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<\/div>How farming drove the disappearance of Southeast Asia\u2019s crocodiles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified the Siamese crocodile as \u2018critically endangered\u2019 on its Red List of Threatened Species since 1996. Despite being historically abundant in wetlands across mainland Southeast Asia through to Borneo and Java, the Siamese crocodile was extinct across most of its range by the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most recent IUCN assessment<\/a> in 2012 estimated the global population of the species to number no more than 500 to 1,000 individuals, in isolated populations in Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hunting of wild populations for their skins was the main driver behind huge declines in the mid 20th<\/sup> century. Cambodia\u2019s first commercial crocodile farms, where wild-caught individuals were kept and bred for their body parts, were established in the 1940s. The first farms in Thailand were recorded five years later, according to an IUCN Crocodile Specialist Group report<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWild populations got absolutely demolished because of farmers capturing crocodiles in the wild to build up their own stock,\u201d Joe Rose, captive breeding project officer at Fauna & Flora International in Cambodia, tells The Third Pole. He says this was particularly common in Cambodia during the 1980s to 1990s as the industry grew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By 2016, approximately 900 farms in Cambodia were estimated<\/a> to have a stock of more than 250,000 crocodiles. With farms often purposefully interbreeding species for commercial reasons, the study couldn\u2019t determine how many were pure-bred Siamese crocodiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond Cambodia, commercial farming of Siamese crocodiles occurs in Thailand and Vietnam, which are estimated to have 800 and 1,100 crocodile farms, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Siamese crocodiles are protected under Cambodia\u2019s 2006 Law on Fisheries, which prohibits the unlicensed take of certain ‘aquatic animals’, with penalties under the law up to five years\u2019 imprisonment and fines of several million Cambodian riels (1 million riel equating to USD 246). A subsequent sub-decree (No. 123) lists Siamese crocodiles as one of the protected aquatic species, along with the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin<\/a> and Mekong giant catfish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Siamese crocodiles are also protected internationally, being listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This means international commercial trade in the species is generally prohibited, but there are exceptions. A list<\/a> of CITES-registered captive-breeding operations, permitted to raise and export Siamese crocodiles, includes 28 in Thailand, 21 in Cambodia and 10 in Vietnam. A robust international market for Siamese crocodile products, from skins and skulls to leather products and live individuals, is recorded on the CITES trade database<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From 2010 to 2020, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam reported the export of more than 547,000 live Siamese crocodiles, with China listed as the importer of nearly 80% of these crocodiles. All were recorded as being bred in captivity. According to a study<\/a> on global trade in crocodilians from 2017-19, large numbers of Siamese crocodiles exported to China are destined for consumption as food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the same period, the three countries reported the export of almost 400,000 skins and more than 80,000 Siamese crocodile ‘bodies’ to countries around the world, including the United States and several EU countries. Crocodile leather is widely used to make shoes, bags and other accessories for markets worldwide. The biggest exports recorded involved more than 100,000 live Siamese crocodiles exported from Vietnam to China in 2019, and 78,040 \u2018bodies\u2019 exported from Thailand to Hong Kong in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to the critically low numbers left in the wild, the Cambodian Crocodile Conservation Project, a collaboration between Fauna & Flora International and the Forestry Administration of Cambodia, established a captive breeding programme with 35 pure-bred Siamese crocodiles at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center in 2009. Since 2012, the project has released 136 pure-bred Siamese crocodiles into the Cardamom Mountains, according to Pablo Sinovas, flagship species manager with Fauna & Flora in Cambodia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of this programme, conservationists have turned to the source of by far the biggest populations of Siamese crocodiles alive today: commercial farms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUntil recently there wasn\u2019t much of a relationship between farmers and conservationists,\u201d says Rose. \u201cIn the last year or so, we managed to meet a few open-minded farmers interested in conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A third of the Siamese crocodiles released to date were from farms, says Sinovas. In total, he says, approximately 300 crocodiles have been donated by farmers to the captive-breeding and release programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFarm donations are really important for conservation because Siamese crocodiles have gotten to such small stocks,\u201d adds Rose. \u201cIt would take a very long time for [them] to breed and build the population up. Releasing additional crocodiles helps diversify the gene pool and boosts numbers in those remaining wild stocks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jenny Daltry, a technical adviser for Fauna & Flora who was part of the survey team that rediscovered Cambodia\u2019s wild Siamese crocodiles, says that initially farms were the biggest threat to the region\u2019s crocodiles. \u201cSo many farms, in Cambodia and in the region, were just sucking animals out of the wild,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was quite difficult to partner with the industry at that stage,\u201d she adds. But while developing a relationship with the industry has proven challenging at times, she says it is now \u201cgoing in the right direction\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While \u201copportunistic, small-scale poaching might occur\u201d, farms likely no longer take from wild populations, says Sinovas. \u201cGiven the very small numbers of Siamese crocodiles in remote wild locations, it would not be worth the effort to seek them out [when] thousands are breeding in farms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Thailand, the Thai Crocodile Farmer Association, in association with the Department of National Parks and Mahidol University, released 20 pure-bred Siamese crocodiles in 2020, says Yosapong Temsiripong, chairman of the association, which represents 20 CITES-registered farms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe help wild populations by releasing crocodiles every year. Not only to rebuild wild stocks, but also to rebuild our reputation and change the perception of crocodile farmers in Thailand and Southeast Asia,\u201d says Temsiripong, who is general manager of Sriracha Moda, a farm with more than 20,000 crocodiles. From 2023, the association plans to release 20 juvenile Siamese crocodiles into the national park every year, says Temsiripong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd the only reason we release so few, or so relatively few, is because we have no habitat left,\u201d Temsiripong continues. \u201cAll we have to work with is Pang Sida National Park.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether commercial farming and trade of endangered species can help wild populations is a hotly debated topic among conservationists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Advocates for a \u2018sustainable use\u2019 model of conservation contend a legal trade of farmed wildlife products can satisfy demand, thereby reducing pressure on wild populations. Other conservationists argue that legal trade often increases the demand for wildlife products, and that the strict regulation needed to ensure wild populations are not negatively affected is difficult to achieve in practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a 2016 study<\/a>, Laura Tensen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Koblenz-Landau, proposed conditions that have to be met for farming to benefit conservation. These cover economics (farming must be cheaper than wild capture), to sourcing (farms must not restock from the wild, or launder illegally sourced animals) and demand (farming must not increase customer demand, and customers must show no preference between wild or farmed products).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe minute any of these criteria aren\u2019t met, there will be a negative effect on wildlife populations,\u201d says Tensen, adding that situations which meet all the criteria are \u201cvery, very rare\u201d. Significant enforcement and monitoring are needed to ensure these criteria are met at every farm, and without this, \u201cwildlife farming can have disastrous effects,\u201d says Tensen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are several examples of wild populations plummeting after the launch of commercial farming, from tigers in Laos<\/a> to giant salamanders<\/a> in China. While China has recently restricted<\/a> farming of wild animals, at least for food consumption, the Nepal government<\/a> is moving to launch commercial wildlife farming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t have anything against farming, per se, but there are no conservation benefits to farming,\u201d says Steven Platt, a herpetologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society who has worked on crocodile conservation in Southeast Asia since 1999. \u201cWhen you have states that don\u2019t have very good governance or monitoring mechanisms in place, those farms work to the detriment of wild populations of crocodiles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patrick Aust, a member of the IUCN\u2019s Crocodile Specialist Group, argues that the problem with the region\u2019s crocodile farming is the way it has developed, rather than the concept itself. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t any forward-thinking research or multidisciplinary environmental, social development work accompanying the expansion of the industry,\u201d says Aust. \u201cIt was driven by the almighty dollar and the almighty dollar alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Aust, who studies the potential of reptiles as a sustainable food source at the University of Oxford, small-scale crocodile farms could overcome issues such as extreme weather and disease outbreaks that impact the farming of other species. \u201cThey are a very versatile agricultural species to add to agrifood systems in a small-scale context, in fragile small communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe problem was the production model got centralised into bigger and bigger farms, detracting from that small-scale, resilient, sustainable model,\u201d says Aust. But, he argues, \u201can optimal model of sustainable use conservation has already been proven to work\u201d \u2013 crocodile ranching in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRegulated and sustainable trade works. Sustainable use works,\u201d said Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, during her opening remarks<\/a> at the 2019 CITES summit. Andersen\u2019s first and only example was the trade of crocodiles in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A 2019 CITES case study<\/a> on crocodiles in Australia\u2019s Northern Territory found that after hunting during the 1940s to 1960s caused severe declines in saltwater crocodile populations, a programme of \u201csustainable use\u201d contributed to the recovery of wild populations. The programme is frequently referenced<\/a> as a case study of successful sustainable use in broader debates on the commercial exploitation of wild animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The main model used in Australia\u2019s crocodile industry is \u201cranching\u201d, which relies on collection of wild eggs or young crocodiles that are statistically unlikely to survive to adulthood, and rearing them in captivity. They are then killed and processed when they reach a commercially viable size. The model is meant to incentivise landowners to protect crocodile habitats, as the model depends on wild populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Charlie Manolis, interim co-chair of the IUCN Crocodile Specialist Group, recognises the success of Australia’s sustainable use programme, but believes its applicability in other contexts and countries has limitations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis style of conservation doesn\u2019t work for everyone or every species, but for crocodilians in Australia it has worked,\u201d says Manolis, who is also chief scientist at Wildlife Management International, a sustainable use conservation company. \u201cIn some countries, there is a limit to what you can do because of nature and demographics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A key factor for Australia\u2019s success was the vast potential habitat in the Northern Territory, which Manolis says many countries in Southeast Asia have lost. \u201cIn other countries, like Thailand, there is so little habitat left. Where are you going to put your Siamese crocodiles?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n In contrast with Australia\u2019s ranching model, Southeast Asia\u2019s crocodile farms use a \u201cclosed-cycle\u201d system, in which crocodiles of all ages were originally captured from the wild to create captive-bred populations. Adult crocodiles are now bred in captivity to produce eggs, which are reared until the crocodiles reach commercial size and are sold or slaughtered. In this system, the farms do not rely on healthy wild populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The relationship formed between landowners, ranchers and conservationists was another key aspect of Australia\u2019s success, says Manolis. However, he warns that given the tiny numbers of wild Siamese crocodiles, declines in suitable habitat and limited infrastructure for government regulation, replicating Australia\u2019s crocodile ranching success in countries like Cambodia is unlikely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Daltry warns that attempting to implement ranching as an alternative to Southeast Asia\u2019s farming model would be risky. Since \u201cso many livelihoods depend on the industry\u201d, she says, it would \u201cbe very hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCrocodiles are in more restricted areas, and with the aid of Indigenous people and local authorities, those populations can be protected and monitored more effectively,\u201d says Daltry. \u201cIt is probably safer to stick with farming than try to set up anything too complicated that would need a lot of regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the crocodile farming industry\u2019s historical role in the demise of wild crocodiles in Southeast Asia, Daltry says that conservationists need to find ways to work with farmers because as long as there is international demand for crocodile products, the industry will remain a fixture in the region\u2019s wildlife trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am not saying you should stop the farming industry or close it down. It is there, it exists,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat we need to look at is how do we work with the industry to ensure some of these animals live in the wild.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Siamese](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/20220330_Delgado_Crocodile-Farm_5301-scaled.jpg\")
<\/div>So many farms, in Cambodia and in the region, were just sucking animals out of the wild<\/blockquote>Jenny Daltry, Fauna & Flora International<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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<\/div>Crocodile farms as unlikely conservation partners<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/div>Is wildlife farming a sustainable model for conservation?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Without very good governance or monitoring mechanisms in place, farms work to the detriment of wild populations of crocodiles.<\/blockquote>Steven Platt, herpetologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Can Australia\u2019s ranching success be replicated?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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