ProFauna: Trade in Primates in Indonesia is Worrying
In its action, Pro Fauna activists wear primate masks. The action coordinator, Bayu Sandi, said the action was held to coincide with Indonesia’s primate day.
“Today is Indonesia’s primate day. We ask the public to play an active role in protecting wild animals, especially primates,” Bayu said.
Bayu urged people not to trade primates. Orangutans, said Bayu, have a function in nature. If primate animals are taken from their original nature, it will change the ecosystem. “Certainly it will have a direct impact on people’s lives,” he said.
According to ProFauna’s records, primate trade in Indonesia is quite high. More than 95 percent of the primates traded in Indonesia are caught from nature. The process of catching, transporting, and trading primates is also often cruel.
“One of the primates that is currently being traded is slow loris (Nycticebus sp). Trafficked slow lorises have been removed from their canines. During 2013 ProFauna Indonesia recorded at least 40 cases of online slow loris trade,” he said.
In Bali, in one month the sale of primates reaches tens of tails. “One month 20 long-tailed monkeys (gray apes) were traded. It happened at Satria Market, Denpasar,” he said.
ProFauna also noted that in Bali there are still langur hunting which is a protected primate species.
For ProFauna, the sale and purchase of primates in Bali, especially those recorded at Pasar Satria, could be a kind of sheer iceberg. “This is the kind of peak of the iceberg. Below, trade is far from what I mentioned earlier,” he said.
He hopes the relevant agencies to work more seriously address the problem of primate capture. “We hope that BKSDA will work more seriously about it,” Bayu said.
He explained, in the world there are around 200 types of primates. Nearly 40 species or 25 percent of them live in Indonesia. In 2000, the international conservation agency (IUCN) published a list of 25 of the most endangered primates.
Of the 25 primate species, four of them are primates from Indonesia, namely, Sumatran Oranguran (Pongo Abelii), Tarsius Siau (Tarsius Tumpara), Javan slow loris (Nycticebus Javanicus) and Simakubo (Simias Cocolor). (umi)
Source: VIVA News
