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| Protection for the Slow Loris! | Back |
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CWI has been working hard to support Cambodia's efforts to protect a small nocturnal primate, the Slow Loris (Nycticebus spp.). The Loris's fate rests at the hands of poachers which sell the animals on pet markets and for Traditional Medicine. Happily, our efforts have been rewarded. At the 2007 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), Cambodia put forward a successful proposal to uplist the Slow Loris from Appendix II to Appendix I. |
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| The Threats: Pet Trade and Traditional Medicine
Slow lorises are legally protected in most range states, but enforcement is so far very poor. As some local authorities do not regard them as primates, they are unaware of their protection status.
Prosecutions are rare and penalties low, and therefore fail to deter offenders.
Most trade is for regional markets, international trade too is significant, albeit not quantified.
Slow to reproduce (1-2 young every 2 years), these species cannot accommodate uncontrolled large-scale off-takes to supply growing local, regional and international pet markets and Traditional Medicine trade.
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© CWI | |
| Demand for the Pet Trade
Their attractiveness, large eyes, small body size and slow movements are the main reasons for the high demand to keep slow lorises as pet species. Specimens are offered as “tamed” after removal of their teeth to prevent toxic bites (see left).
In Indonesia and Vietnam alone, several thousand specimens are sold as pets annually, making slow lorises belong to the most abundant protected species in trade. Furthermore, demand for pet trade is significant in Malaysia, and Thailand, to a lesser extent also in China, India, Japan, Lao PDR, and Singapore. Slow lorises are also regularly on sale over the internet, e.g. in China (for up to 390 US$) and Japan (3,800 US$).
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© Jeremy Holden |
| Use in Traditional Medicine
Almost all body parts of slow lorises are used in Traditional Chinese and Khmer Medicine in Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, and Vietnam; to a lesser extent also in India and Indonesia. Use of:
Fur: in Traditional Asian Medicine believed to support wound healing; in Indonesia locally worn as amulet to ward off danger.
Eye-balls: as love potion
Flesh: to cure epilepsy
Meat: to cure stomach ailments or asthma
Whole body: in alcohol: used as “energy drink”
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| Why Appendix I?
An Appendix I uplisting for the loris will facilitate improved enforcement, lead to stricter penalties in both exporting and importing countries, as well as increase awareness about threats to slow lorises and the need for comprehensive conservation measures.
CWI has lobbied range state NGO’s, Management Authorities, and the CITES Secretariat to support this important proposal. The evidence we have collated demonstrates that the lorises are heavily traded both domestically and internationally: In the past 10 months alone, at least 116 slow lorises were confisgated at airports in Thailand, Japan, and the USA.
Needless to say, these seizures only constitute the tip of the iceberg.
Click here to download data
The level of trade in lorises has also raised concerns amongst the scientiific and conservation community. More than 80 experts – among them loris biologists and members of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group – joined the CWI sign-on and expressed their unanimous support for the uplisting.
Click here to download data |
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© Anne Miehs | |
Latest update: CITES moves to protect slow loris
CWI is now working with the relevant Cambodian organisations to improve enforcement of the slow loris trade ban. This is a key step to ensure that protected on paper is backed up by real action. | |
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