The following article by Thomas Gomersall discusses a special kind of ivory, so-called ‘red ivory’ from the bill of a hornbill species that is again becoming increasingly popular for carvings in China and Hong Kong. I have travelled widely in West Kalimantan and have spoken with speed boat operators that are some of the best informants possible when one knows how to speak with them. I heard about the special trade in hornbill skulls that were going to China. One operator mentioned that he once carried five boxes full of skulls and estimated that there were more than 200! I asked if the poachers and smugglers of these skulls ever ran into trouble, but he just smiled and pointed to his shoulder where the stripes of high ranking police and army personnel are positioned. It seems that some senior officers are assisting with the smuggling operation.
However, the skulls are not just smuggled as ivory. Other hornbill species are mounted in Dayak “antiques” and their easily recognizable black and white tail feathers are the main feature in the head dress of the Dayak warriors. In North Sulawesi, traditional warriors would include skulls of monkeys and hornbills as well the tusks of the babirusa, also known as ‘deer-pigs’, in each head dress as well as hanging from chains around their neck. The Masarang Foundation produced casts made from confiscated skulls and used recycled plastic to produce ‘copies’ that were indistinguishable from the real skulls. These ‘fake’ hornbill and monkey skulls we distributed for free to the warriors to replace their old skulls and to make it no longer necessary for them to buy the skulls from poachers. This approach helped to strongly reduce the poaching for warrior head dress and display purposes.
I am happy sites like Mongabay and individual journalists are giving some exposure to this specialized trade. Hornbills are very important for seed dispersal in the rain forest and to imagine the loss of the wooshing of their wings above the trees and their shrill calls sounding from the tree tops would not be good for visitors, for the equilibrium of the forest and, of course, for Nature. I still remember seeing a huge flock of hornbills flying near the Meratus Mountains in 1998. I have not seen a large flock since then. Hopefully we can take strong measures to protect the remaining hornbills so that their population can recover.
Willie Smits
=============================================================
The Elephant Bird
By Thomas Gomersall
Earlier this February, Hong Kong legislators voted overwhelmingly to ban the domestic trade in elephant ivory by 2021, just a month after Mainland China’s own ivory ban came into effect, a move praised worldwide as a major victory for elephant conservation. But while one ivory trade is on its way out in China, another is very much alive and even closer to driving its victim to extinction. Surprisingly, this victim is not an elephant or even a mammal, but a bird: the Helmeted Hornbill (Rhinoplax vigil).
At first it seems like most other hornbills, a large, colourful, fruit eater found in the rainforests of Southeast Asia. But what makes this species both so unique and so vulnerable is the large casque on its head. Unlike in other hornbills with this structure, it is solid instead of hollow. To the birds, this makes it good for headbutting contests over mates and territory. To the illegal wildlife trade, this makes it good for carving ornaments from, which, combined with its attractive golden red colour, makes for products that can reach US$ 3700 on the black market. Hence its nickname: ‘Red Ivory’.
The trade in hornbill casques is nothing new. It dates back to AD 700 when red ivory was shipped to China and later Japan as a gift to royalty. The trade seemed to have died out by the 1950s following a steady decline in demand in the decades prior and was made illegal in the 1970s. Thus the hornbill was able to recover until it had become a fairly common sight in the forest. But now, an increasingly wealthy Chinese middle class that wishes to honour cultural traditions has brought red ivory back into fashion.
As a result, Helmeted Hornbill populations are being decimated across Indonesia (6000 are estimated to have been shot in West Kalimantan alone in 2013), leading to it being listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ by the IUCN in 2015. It is feared that the killing will soon spread to Malaysia and Thailand which, combined with habitat loss and the bird’s slow reproductive rate, could lead to its extinction in less than 60 years.
As is so often the case in the wildlife trade, Hong Kong is an important stepping stone for trafficked hornbill casques in their journey from the rainforests to the retailers. Between 2010 and 2017, 2,722 casques and red ivory products have been seized, a significant number of which were seized in or due to pass through Hong Kong. More worryingly, it is thought that these seizures represent only a tiny percentage of the total number of casques smuggled during that time.
Part of the problem is a lack of effective deterrents. For example, one man caught trying to smuggle casques into Shenzhen was sentenced to two months in prison and a fine of HK$ 5000. Considering that a single casque can reach nearly HK$ 29,000, that is a punishment many smugglers are willing to risk. Another problem is a lack of political understanding, with many legislators in Hong Kong not realising the scale of the trade, its lucrativeness to the criminal underworld or its devastating effects on hornbill populations. This is compounded by a general lack of global awareness about the red ivory trade meaning that, unlike with elephant ivory, there is little pressure on the governments of Hong Kong and China at home or from the international community to end it.
Hope does remain however. Last year researchers discovered an unexpectedly high population of Helmeted Hornbills in Northwest Kalimantan, Borneo, and the Indonesian government has just embarked on a 10-year conservation plan of research, monitoring, law enforcement and awareness raising to halt and hopefully reverse the decline. Closer to home, the AFCD has submitted a bill to the Hong Kong government to significantly increase the prison sentence of wildlife traffickers from 2 years to 10 years. But more must be done.
As Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. If better informed of its plight, humanity and especially Hong Kong could perhaps save the Helmeted Hornbill from the fate of the long dead Great Auk: a bird driven to extinction for its ‘fashionable’ body parts.
Sources:
South China Morning Post: http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2127802/why-chinese-demand-red-ivory-dooms-helmeted
Mongabay: https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/helmeted-hornbill-extinct-conservation-area-borneo/
Mongabay: https://news.mongabay.com/2017/11/indonesia-to-kick-off-10-year-plan-to-save-critically-endangered-helmeted-hornbill/
To end this first blog on the release in the Betung Kerihun National Park a picture of Cemong collecting fresh shoots of this Licuala understory palm and at the same time using the leaves to build a ground nest to play with. We can take these pictures because Cemong is still interested in people and still approaches us sometimes.
This was where Felix lived tied up with a tight two-metre chain around his neck without anything to rest on or to play with for three long years. During these years, Felix basically only got rice as food and as a result he is malnourished and thin. His hair lacks the shine of oil that normally protects the orangutans from rain reaching their skin in the rainforest. Felix originally came from an oil palm region in Central Kalimantan and was kept by a family in the Erna plantation area several hours from the Sanggau city in West Kalimantan from the age of one year. He now is four years old and does not look at all like a normal 4-year-old orangutan baby.
The second type of bracelet is made from other jungle materials. They are made from rattan, a product normally better known as being used in the production of furniture. The rattan is sliced by hand in very thin strips that are then sometimes interwoven with the stems of a climbing fern with much darker shiny surface as seen here right.
No colouring is used, the products are 100% natural from intact jungle and are made by hand only by local women. These bracelets are made from a climbing palm from the rain forest of Borneo. The palms are very thorny and with long whips with hooks these palms can make walking in the rainforest very difficult. Interestingly, the palm is sometimes called “wait a moment!” for obvious reasons since the hooks are difficult to loosen from the clothing of a passing person! These palms have always been the most important material for the Dayak, former head-hunters of Borneo, to make baskets, fish traps, bind their huts and houses together, for mats and hundreds of other products. The material is very light but extremely strong and flexible. When kept clean it can last more than a hundred years! The bracelets are normally woven by one Dayak directly around the wrist of the other person and are difficult to take off. But the newer ones, like in the picture above, are now popular as gifts between Dayak members as well as for gifts to visitors.
