Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Malaysia has defended its decision to allow the export of macaque monkeys for meat and scientific research purposes, saying it will help curb their booming population in cities where they attack people and raid homes for food.
"We are talking about keeping a figure (of macaques) that is sustainable ... that will not cause problems to the people," Natural Resources and Environment Minister Azmi Khalid told reporters Friday.
The government quietly lifted a decades-old ban on the export of macaques two months ago. Since then, Azmi said, he has received complaints that it is cruel to export the monkeys, which are destined for restaurants and research laboratories.
He did not elaborate but dismissed the complaints, saying something had to be done to curb the monkeys‘ numbers in Malaysia. Exporting them was the best option, he said.
"I can understand the emotional part of it. But we have to be practical about it. We cannot be emotional," Azmi said.
He said more than 258,000 long-tailed macaques are living in Malaysian urban areas and snatch food from people, homes and fields. "The moment they have less food they attack anybody," he said.
Azmi could not say how many macaques the ministry would allow to be exported or how it would control the trade, saying the details still have to be fine-tuned. He also could not say how the government will make sure the monkeys are not caught from forests but from cities where they are a nuisance.
Chris Shepherd, regional program officer for anti-smuggling group TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, cautioned that the government had to carefully regulate the trade.
"There seems to be an increase in illegal trade of macaques in Southeast Asia over the past years," he told The Associated Press.
"We encourage the government to monitor the effects of the lifting of the ban to make sure the wild population doesn‘t decline and it doesn‘t spur illegal trade," he said.
Long-tailed macaques are listed as endangered under CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna, which restricts their trade.
But in Malaysia, a signatory to the convention, macaques are not endangered. In addition to their urban population, almost half a million more live in the country‘s forests.
Last month, wildlife officials rescued 950 ill-treated long-tailed macaques from smugglers in southern Malaysia and detained four people. According to the Wildlife Department officials, the primates were starving and cramped in filthy cages. Some were eating the carcasses of their young, and another 100 dead monkeys were piled up nearby.
Source: www.sanluisobispo.com (18 Agustus 2007)
