. Growing public awareness of animal welfare issues and the increasing wealth of consumers in China are, however, bringing some positive changes to the sector.\u00a0New-style wildlife parks<\/a>\u00a0are placing a greater emphasis on imitating natural habitats for their animals, and this has prompted many urban zoos, especially in bigger cities like Beijing, to update their exhibits in an effort to keep up. (Image \u00a9 Zheng Xiaoqun)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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This six-month-old Sumatran tiger cub has had his right front leg amputated after being trapped for three days in a snare in Indonesia\u2019s Aceh province. Unable to hunt, he was transferred to a zoo on the island of Java. Cheap and easy to make, snares are widely used across Southeast Asia. Set by poachers\u00a0and local people to catch wild animals for food, or as a way to control what they consider to be pests, the snares kill indiscriminately. There are thought to be fewer than 4,000 tigers still left in the wild. (Image \u00a9 Steve Winter)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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<\/div>
With\u00a0an estimated 400 left in the wild, the Philippine\u00a0eagle is critically endangered. Limited to only four Philippine islands, the giant raptors are threatened by deforestation and hunting. Efforts to conserve the species began as early as 1978, although captive breeding was not successful until 1992, with the birth of a female chick named\u00a0Pag-asa (Hope). Since then, 28 of the birds have been successfully bred at the Philippine Eagle Center in Davao City; more than a dozen of these have been released back into the wild. To widen the geographic spread of conservation efforts, the centre last year sent a pair of eagles to the Singapore Wildlife Reserve for a 10-year breeding programme. (Image \u00a9 Klaus Nigge)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>
When not performing circus tricks, the elephants at the Samutprakan crocodile park\u00a0in Thailand are kept tightly chained so tourists can pose with them for pictures (Image \u00a9 Aaron Gekoski)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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