A long rant since it is a Sunday afternoon.
I know the wild animal trade is emotive, but that is the problem, it is easy to see some photographs of injured snakes and get worked up. However on the scale of things it is a minimal issue. When the whole lot is burnt down and cleared for Palm plantations it becomes irrelevant what snakes were taken. There is nothing left.
As I mentioned before the fires are starting again and will be with us now till the rainy season comes back about November, sometimes the visibility will drop to a few hundred yards, but since the pictures are boring nobody really gets worked up about that.Nobody seems bothered by the oil and gas contracts awarded in the Aru Islands over the last 12 months which will do far more damage than collecting GTPs will. It is much easier to dream of a V8 (choose your car) in the garage, GTP in the living room and somehow blame the locals in a foreign country.
The Indonesian Government is aware of the problems, but reptile smuggling is about 2371 on the list of daily issues. 231 dead just from Eid Traffic accidents this weekend so far, an outbreak of bird flu in the Riau Islands, seperatists in Aceh and Irian Jaya as always, religious problems in many areas, the police post in Surakarta came under fire last night, Aussie and Brit Tourists in Bali... and on and on. And that is not just Indonesia but that is the daily reality for many countries.
All of the Indonesians I have ever known are very proud of their country and the wildlife in it, but there are simply limits to what can be done. Poor villagers are just worried about finding dinner for their family for tonight, and middle class Indonesians simply do not have the resources or time to do much either. Most do not have the luxury we do to worry about such things.
To make it worse as I mentioned before there is some serious hypocrisy here, the Indonesians should not allow land clearing, or oil and gas in the Malukus but when I travel back to Australia and get to the East Coast I can fly for a few hours over farmland with only a few patches of bush left. Most of the places I went collecting reptiles as a boy are now under housing estates since everyone wants their 1/4 acre block. Not many in Australia were too bothered in 05 when logging was allowed in one of the last stands left where Superb Parrots nest, destroying 60% of their last nesting habitat. (Barmah) or later in 08 with the few left when NPWS had to be called in as so many people were running them over in cars after they were feeding on grain spilt on the roads.(Too lazy to even slow down while driving or beep their horn - who knows the reasoning there.)
It is all horrible but there are no easy solutions at all, Indonesians do not want to be poor forever so that collectors can have birds, reptiles and fish to show off to their friends in NY and London.
Tourism is hardly the answer, Bali, Phuket, Cebu and even Cairns come to mind. Not that many people visit those places to see nature as such. Even Cairns it is a party town and people can tick off 'yep I have seen the reef' - and then go back home and decide they want a marine aquarium for the living room with a "Nemo". Bali and Phuket the only wildlife most are interested in are found in the pubs and beaches.
Even the arguably succesful tourism of Komodo is very dodgy, not to mention the island was basically sold to PKA. In the old days you had to spend days sailing just to get there, which was risky in itself, but at least you could get about. Now it is more like visiting a theme park.
I know many will not like my thoughts, and they are generally not very optimistic, but that is based on 30 years of working with Wildlife and for the last 15 years being based in SE Asia. The only real answer turns out to be education. It was only a generation ago that most Australians thought the only good snake was a dead snake.
For example school programs work well and a % of license fees could go towards that, but on an international scale that would be almost impossible to make work. However on the plus side even small local efforts can make a big difference, from something as simple as showing your neighbour your animals through to more public and schools based programmes.
Regulation does make a difference but it has to be done carefully and sensibly, Australia in the 70's and 80's is a good example where herping was basically an underground activity - more like joining a secret society. The majority of people simply had no idea about those 'slimey' animals. However with deregulation more people became involved and probably in many cases started out because 'it was cool' but then many will also start heading to the library (these days the internet) and learning more, not just about the reptiles but all of the other aspects of the natural world. So there is a tradeoff there, many reptiles die through errors and stupidity in the hands of keepers, but then there is a much greater awareness to balance that.
Regulation only ever works with education alongside it. The wild bird trade and plants come to mind where there is massive regulation but also a much greater awareness of the problem. In some ways the reptile trade is still catching up in that regard. It is much easier to get public attention over a Macaw stuffed in a suitcase compared to a snake.
With GTPs in particular the only real hope is that prices come down to a point where it is no longer economical to take them from the wild. In that regard progress is being made with much more CB happening and a huge leap in understanding husbandry in the last 20 years. Since for wild caught there are simple not the resources to police these things in the originating countries, and by the time they have made it to Jakarta, then through Singapore or direct into Frankfurt - by that stage the paper work is perfect and they are easily reimported to their final destination.(In this case Singapore are only a transhipment point, but are very strict if a i is not dotted it will be seized, but they are also hamstrung in knowing it is a bit dodgy but if the paperwork out of Jakarta is in order there is nothing they can do if it is not breaking international law).
Ultimately though I think there are much bigger threats than local collection. Nobody seems too bothered by the thought of Oil Exploration in Laurenz NP for example.
Again a very long mixed up rant and probably a bit cynical, but it is something I have dedicated most of my life to. I should also say that Indonesia is just one country, the above would apply to many many countries, from Kenya to the Philippines.
