'It's a sin': Cambodia's brutal and shadowy dog meat trade

France24 – AFP, 11 November 2019

Siem Reap (Cambodia) (AFP) - Cambodian dog meat traders drown, strangle and stab thousands of canines a day in a shadowy but sprawling business that traumatises workers and exposes them to deadly health risks like rabies.

Khieu Chan bursts into tears when describing a job that haunts him as he goes to sleep: he kills up to six dogs a day, slicing their throats.

"Please forgive me. "If I don't kill you, I can't feed my family," the 41-year-old tells the 10 dogs awaiting their fate in a cage.

A cheap source of protein, dog meat is still eatem in several Asian countries from China and South Korea to Vietnam and non-Muslim communities in Indonesia.

Animal welfare activists say consumption has declined as the region's middle class has grown -- more people own pets, and there's greater stigma associated with eating dog.

But the brutal trade has flown under the radar in Cambodia where new research shows a thriving business involving roving dog catchers, unlicensed slaughterhouses and many restaurants in cities selling so-called "special meat".

An estimated two to three million dogs are slaughtered annually in Cambodia, according to the NGO Four Paws, which identified more than 100 dog meats restaurants in the capital Phnom Penh and about 20 in the temple town of Siem Reap.

"It has this massive trade," says Katherine Polak, a Thailand-based veterinarian who works with the NGO, which recently presented findings to the government.

Officials were "shocked" by the magnitude, she claims.

Rabies crisis

Motorbike riders criss-cross northern Cambodia trading pots, pans and cookware for unwanted dogs, loading them into a heavy rectangular cage on the back seat and making deliveries to middlemen.

Live specimens fetch $2 to $3 per kilo, incentivising suppliers to collect as many as possible.

Researchers say the dog meat trade is a public health crisis because it carries potentially infected animals all over the country.

Cambodia has one of the highest incidence rates of rabies in the world and most cases are from dog bites.

The trade also undermines local canine immunisation efforts by removing and killing vaccinated dogs.

Unsanitary slaughterhouses have no safety regulations as they aren't overseen by the government, and workers wear no protective gear.

"I got bitten by a dog but I did not get vaccinated because when I returned it was late at night," Pring That told AFP in a village in Siem Reap as he cooked dog meat stew with fermented fish paste.

Instead, the 33-year-old cleaned the wound with soap and lemon.

Industrial-scale slaughterhouses in developing countries put some distance between workers and animals.

But the Cambodian dog trade is hands on.

After receiving delivery, shirtless men poke dogs with sticks into holding cages.

They are then hung, strangled with rope, clubbed over the head or drowned in a pit filled with fetid water.

Just after sunrise in a village in Siem Reap, one worker pulled a dog out of a cage and hung it on the branch of a tree near drying laundry.

After gasping for breath for several minutes, it stopped moving.

It was then placed in boiling water to remove fur and chopped into parts.

"On a good day, I kill 10 dogs or 12 dogs," says former soldier Hun Hoy.

"I also feel pity for them, but I have to strangle them," the 59-year-old adds.

'Hear their cries'

Suppliers can earn from $750 to $1,000 in a country where wages in garment factories are under $200.

Productivity is crucial.

"It's faster to hit them," explains Dara, 30, a collector, trader and butcher.

"I know it's a sin," he adds.

Drowning is the preferred method of slaughter a few hours away in Kampong Cham and Kandal provinces.

"By putting them in the cage and drowning them in a pit, we don't have to hear their cries," said one woman.

Meat and parts are sold onto restaurants, where they are a popular with day labourers as a barbecued snack or a $1.25 soup.

The psychological trauma to bring cheap meat to the table is immense and those who find a better job take it.

Next to his dog cage in Takeo, Khieu Chan spoke about meeting Four Paws during their investigation of the trade.

In an unconventional twist, they gave him land for farming if he would close his restaurant.

One recent afternoon he helped the NGO gingerly take the sickly dogs out of the cage placed under a tree.

But before they were removed and sent to Phnom Penh for treatment, he knelt by the bars to say goodbye.

He says: "Now you have freedom. You are spared from death."

An animal rights collective, known as Dog Meat Free Indonesia Coalition,

together with world-renowned celebrities launched a global campaign to stop

the trade in dog meat on Thursday (02/11) at Hotel Gran Mahakam in South

Jakarta, in light of recent disturbing findings of animal cruelty in the Southeast 

Asian country. (Photo courtesy of Dog Meat Free Indonesia Coalition)

Related Article:

Advocacy Groups, Celebrities Call for End to Barbaric Dog Meat Trade in Indonesia

Thailand destroys ivory stockpile amid junta crackdown

Yahoo – AFP, 26 Aug 2015

Thai Department of National Parks (DNP) workers display pieces of ivory 

during a destruction ceremony in Bangkok on August 26, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Pornchai Kittiwongsakul)

Bangkok (AFP) - Thailand destroyed more than two tonnes of ivory Wednesday -- a victory for animal rights groups fighting against the trade in a country renowned for being a hub for illegal tusks.

The ceremony, in which 2,155 kilograms of raw tusks and carved trinkets were fed into an industrial rock crusher before being incinerated, was presided over by the Thai junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha and is the first time the kingdom has taken steps to destroy part of its stockpile.

"This is to show the Thai government's strong determination to oppose ivory trafficking and that Thailand will comply with international rules," he said during the ceremony.

Animal rights campaigners have long accused successive Thai civilian and military administrations of turning a blind eye to the lucrative trade.

They have pushed for Bangkok to destroy its stockpile to signal its determination to stamp down on the trade and avoid the risk of seized ivory finding its way back onto the black market through corrupt officials.

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha (2nd R) looks at pieces of ivory

 on display during a destruction of confiscated ivory exercise at Thailand's 

Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation in Bangkok on

August 26, 2015 (AFP Photo/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul)

Trade in ivory was banned in 1989 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). But that has not stopped criminal gangs seeking to exploit a continued demand for tusks in Asia.

Ivory and other body parts of elephants are prized for decoration, as talismans, and for use in traditional medicine across parts of Asia with Thailand a key transit point.

The country's generals, who seized power in a coup last spring, have vowed to crack down on the illegal ivory trade.

Earlier this year, they ordered all Thais to register any ivory they owned, warning that those who failed to do so would see their items confiscated.

They have also made a series of high profile seizures including four tonnes of ivory found hidden in containers in April that originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo and was destined for Laos.

Thai police seized more than three tonnes of ivory a week later in a second haul, this time from Kenya that was again destined for Laos.

Trade in ivory was banned in 1989 - but that has not stopped criminal gangs

 seeking to exploit a continued demand for tusks in Asia (AFP Photo/

Pornchai Kittiwongsakul)

The ivory destroyed on Wednesday accounts for most of Thailand's stockpile where criminal cases have been completed.

A further 540 kilograms has been donated to museums, government institution and universities to be used for educational and awareness raising purposes.

Janpai Ongsiriwittaya, from the World Wildlife Fund, said Thailand's junta had taken significant steps to tackle the illegal trade and that the destruction of the stockpile was "more than just a symbolic act".

"For too long Thailand has been exploited by wildlife criminals as both a gateway and marketplace for ivory poached in Africa and Asia," she added.

The ceremony came as state media in Vietnam reported two significant seizures of elephant tusks in the last few days, including two tonnes from Nigeria and another yet to be weighed haul that came via Malaysia.

Related Article:

Vietnam seizes illegal ivory from Malaysia

Indonesia Ratifies Asean Haze Agreement

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Sep 16, 2014

The Marina Bay Sands casino and resort is pictured on a hazy day in
Singapore June 18, 2013. (Reuters Photo/Edgar Su)

Jakarta. The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to ratify a regional agreement on cross-border haze as fires ripped through forests in west of the country, choking neighboring Singapore with hazardous smog.

Officials in Singapore and Malaysia have responded furiously to Indonesian forest fires, which have intensified and become more frequent in recent years.

Singapore’s air pollution rose to unhealthy levels on Monday as the Indonesian government failed to control fires in Sumatra island’s vast tracts of tropical forest.

The parliament’s decision has been passed into law.

The agreement obliges the government to strengthen its policies on forest fires and haze, actively participate in regional decision-making on the issue and dedicate more resources to the problem, regionally and domestically.

Indonesia signed the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution 12 years ago and has been under increasing pressure to ratify the document, beginning deliberations in earnest in January.

“Indonesia has already carried out operations for the prevention, mitigation of forest fires and haze, and recovery activities, at the national level,” the House said in a statement.

“But, to handle cross-border pollution, Indonesia and other ASEAN nations recognize that prevention and mitigation need to be done together,” it said.

While Singapore and Malaysia are smothered in haze from Indonesian forests every year, fires in June last year caused the region’s worst pollution crisis in a decade, renewing calls for action in the archipelago.

Authorities have said most of the fires are deliberately lit to clear land for commercial plantations, such as paper and palm oil, and have arrested people caught in the act.

The June 2013 haze crisis sparked a diplomatic row with Indonesia claiming Malaysian and Singaporean companies with plantations on Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo were among those starting the fires.

Singapore last month passed a bill that gives the government powers to fine companies that cause or contribute to haze up to Sg$2 million ($1.6 million), regardless of whether they have an office in Singapore.

Agence France-Presse

Illegal python skins feed hunger for fashionable handbags and shoes

Python farms could be the antidote to the $1bn-a-year black market in these fashionable and expensive skins

The Guardian, Sarah Butler, Monday 31 March 2014

The Python Conservation Partnership suggested python farms could be part
 of the solution to the problem of the black market in python skins. Photograph:
Image Broker/REX

Illegally traded python skins worth $1bn (£600m) are being imported into Europe every year as weak regulation fails to stop illicit traders capitalising on demand for the dramatically patterned leather.

Half a million skins are imported legally each year from south-east Asia, most of them destined for Italy, Germany and France, where they are made into designer handbags, shoes and belts.

Legal imports have grown from 350,000 skins valued at just €100m (£82.6m) in 2005 as Beyoncé, Johnny Depp's partner, Amber Heard, Khloé Kardashian and Tamara Ecclestone have jumped on the trend for the exotic handbags, which can sell for more than £4,000 each. But the black market in skins is thought to be worth about the same amount again, amid widespread circumventing of international agreements to limit the number of pythons taken from the wild. In its first report on how to improve the international trade and protect pythons, the Python Conservation Partnership, backed by the owner of Gucci – Kering – and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said python farms could be part of the answer.

"This report offers [an] alternative solution to the sourcing of python skins for which demand is escalating. However, there is still some way to go towards more transparent, better-managed python farming," said Jean-Christophe Vié, deputy director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's global species programme. "We must make sure that attention is not diverted from the urgent need to preserve wild pythons and their habitats through direct site conservation and action against illegal trade."

In the past, farming of south-east Asia's reticulated python (Python reticulatus) and Burmese python (Python molurus bivittatus) – two of the world's largest snakes – had been dismissed as uneconomic because pythons were thought to take too long to mature and to be too difficult to feed and breed in captivity.

The report said commercial farms do exist in China, Vietnam and Thailand. It recommends this industry could be improved with the introduction of better monitoring, more humane slaughter techniques and the urgent development of technology such as DNA or isotope testing to help identify whether a skin is farmed or taken from the wild. Such tests could help prevent the "laundering" of illegally caught wild pythons through farms. That practice is thought to be so widespread that the report says that all supposedly farmed python skin from Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia should be treated with caution as there is little proof that farms exist in these countries.

Marie-Claire Daveu, chief sustainability officer at Kering, said that demand for python skin accessories was rising at Gucci, especially from Asia, and so it was keen to ensure a sustainable source of supply. "Our objective is to be sure that we don't put in danger these two species of python and their eco-system," she said.

The company currently buys farmed and wild-caught skins certified under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) scheme from Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Daveu said that there needed to be a balance between ethically farmed pythons and the trade in wild python skins, which provided jobs for local communities that could support the protection of the reptiles in their own habitat. But she admitted: "Today there is no way to be fully sure where the skin has come from."

'An inspiring victory for tribal people around the world'

Deutsche Welle, 14 January 2014

The Dongria Kondh tribal people of India have successfully stopped a mine from opening up on their traditional lands. DW speaks to Sophie Grig from Survival International, who supported the protests for a decade.

DW: After ten years of protests, the Indian environment ministry has now rejected a huge bauxite mining project by the multinational company Vedanta. Survival International has called this a 'sensational victory'. How likely is it that a small group like the Dongria Kondh win a case for their rights, when they are pitched against a huge multinational like Vedanta?

Sophie Grig: It's fantastic news, it's a real David and Goliath story. There's only about 8000 Dongria people. One of the main reasons why they have had this great success is their incredible tenacity and courage and the fact that they are so united and so proud of their way of life. They are so determined to protect their sacred hills that they have done everything they can to campaign against the mine. That has also been supported by Survival International and a number of other organizations both on the ground and internationally.

In this battle that the Dongria fought for such a long time, the group were confronted with many obstacles. Can you give us an idea of what they experienced?

Sophie Grig, Asia Expert
at Survival International

Their leaders have been arrested, there have been a lot of threats against them, there has been a lot of pressure and harassment for the community. There's also been a lot of pressure from the company who have tried to buy them off by claiming that they will bring development. The Dongria have rightly said 'We don't want development', 'What sort of development is it, if you destroy our hills?'

The Dongria have a wonderful agricultural system where they have huge numbers of plants that they cultivate or collect from the forest that enable them to live well and very happily in their hills, as they have done for generations. They say 'Development for us is being able to live here and make our own choices'.

Defenders of this mining project have always said that the Dongria, like other tribal people, are among the most impoverished in the country and they need economic development. Isn't that also the case?

They certainly don't see themselves as poor and in fact they told us 'We live like kings'. They feel like they live a very wealthy and happy existence in the hills. They themselves look at people in the plains and in the cities and they feel sorry for them. They say, 'You have to pay for your water', 'You have to pay for everything, we get it for free in the hills, why would we want to leave'. What they want is to be able to live their own way of life on their own land.

And, of course, this land is also sacred to them.

Yes, it is. They worship the hills they live in which would have been destroyed by the mining company. That's also played a huge part in their rejection of the mines.

Apart from the determination of the Dongria Kondh, how important was the international campaigning on their behalf? What was the tipping point that made this victory possible?

I think that the international and national campaigns were extremely important. The Dongria on their own, however determined they were, would not have been able to generate the awareness in the government of what was happening to them on the ground. That's the danger when tribal people's voices are just ignored. They needed the national and the international pressure to make the government sit up and listen.

Survival's campaign involved us making a film which allowed them to speak out themselves. We know that 600,000 people viewed that film. Thousands of letters were sent to the Indian government, protests were held, we lobbied the British government and they condemned the mining there and the Church of England disinvested from Vedanta mining. Then, the Supreme Court said that the Dongria should be allowed to make the decision. This last weekend, the news has finally come that the [Indian environment] ministry has said no. So, it's been a culmination of all that hard work.

What repercussions will this news have for other tribal people in Asia and around the world?

This win for the Dongria Kondh is having
 repercussions around the world, says Grig

We know that the news of the Dongria is being listened to. And the big meetings they had last August, and the way that they rejected the mine back then, has already had repercussions. I have spoken to Sami reindeer herders in Sweden who said that they were inspired by the Dongria's rejection of the mine and that it galvanized them in their cause.

Vedanta will have looked at the Dongria and thought, 'Here are 8000 people living in a really remote part of Odisha'. They didn't think that these people were going to be able to stop them. They didn't think people were going to be able to find out about it. This can really send a strong message to mining companies and governments that they cannot go ahead with mines like this or other development projects on the lands of tribal people without getting the consent of those tribal people. And, if they don't want it, that has to be listened to and it can't go ahead.

But, bauxite is in high demand. Even though new places are being explored, there might be no real alternatives to the place that Vedanta wanted to mine in. Do you think there will be a new attempt to gain access to the sacred hills of the Dongria Kondh?

I would love to say no, but who knows. There is an election coming up in India and it is always possible that the decision might be overturned. I think at the moment though there's so much public attention that has gone into this case, it would be extremely difficult for it to be overturned. But it's definitely something that the Dongria will be watching.

There's a refinery that has been built at the base of their hills, which was supposed to be processing the bauxite mined in the area. While that is still there, the Dongria will be nervous about further attempts to mine. But, I think as things stand, it's a huge victory and we have to hope that it will be maintained.

Sophie Grig is an Asia Expert for Survival International and is based in London.

Untouchables: Southeast Asia’s Biggest Wildlife Traffickers

Jakarta Globe, August 15, 2012

Customs officials show smuggled elephant tusks at airport customs in
 Bangkok on July 17, 2012. Thai Customs seized a shipment from Kenya of
 158 pieces African elephant tusks, weighing 456.12 kilograms and with an
 estimated value of 22.80 million Thai baht ($722,000). (EPA Photo/
Narong Sangnak)

Bangkok. Squealing tiger cubs stuffed into carry-on bags. Luggage packed with hundreds of squirming tortoises, elephant tusks, even water dragons and American paddlefish. Officials at Thailand’s gateway airport proudly tick off the illegally trafficked wildlife they have seized over the past two years.

But Thai and foreign law enforcement officers tell another story: Officials working hand-in-hand with traffickers ensure that other shipments through Suvarnabhumi International Airport are whisked off before they even reach customs inspection.

It’s a murky mix. A 10-fold increase in wildlife law enforcement actions, including seizures, has been reported in the past six years in Southeast Asia. Yet, the trade’s Mr. Bigs, masterful in taking advantage of pervasive corruption, appear immune to arrest and continue to orchestrate the decimation of wildlife in Thailand, the region and beyond.

And Southeast Asia’s honest cops don’t have it easy.

“It is very difficult for me. I have to sit among people who are both good and some who are corrupt,” says Chanvut Vajrabukka, a retired police general who now advises Asean-Wen, the regional wildlife enforcement network. “If I say, ‘You have to go out and arrest that target,’ some in the room may well warn them.”

Several kingpins, says wildlife activist Steven Galster, have recently been confronted by authorities, “but in the end, good uniforms are running into, and often stopped by bad uniforms. It’s like a bad Hollywood cop movie.

“Most high-level traffickers remain untouched and continue to replace arrested underlings with new ones,” says Galster, who works for the Freeland Foundation, an anti-trafficking group.

Galster, who earlier worked undercover in Asia and elsewhere, heaps praise on the region’s dedicated, honest officers because they persevere knowing they could be sidelined for their efforts.

Recently, Lt. Col. Adtaphon Sudsai, a highly regarded and outspoken officer, was instructed to lay off what had seemed an open-and-shut case he cracked four years ago when he penetrated a gang along the Mekong River smuggling pangolin.

This led him to Daoreung Chaimas, alleged by conservation groups to be one of Southeast Asia’s biggest tiger dealers. Despite being arrested twice, having her own assistants testify against her and DNA testing that showed two cubs were not offsprings from zoo-bred parents as she claimed, Daoreung remains free and the case may never go to the prosecutor’s office.

“Her husband has been exercising his influence,” says Adtaphon, referring to her spouse, who is a police officer. “It seems that no policeman wants to get involved with this case.” The day the officer went to arrest her the second time, his transfer to another post was announced.

“Maybe it was a coincidence,” the colonel says.

In another not uncommon case, a former Thai police officer who tried to crack down on traders at Bangkok’s vast Chatuchak Market got a visit from a senior police general who told him to “chill it or get removed.”

“I admit that in many cases, I cannot move against the big guys,” Chanvut, the retired general, notes. “The syndicates like all organized crime are built like a pyramid. We can capture the small guys but at the top they have money, the best lawyers, protection. What are we going to do?”

Chanvut’s problems are shared by others in Southeast Asia, the prime funnel for wildlife destined for the world’s No. 1 consumer — China — where many animal parts are consumed in the belief they have medicinal or aphrodisiacal properties.

Most recently, a torrent of rhino horn and elephant tusks has poured through it from Africa, which suffers the greatest slaughter of these two endangered animals in decades.

Vietnam was singled out last month by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as the top destination country for the highly prized rhino horn.

Tens of thousands of birds, mostly parrots and cockatoos plucked from the wild, are being imported from the Solomon Islands into Singapore, often touted as one of Asia’s least corrupt nations, in violation of Cites, the international convention on wildlife trade.

 According to Traffic, the international body monitoring wildlife trade, the imported birds are listed as captive-bred, even though it is widely known that the Pacific Ocean islands have virtually no breeding facilities.

Communist Laos continues to harbor Vixay Keosavang, identified as one of the region’s half dozen Mr. Bigs, who has been linked by the South African press to a rhino smuggling ring. The 54-year-old former soldier and provincial official is reported to have close ties to senior government officials in Laos and Vietnam.

Thai and foreign enforcement agents, who insist on anonymity since most work undercover, say they have accumulated unprecedented details of the gangs, which are increasingly linked to drug and human trafficking syndicates.

They say a key Thai smuggler, who runs a shipping company, has a gamut of law enforcement officers in his pocket, allowing him to traffic rhino horns, ivory and tiger parts to China. He frequently entertains his facilitators at a restaurant in his office building.

According to the agents, Chinese buyers, informed of incoming shipments, fly to Bangkok, staying at hotels pinpointed by the agents around the Chatuchak Market, where endangered species are openly sold. There they seal deals with known middlemen and freight operators.

The sources say that when they report such investigations seizures are either made for “public relations,” sink into a “black hole” — or the information is leaked to the wrongdoers.

Such a tip-off from someone at Bangkok airport customs allowed a trafficker to stop shipment of a live giraffe with powdered rhino horn believed to be implanted in its vagina.

“The 100,000 passengers moving through this airport from around the world everyday are oblivious to the fact that they are standing in one of the world’s hottest wildlife trafficking zones,” says Galster.

Officials interviewed at the airport, one of Asia’s busiest, acknowledge corruption exists, but downplay its extent and say measures are being taken to root it out.

Chanvut says corruption is not the sole culprit, pointing out the multiple agencies that often don’t cooperate or share information. Each with a role at Bangkok’s airport, are the police, national parks department, customs, immigration, the military and Cites, which regulates international trade in endangered species.

With poor communication between the police and immigration, for example, a trader whose passport has been seized at the airport can obtain a forged one and slip across a land border a few days later.

Those arrested frequently abscond by paying bribes or are fined and the case closed without further investigation. “Controlled delivery,” effectively penetrating networks by allowing illicit cargo to pass through to its destination, is rare.

Thailand’s decades-old wildlife law also awaits revision and the closing of loopholes, such as the lack of protection for African elephants, and far stiffer penalties.

“The bottom line is that if wildlife traffickers are not treated as serious criminals in Southeast Asia we are just going to lose more wildlife,” says Chris Shepherd, Traffic’s Southeast Asia deputy director. “How often is anyone arrested? They just run off, they must be the fastest people on earth.”

Chalida Phungravee, who heads the cargo customs bureau at Suvarnabhumi, says just the sheer scale makes her job difficult. The airport each year handles 45 million passengers and 3 million tons of cargo, only some 3 percent of which is X-rayed on arrival. The main customs warehouse is the size of 27 football fields.

But seizures are made, she said, including boxes of tusks — the remnants of some 50 felled elephants — aboard a recent Kenya Airlines flight declared as handicrafts and addressed to a nonexistent company.

“We have cut down a lot on corruption. It still exists but remains minimal,” she said, citing recent computerization which has created a space, dubbed “the Green Line,” between customs officials, cargo and traffickers.

Galster says unlike the past, traffickers are no longer guaranteed safe passage, describing a daily battle at Suvarnabhumi with “undercover officers monitoring corrupt ones and smugglers trying to outwit them all.”

Such increased enforcement efforts in the region have slowed decimation of endangered species, he says, “but there is still a crash going on. If corruption is not tackled soon, you can say goodbye to Asia’s tigers, elephants and a whole host of other animals.”

Associated Press

Related Article:

Dutch vet fights South African rhino poachers

ASEAN to form partnerships to promote traditional medicine

Antara News, Sat, November 5 2011

Related News

• Hosting ASEAN summit to raise RI image
• ASEAN to hold symposium ahead of summit
• ASEAN prepares statistical data integration
• ASEAN moves closer to adoption of common visa
• RI immigration ready to implement common asean visa system

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - ASEAN member countries have agreed to establish partnerships to promote traditional medicine through among other things information exchange, research, and the scientization of traditional cures to guarantee their safety.

The agreement was reached at the Third Conference on ASEAN Traditional Medicine in Solo, Central Java, on Saturday, President Director of PT Deltomed Laboratories Nyoto Wardoyo said in a press statement here on Saturday.

The conference was attended by representatives of Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Singapore, Laos, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, and Indonesia as the host.

The meeting`s participants on the sidelines of the conference visited the factory of PT Deltomed Laboratories in Wonogiri, Central Java.

They made a comparative study on the modernization and standardization process of traditional medicine production, and the herbal material extraction carried out in the factory.

PT Deltomed, a national herbal medicine producer, has established cooperation with the health ministry`s Traditional Medicine and Herbal Medicine Development and Research Center (B2P2TO-OT).

Since 2009, the company has met the Good Manufacturing Product Standard and received a National Sanitation Foundation certificate on September 14, 2011, as a prerequisite for herbal medicine exports to countries in the American continent.

Editor: Suryanto

Related Article:

MENGENAL STEVIA (SWEAT HONEY LEAF) SEBAGAI SUMBER PEMANIS

NGOs hail president`s call for cooperation in fighting illegal logging

Antara News, Fardah, Saturday, April 10, 2010 14:28 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Before leaving for an ASEAN Summit in Vietnam, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made a significant call for partnership with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in environmental preservation.

"The government and non-governmental organizations share the same spirit with regard to environmental conservation efforts," the head of state said before leaving for Hanoi, Vietnam, to attend an Asean summit on Wednesday (April 7).

The President on the occasion thanked Greenpeace Indonesia and also Walhi (Indonesian Environmental Forum) that have so far been critical about and cared for environmental conservation in the country.

Yudhoyono encouraged the central and regional governments to cooperate with the non-governmental organizations to save the forests and the environment.

Earlier, when calling for continued efforts in the fight against illegal logging and deforestation, at a cabinet meeting held in Jakarta, last Monday (April 5), the President, also stressed the importance of cooperation with NGOs in the battle.

"Ask environmental non-governmental organizations to cooperate. NGOs that really care about the environment, have good will to save the country, are our partners. We must not be controlled by the world. Let us conduct the control by ourselves. It is us who should be more concerned about the safety of our country and grandchildren," he said.

Yudhoyono`s statement drew immediate reactions from some NGOs, such as Greenpeace.

"Greenpeace welcomes President SBY`s call for Greenpeace to work together with the government to save the Indonesian environment. The Ministry for the Environment has the mandate and the power to take action against those who destroy forests and peat lands," said Yuyun Indradi, Greenpeace Southeast Asia Forest Political Campaigner, in a press statement on Thursday (April 8).

According to Indradi, the ministry must turn Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono`s words into action by investigating environmental destruction and taking urgent and necessary action.

"We are here to help the ministry take this action by providing evidence of the oil palm and pulp and paper industries destroying forests and peat lands to aid the ministry`s investigations," he said.

A number of environmental NGOs met Thursday (April 8) to compile data on illegal logging activities at the request of President Yudhoyono, who has ordered sterner action against illegal logging crimes.

The NGOs included Greenpeace Indonesia, WWF Indonesia, Forest Watch Indonesia, Sawit (Oil Palm) Watch Indonesia, and Conservation International.

"We asked them to supply data on illegal logging. This will be a good chance for the activists to help the government battle illegal logging," Agus Purnomo, special assistant on climate change to the President, told the Jakarta Post.

Yudhoyono in the cabinet meeting reminded that the fight against illegal logging must not ease. The police, military, law enforcers, governors, district heads and mayors must all immediately go back into the field and seriously continue the fight against illegal logging, he said.

He also emphasized that they should act without compromise or discrimination against the crime.

"I will ask for a report on the progress of the efforts from each province and forest area, on what they have done with regard to reforestation, what compensations are given to people (participating in the effort) and what forest concession holders have done in terms of sustainable forest management. We must not lag behind," he said.

The head of state also warned government officials against protecting illegal loggers.

"There must never be backing, protection on anyone involved. Do not be influenced by information about backing or protection. There is no such thing. No sponsor. No one protects activities that destroy our country," he said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono suspected that a mafia was involved in the handling of illegal logging cases in several regions so far.

"I believe a mafia is behind the illegal logging activities. I call on the judicial mafia eradication task force to also tackle this problem, reduce or stop these activities," he said.

He said eradicating mafia in the forestry sector was very important for the sake of law enforcement as well as forest and environment conservation in the country.

A number of Greenpeace activists dressing up in costumes resembling endangered species rallied at the Environment Ministry in Jakarta, Thursday (April 8), to demand the enforcement of the laws to protect the environment.

The activists on the occasion delivered dossiers of companies committing environmental destruction in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua where action to save the country`s forests was most urgently needed.

Greenpeace considered their visit to the Ministry`s office not just as an expression of concern regarding continuing forest destruction in Indonesia by giant companies, but also as a way of supporting the agency to execute the mandate in the new environmental law. "We take President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY)`s call for partnership very seriously and call on his Ministries to do the same.

In order to truly develop a model of forest protection and welfare for the Indonesian people, President SBY and the Ministry for the Environment must stop the destruction now," Indradi of the Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said.

A recently-passed environmental law on Environmental Protection and Management gives the Ministry of Environment a greater mandate to implement environmental audit, law enforcement, investigation, and administrative prosecution.

According to Bogor-based CIFOR (the Center for International Forestry Research), deforestation in Indonesia, which has around 120 million hectares of forest areas, has hovered around 2-3 million hectares annually for the last seven years.

"The President`s call for cooperation with NGOs is progress. Apparently, the head of state has realized that the government cannot rely on its bureaucracy alone in fighting environmental destruction," AJ Muaya, a senior editor, said.

13 Asian Nations Meet to Save Tigers

Jakarta Globe, January 28, 2010

Asian tigers are severely threatened by habitat loss and poaching. (AFP Photo)

China and other Asian nations should shut privately run tiger farms as they are inhumane and fuel demand for the endangered big cat's bones and skin, the World Bank said Thursday.

The call came as governments from 13 countries where tigers exist in the wild met in Thailand to discuss their conservation and how to boost tiger numbers.

Tiger farms are found principally in China, as well as Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. Owners claim rearing the cats in captivity will help reduce the illegal trade in tiger parts which are used in traditional medicine, but environmentalists say it only stimulates further smuggling.

``Our position is that tiger farms as an animal practice are cruel. They fan the potential use of tiger parts. That is extremely dangerous because that would continue to spur demand,'' said the World Bank's Keshav Varma, who is the program director for the Global Tiger Initiative, a coalition formed in 2008 with the Smithsonian Institute and nearly 40 conservation groups. It aims to double tiger numbers by 2022.

``The Global Tiger Initiative as well as the World Bank are in favor of shutting down these farms,'' he said by phone from the sidelines of the conference in the beach resort of Hua Hin.

Wild tiger numbers have plummeted because of human encroachment, the loss of more than nine-tenths of their habitat and poaching. From an estimated 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century, the number today is less than 3,600.

China alone is believed to be home to 5,000 domestic tigers, and farms thrive despite the government banning the trade in tiger parts in 1993. It has imposed stiff sentences on offenders and ordered pharmacies to empty their shelves of tiger medications purported to cure ailments from convulsions to skin disease and to increase sexual potency.

The first tiger farms started before the ban, but others sprang up afterward because speculators thought the ban would be temporary. The government says the farms have been developed to attract tourists but critics say they are used to harvest tiger parts.

Despite lobbying from influential businessmen for the ban to be lifted, China last month announced it would take stronger law enforcement action on the trade in tiger parts and products. It also promised stricter regulation of captive breeding.

Conservationists like the group TRAFFIC welcomed the new measures but continue to call for tiger farms to be shut down. They say allowing trade in tiger parts would fuel poaching because it is cheaper to kill a wild animal than to raise a tiger on a farm. The parts are indistinguishable.

Varma said tiger farms had yet to be discussed at the three-day ministerial meeting that began Wednesday, attended by Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

AP

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Govt gears up to limit free trade deal adversities

The Jakarta Post , JAKARTA | Mon, 03/16/2009 11:30 AM

Milking it all the way: A farmer milks a cow at his farm near Jl. Mampang Prapatan, South Jakarta, in this June 19, 2008, file photo. The Agriculture Ministry has proposed Rp 145 billion (US$12.18 million) this year from the stimulus package to boost the competitiveness of the country’s meat, milk and dairy businesses against foreign competitors, ministry officials said Saturday. (JP/J. Adiguna)

Indonesia is preparing massive financial and technical support for meat and tropical fruit businesses in a bid to cash in on ASEAN’s free trade deals with Australia and New Zealand.

The Agriculture Ministry’s director general of husbandry, Tjeppy D. Soedjana, said Saturday the ministry had proposed Rp 145 billion (US$12.18 million) this year from the stimulus package to boost competitiveness of the country’s meat, milk and dairy businesses against foreign competitors.

He added the businesses would face tougher challenges due to the recently inked free trade agreement (FTA) between ASEAN and Australia and New Zealand.

“The proposed stimulus will help local cattle farmers develop their businesses, while also preparing them to compete against imported products before the ASEAN FTA with Australia and New Zealand takes full effect,” Tjeppy said.

Under the FTA, Indonesia will completely slash its import duties on four beef products from the two countries by 2020 and on seven dairy products between 2017 and 2019.

Tjeppy said steps in preparing the farmers should be taken immediately from the upstream level of the cattle breeding sector.

“If the Finance Ministry approves the stimulus, not only we can cover domestic demand, but we can also compete with overseas products and even export our products,” he said.

He added the stimulus would take the form of loan interest subsidies for domestic cattle farmers under the existing cattle breeding business financing (KUPS) scheme.

“The KUPS scheme is pro-poor and intended for small cattle farmers,” he said, adding local farmers were currently breeding 10 million cows.

Besides the subsidy, the ministry will also help cattle breeders work with oil palm farmers to help provide sufficient feed for the cattle.

“A hectare of oil palm plantations can feed two to three cows. There are around 7 million hectares of plantations, which translates into feed for 21 million cows,” Tjeppy said.

He added Indonesia imported 30 percent of its meat demand annually, consisting of 450,000 cows for breeding and 150,000 tons of frozen meat, while importing 70 percent of its dairy demand.

Besides the meat and dairy businesses, the ministry will also help expand the export of tropical fruit to Australia and New Zealand under the FTA, which scraps import duties for horticultural produce.

Sri Kuntarsih, secretary of the Agriculture Ministry’s horticulture directorate general, said Indonesian fruit exports to Australia were limited because of strict quality inspection systems in place, which acted similar to non-tariff barriers.

She added that ever since the deal was signed, the ministry had submitted a proposal to the Australian Embassy in Jakarta regarding the possibility of exporting three types of produce: mangosteens, mangoes and onions.

“However, the embassy said we had to select only one for the time being. So we’ve decided to go with mangosteens,” she said.

“Australia has very high standards for the quality of agriculture produce. “This has been our main concern for not being able to enter their market sooner.”

Indonesia is targeting a 13 percent jump in horticulture exports worldwide this year to $411 million. (fmb/hdtw)