Game activists slam Myanmar

Conservationists are warning a sudden change in Myanmar’s law allowing the commercial farming of tigers, pangolins and other endangered species risks further fuelling demand in China for rare wildlife products.

The southeast Asian nation is already a hub for the illegal trafficking of wildlife, a trade driven by demand from China and worth about $20 billion (about R335 billion) worldwide.

In June, Myanmar’s forest department quietly gave the green light to private zoos to apply for licences to breed 90 species, more than 20 of which are endangered or critically endangered.

It was an unexpected move that caught conservation groups off guard but was explained by the forest department as a way to help reduce poaching of wild species and illegal breeding.

Tigers, thought to number just 22 in Myanmar, are on the list, alongside pangolins, elephants and various species of vulture as well as the Ayeyarwady dolphin, of which only a few dozen remain in the wild there. The endangered Siamese crocodile can now even be bred for meat and skin.

But conservationists said commercial farming legitimised use of endangered species and fuelled market demand. “Commercial trade has been shown to increase illegal trade in wildlife by creating a parallel market,” the World Wide Fund for Nature and Fauna & Flora International said in a joint statement.

Experts also fear Myanmar’s lack of capacity to regulate the trade raises the risk of disease spillover to humans from animals and even the “next Covid-19”.

Environmental groups feared the country may follow in the footsteps of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, which have lost much of their wildlife.