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Animal smuggling and conservation plight in Komodo Park
Animal smuggling is one of the big threats to conservation efforts in Komodo National Park, and by extension, in Indonesia.
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Endangered: A young Komodo dragon roams the Komodo National Park on the Island of Komodo on Nov. 22, 2019 as conservationists resisted plans to turn the natural habitat of the endangered species into a Jurassic Park-style attraction. (AFP/Goh Chai Hin)
W
est Manggarai Police in East Nusa Tenggara arrested four people as they were attempting to smuggle baby Komodo dragons in Labuan Bajo on Oct. 30. As widely published in the media, the reptiles came from Rinca Island, one of the species’ natural habitats in the Komodo National Park.
One of those arrested, the mastermind of the crime, was based in Bali, where the dragons would be resold at prices ranging from Rp 20 million (US$1,275) to Rp 28 million each. The police said the suspects could get five years imprisonment for violating Conservation Law No.5/1990.
It was not the first case of its kind. In 2019, East Java Police successfully dismantled a syndicate involved in smuggling Komodo dragons abroad, where each of these rare animals was valued at a staggering Rp 500 million. This animal trade syndicate had engaged in the buying and selling of Komodo dragons from 2016 to 2019, with 41 Komodo dragons sold in total.
Aside from Komodo dragon trade, in recent years, the poaching of deer and buffalos in the Komodo National Park has also emerged as a significant threat to conservation. In 2018, police in Bima, West Nusa Tenggara, discovered a shipment of dead deer at the port there. After a thorough investigation, it was revealed that those deer were from Komodo National Park.
The above stories at least teach us two lessons. First, animal smuggling is one of the big threats to conservation efforts in the Komodo National Park, and by extension, in Indonesia. Besides Komodo dragons, orangutans and slow lorises have also been smuggled in vast numbers. Second, this illicit trade involved a big syndicate working in clandestine, even transnational networks. As such, besides pushing forward ground surveillance, we deeply hope this problem can be tackled by dismantling the broader trade syndicate.
In my point of view, the smuggling and attempted smuggling reflect the conservation plight of the Komodo National Park in recent years. Yet rather than putting emphasis on conservation efforts through, among other measures, the reinforcement of patrol infrastructure, the government has chosen to focus on how to valorize the park’s resources for tourist investment. Such a policy has been widely criticized by the public in recent years.
In this regard, overemphasis on tourist development has seemingly deflected the government’s attention away from investing in the conservation of the species living in the park.
