ProFauna Urges KASKUS to Block Advertisements of Protected Wildlife Species

MALANG, Indonesia - Sept. 6, 2013 - PRLog -- Illegal wildlife trade is going online; we can find such illicit act in social media, internet forums, and online marketplaces. In Indonesia, one of the most prominent internet forums is KASKUS, who also has a trading forum. ProFauna Indonesia, a leading wildlife protection organization, had been doing some monitoring on this site in April-August 2013 and found at least 28 advertisements offering protected wildlife species. Among the animals sold at KASKUS were Slow Loris (Nycticebus sp), Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita), Pangolin (Manis javanicus), Javan Surili (Presbytis comata), Müller's Bornean Gibbon (Hylobates muelleri), Binturong (Arctictis binturong), and Eclectus Parrot (Eclectus roratus).

Those animals were sold at IDR 125.000 up to more than 2 million. Estimated total value of the whole trade at KASKUS in April-August 2013 is more than IDR 70 million. The dealers come from different places, namely Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bandung, Banten, and East Java.

The flourishing illicit trade at KASKUS’ trading forum is very disheartening for it has become one of the biggest threats for the survival of wildlife species. ProFauna’s investigation has proven that most of the traded animals were illegally captured from the wild. Therefore, ProFauna urges KASKUS to immediately block advertisements at their site that offer wildlife as pets.

Irma Hermawati, ProFauna’s advocate, said “Such illegal wildlife trade is a crime, thus it is our mutual responsibility to stop it. Wildlife protection effort cannot be done solely by a particular body, but all the involved stakeholders need to collaborate. The government is not the only one responsible for the law enforcement, it is also something that private corporations like KASKUS need to be concerned of.”

Previously, in the end of 2012, Tokobagus.com who used to display advertisements of wildlife trade came to an agreement with ProFauna and they have made a commitment to block any form of wildlife crime at their site. This was a very virtuous decision to show the business’ social responsibility of online sites. “We hope that the step taken by Tokobagus will soon be followed by KASKUS,” concluded Irma.

For further information, please contact:

Swasti Prawidya Mukti

International Affairs Officer of ProFauna Indonesia

Email: international@profauna.net