"Kukang" not allowed to be sold

"Kukang" (Nycticebus sp), one of Indonesia`s rare animals, cannot be traded as it included in Appendix I to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

"Thus the animal is now under direct international monitoring," researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Biology Research Center Siti Nuramaliati Prijono said on the sidelines of a workshop on the results of a CITES conference here on Thursday.

Siti who is member of the CITES Animal Committee said that actually the Indonesian government had already put the animal in the list of protected species.

She said the inclusion of the animal in the CITES Appendix I followed a Cambodian proposal that had later been approved in the CITES forum.

"There are five Kukang species and three of them are of Indonesian origin, namely Nycticebus Caucang (Kukang Sumatra), Nycticebus Javanican (Kukang Jawa) and Nycticebus Menagensis (Kukang Kalimantan)," she said.

The other two are Nycticebus Beugalensis and Nycticebus Pigamaeus in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and China. Their wildlive existence is now threatened because their trade is still continuing.

Besides kukang, another endangered animal species had also been put in the Appendix I namely sawfish which also lives in Indonesia, she said.

Ornamental fish "Kardinal Banggai" (Pterapogon Kauderni) which the US had proposed to be put in the list however had been excluded from the list because according to Indonesia it could still be recovered and managed better.

The director of the forestry ministry`s directorate of biodiversity conservation, Tony Soehartono, said the inclusion of kukang into the Appendix I meant the animal may not be traded but the trade of the animal produced by breeding was allowed.

"However, before selling the animal, the breeders are first to register it with the CITES and secure an approval from CITES members. So the bureacratic process is long and internationally controlled," she said.

In the Conference of the Parties (CoP) 14 CITES in The Hague on June 3 to 15 Indonesia has blocked the Philippine proposal for allowing the trade of Cacatua Goffini, an endemic bird in the Indonesian island of Tanimbar, put in the CITES Appendix I.

She said Indonesia did not agree with it because it was not impossible for the Philippines to catch the bird and sell it upon a declaration that it was the result of breeding in that country.

CITES now has 171 member countries and around 5,000 animal species and 28,000 flora have been put in its Appendix.

Kukang and sawfish are among the thousands of wild Indonesian animals for which trade is illegal. Meanwhile the country is known as the 11th largest exporter of wild animals and trees