Southeast Asia has long been an epicenter for the illegal wildlife trade but now , it appears , bargainer are increasingly turning to societal medium sites like Facebook to betray their stock . Wildlife business deal specialists TRAFFIC released a report , " Trading seat " , this week highlighting the extent of the tendency .
For 23 days in July 2016 , researchers spent 30 minutes a day scouring Thai Facebook for Post selling and shell out live fauna . Within that sentence , they report 756 post that , combined , showed a aggregate of 1,521 animals from 200 different coinage for sales agreement . What ’s more , they pick up 12 Facebook group devoted to the swop with a combined membership of 106,111 – but , as they taper out , a dealer may be a member of more than one grouping . This may mean that some people have been counted more than once .
The subject field was followed up two class afterwards and the results are cheerless . While two of the Facebook group no longer existed and another became occult , the great group has doubled its rank from 27,503 in July 2016 to over 68 , 000 in July 2018 , while total membership figures have doubled to 203,445 .
Mammals seem to be the most pop group of animate being to sell and buy with 516 individuals for up for sale within the 23 - day timeframe , the most uncouth being the Sunda Slow Lorises ( Nycticebus coucang ) at 139 individual . But the razz were far more wide-ranging with 95 metal money work up on Facebook during the same geological period in 2016 . Amphibians were the least popular with just 10 beast and four metal money for sale .
In what is possibly a sliver of a silver liner , only two species find for sale are creature labeled as critically endanger on the IUCN Red List . These were the Helmeted Hornbill ( Rhinoplax vigil ) and the Siamese crocodile ( Crocodylus siamensis ) . Experts think the Thai crocodile were most in all probability source from captive breeding operations – there is an estimated 700,000 crocs wrapped in farms across Thailand , Cambodia , and Vietnam .
So , what now ?
There is legislating in Thailand that is design to restrict the illegal wildlife trade but intelligibly , it is lack . The Wild Animal Reservation and Protection Act ( WARPA ) only protects a piffling more than half the animals found in the study ( 53 percent ) and covers very few non - native coinage . Not only is it specify in its coverage , it contains several loophole and only enforces low penalties , TRAFFICwrites . problematic enforcement – and extending protections to non - native species – would be a positively charged first step , theyadvise .
“ Giving such species protection under Thailand ’s law and enabling enforcers to take natural process is the strongest way to address this vital conservation trouble , ” Kanitha Krishnasamy , Acting Regional Director for TRAFFIC in Southeast Asia , said in astatement .
Facebook late join the Global Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online and is currently working with organizations like dealings to tackle the produce problem .
