Bryan Christy

Here is a cool tool for checking on wildlife trade and trends by species, country, region, etc.  It is actually fun to use, or, since it’s called a dasboard, to drive:

CITES Trade Data Dashboard

Malaysia’s Parliament passed yesterday a comprehensive new wildlife act, the first major overhaul of its wildlife legislation since 1972!  Everyone involved–legislators, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment officials, Perhilitan supporters, NGO advocates, the Malaysian press, and the Malaysian public should be commended for taking this important step toward wildlife protection. 

The next, and more important step, is to enforce the new law.  (The last one was not well-enforced.)

This means funding for enforcement, and it means Ministry, Perhilitan and Customs officials investigating wildlife traffickers using controlled deliveries instead of simple seizures, moving against criminal kingpins instead of their couriers. 

Finally, it will mean prosecutors and judges taking the new law seriously. 

Perhilitan raided an operation recently with good success.

The new law comes none too soon, as this story today also demonstrates:

from  The Star

 I am often asked what an individual can do to protect wildlife or otherwise to address the illegal wildlife trade.  One answer is to become aware of what you are buying, where it came from, and how it was procured.  Another answer is to take up a pen (or keyboard) and write.  The Internet can be a boon to wildlife protection and better government.  Here is a letter running this week in Malaysia, from The Sun:

Do more to protect wildlife
(Mon, 29 Mar 2010) The Sun

I REFER to “Failure at Doha heard around the globe” (Speak Up, March 29). Eric Margolis is correct to state that consumers need to make their power felt to protect wildlife.

I would like to share my two cents worth on our failure to protect our own wildlife. In January, National Geographic ran a story, “The Kingpin“, on a major wildlife trader who was based in Penang, and his alleged working relationship with a high level government officer in the Wildlife Department.

According to the writer, Bryan Christy, the relationship enabled the man to expand his business to export endangered wildlife illegally. This story was the cover story on several regional editions of the magazine.

As I was reading the article, I was thinking that the government must surely react to the article as it focuses on the failure of the Malaysian system in protecting its own wildlife. Instead, (more…)