'Cyber-traffic' endangering primates in Cameroon
 
 
By Reinnier Kaze, AFP  August 24, 2009
 
(An endangered drill monkey is pictured at a sanctuary in Nigeria) 

Advertisements on the Internet to woo buyers into taking "playful 
primates" from Cameroon into their homes have become one of the primary 
means of further threatening already endangered species.
 
An endangered drill monkey is pictured at a sanctuary in Nigeria. 
Advertisements on the Internet to woo buyers into taking "playful 
primates" from Cameroon into their homes have become one of the primary 
means of further threatening already endangered species.
Photograph by: Helen Vesperini, AFP

YAOUNDE – Advertisements on the Internet to woo buyers into taking 
"playful primates" from Cameroon into their homes have become one of 
the primary means of further threatening already endangered species.

Such sales would be illegal, since dealing in primates is forbidden in 
the central African country. In the past three years, however, the 
Internet has led to a flourishing trade in endangered species, 
according to an environmental activist in the front line.

Ofir Drori directs a small non-governmental organisation, the Last 
Great Ape Organization (Laga-Cameroon), which works in conjunction with 
the Cameroonian ministry of forestry and wildlife to try to stem the 
lucrative trade in beasts both dead and alive.

"Kiki is ready for a new family. He has gentle and charming manners. 
Kiki is handsome and playful," reads an advertisement on the Internet 
to sell a chimpanzee from Cameroon.

The ad says that the chimpanzee comes with "veterinary health 
documents, a "permit" from CITES (the Convention on International Trade 
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and a year's health care 
guarantee."

CITES, whose ban on trade in listed endangered species is a ban on 
international trade, does not, however, issue such individual 
"permits".

The seller alleges that he lives in the forested region of Kilum and 
"is incapable of giving Kiki the good home and all the care that he 
deserves," but the whole advertisement is a scam.

Laga-Cameroon tries to infiltrate the black market sales networks and 
carry out investigations in conjunction with the police. They found and 
partially dismantled eight groups of Internet fraudsters between 2007 
and August 2009.

"To begin with, we thought that the sellers we found on the Internet 
were simple swindlers, who extorted money without providing the product 
announced," Drori said. But some of the traffickers were genuinely 
dealing in endangered species, including animal heads and hides for use 
as trophies, he said.

In February, the police arrested a 27-year-old man who had in two years 
made 22 sales on the Internet, mainly for the skulls of primates, but 
it took a team effort to track him down.

Authorities in the United States helped Laga and Cameroonian officials 
to locate him via his exchanges on the Internet, and the man now faces 
up to 20 years in jail.

To reassure clients, the cyber-dealers use a false sales permit, with 
the forged signature of the wildlife minister. They are able to do this 
because trading in some protected species is legal under a quota 
system.

In 2008, another trafficker was arrested while he was trying to sell 
turtles to a Malaysian importer with the help of a Cameroonian 
accomplice based in China.

John Sellar, the enforcement assistance chief at CITES in Geneva, said 
that "the Internet certainly facilitates illegal trade in wildlife, but 
it is very difficult to assess the scale," in email comments to AFP.

"We are aware of some of the work that has been conducted in places 
like Cameroon with regard to trade in primates and recognize that the 
Internet is used to sell live animals," he said. But he said the 
majority of such offers he has seen "are simply criminal frauds" to 
scam people out of money, with no intention to supply live animals.

He said CITES has issued fraud warnings and "in general are examining 
trade that is facilitated by the Internet." In fact the anonymity of 
the Internet has helped law enforcement agencies in catching some 
criminals, he said.

To initiate contact with clients, the dealers generally place 
advertisements on specialist websites, and demand is high in the United 
States, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Belgium and South Africa, 
particularly for primates like gorillas and chimpanzees.

A successful sale can be rewarding. A baby chimpanzee sold locally for 
75 euros (105 dollars) can sell for 100 times or even 200 times that 
much abroad.

The Internet has "a potential that can facilitate connections between 
the buyers abroad and the local dealers," Drori said. "One of the 
things that up until now has prevented a massacre of animals has been 
the absence of such a connection."

A specialist in wildlife crime who asked not to be named added that 
people trying to prevent the traffic were hindered by corruption and 
"complicities in the public administrations, the banks, airports and 
the police."

"For the struggle to make progress, the authorities should get more 
involved," the source added.