Word: bengkulu
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...smoked out of its lair soon, Jema'ah (who like most Indonesians goes by one name) will set off again through the forest, clutching a shopping list of animals that he has been instructed to seek out by a dealer in illegal wildlife from the coastal town of Bengkulu. "I never knew before that snakes and turtles were valuable," Jema'ah says, "let alone pangolin." When he started hunting a few years back, the dealer took him to the zoo in Bengkulu to point out which animals were most profitable. "That was the first and last time that someone took...
...longtime wildlife dealer in the Sumatran city of Bengkulu sums up the problems facing enforcement officers in the region: "We never have to worry about the police when transporting animals. Most don't even know or care that it's considered a crime," he says with a laugh. "And the ones who do are already in the business and making money themselves." The combination of soaring demand and lax enforcement is leading to a potentially catastrophic situation for the region's wildlife, activists say. "At the current rate there is a very good chance that we will lose...
...notes Compton of TRAFFIC. The main effect was to force dealers to find alternate air routes through second countries like Malaysia, he says, or increase their reliance on the porous land borders. "We pack a layer of legal turtles on top, then put thousands of illegals underneath," says the Bengkulu dealer. "And often it's as easy as just putting a false label on the boxes. The customs officers in China must think their countrymen eat an awful lot of fish...
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