By ELAINE KURTENBACH, AP Business Writer
BANGKOK (AP) — A World Wildlife Fund report shows that illegal online wildlife purchases are on the rise in Myanmar, posing a threat to both public health and endangered species.
The report published Friday found that enforcement of bans on such transactions has weakened amid political turmoil following a military takeover in 2021.
The number of such transactions increased 74% from the previous year to 11,046, almost all related to the sale of live animals. Of the 173 species in trade, 54 are threatened with global extinction, according to the report.
The researchers identified 639 Facebook accounts belonging to wildlife dealers. The largest online trade group had more than 19,000 members and dozens of posts a week, she said.
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The animals bought and sold included elephants, bears and gibbons, Tibetan antelopes, critically endangered pangolins and an Asian giant tortoise. The most popular were various species of monkeys, often purchased as pets.
Most of the animals advertised for sale were taken from the wild. They also included civets, which along with pangolins have been identified as potential vectors in the spread of diseases such as SARS and COVID-19.
Shaun Martin, who heads WWF’s Asia-Pacific regional cybercrime project, said monitoring of the online wildlife trade shows that different species are kept together, sometimes in the same cage.
“With Asia’s history as a breeding ground for many recent zoonotic diseases, this sharp uptick in the online wildlife trade in Myanmar is extremely concerning,” he said.
The unregulated trade in wildlife and the resulting interactions between wildlife and humans increase the risks of novel and possibly vaccine-resistant mutations in diseases such as COVID-19 that could evolve undetected in non-human hosts into more robust variants. dangerous forms of the disease, experts say. tell.
COVID-19 is one of many diseases that can be traced back to animals. The killing and sale of what is known as bushmeat in Africa was thought to be a source of Ebola. Bird flu probably came from chickens in a Hong Kong market in 1997. Measles is thought to have evolved from a virus that infected cattle.
“Illegal wildlife trade is a serious concern from a biodiversity preservation and conservation standpoint and its potential impact on health security,” said Mary Elizabeth G. Miranda, an expert on zoonotic diseases and illnesses and executive director of the Field Epidemiology Training Program. Foundation in the Philippines.
Social media and other online platforms have joined a global effort to crack down on the thriving trade in birds, reptiles, mammals, and animal parts. In Myanmar, much of the wildlife trade takes place through Facebook, which, as a member of the Coalition to End Online Wildlife Trafficking, has taken steps to block or delete accounts of people involved in this type of trade. transactions.
But as is the case elsewhere, new accounts often appear as soon as old ones are closed, making enforcement difficult, the report noted. Easy online access to animals is also increasing demand, making the problem worse.
Discussions about purchases of protected species often took place in open Facebook groups, suggesting that such transactions remain “largely risk-free,” according to the report. Since payments and deliveries are often made through messaging apps, controlling the problem is doubly difficult.
Highlighting the lack of enforcement, those involved in the illegal wildlife trade in Myanmar often use rudimentary methods to move animals and animal products, with buses being the usual form of transport.
The WWF study in Myanmar focused on the online trade in animals and other creatures within the country, although there were some imports from neighboring Thailand, mainly of birds such as hornbills and salmon-crested cockatoos, and crocodiles, into India. .
Some deals could involve shipping animals or parts to China, he said.
The conservation group said it plans future studies to better understand Myanmar’s role in the global trade in endangered species.
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