Nurture Nature campaign bids to stop harmful wildlife trade

When you hear about the illegal wildlife trade, it is not uncommon that the first thing you think about is animals being transported illegally from one country to another.

But for the organisers of the recently launched Nurture Nature campaign, they want people to look at the issue beyond the surface and understand it is much more complex.

For this to happen, they’ll first like people to use the phrase “harmful wildlife trade” instead of “illegal wildlife trade.”

While people tend to focus on the fact that there is the illegal trade of wildlife, it is often overlooked that it is harmful not just to the welfare of the animals being traded but also to human health and ecology.

Sunday Newsday recently spoke to the organisers of the Nurture Nature campaign about the issue of harmful wildlife trade in TT and why people must become more aware of its dangers.

“I think what I have found most impactful, while being on the campaign, is realising how large the wildlife trade is and its wide-reaching impact. I don’t know how many people realise how large and wide-reaching it is.

“Yes, the trade of wildlife is mostly illegal but it’s also generally harmful even if you include elements of the legal trade.

“It’s so harmful to so many elements of society not just the animal welfare aspect of it,” said Niamh Vaughan, one of the campaign’s co-managers.

At the UWI, St Augustine campus, Vaughan did an undergraduate degree in biology and a master’s degree in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.

With specialisations in marine biology, environmental biology, and ecology, she also worked with the Save Our Seaturtles group in Tobago where she did data collection of nesting turtles on the island.

Launched in January, the Nurture Nature campaign takes a blended approach to raising awareness and tackling the issue of harmful wildlife trade in TT.

Some of the campaign’s current activities include research into TT’s wildlife trade, special tours of animal rehabilitation centres to highlight the harms of the wildlife trade, veterinary support for rescued wildlife and free webinars on the issue.

Due to the covid19 pandemic and restrictions on in-person gathering, the campaign is currently placing an emphasis on releasing promotional videos and photos on social media.

Where in-person learning activities cannot take place, this approach is being taken to ensure the campaign adapts to the challenges of the pandemic and fulfill its outreach goals.

The campaign consists of a coalition of several environmental organisations including the Animal Welfare Network, the El Socorro Centre for Wildlife Conservation and the TT Field Naturalists’ Club.

Each organisation involved in the campaign does work in different areas relating to the environment, wildlife, and animal welfare.

“One thing that’s cool about the campaign’s coalition is the diversity of groups.

“We have animal welfare groups, but we also have scientific groups like the TT Field Naturalists’ Club, wildlife rehabilitation groups and groups that are more interested in facilitating education.

“We have groups that are working on very specific missions but, they really have a lot of points of commonality as it relates to TT’s wildlife trade that can be approached through a coalition,” said Lauren Ali who serves as a campaign co-manager.

With a master's in zoology from the UWI, Ali also did an undergraduate degree in environmental science at the New College of Florida.

Though the campaign launched in January, its director Mark Gibson said research and planning for the campaign began in 2019.

A criminologist specialising in green criminology, Gibson does research work which explores the many types of harm, both legal and illegal, associated with human use of the environment.

Initial research for the campaign, which included a nationwide survey of over 2000 households to get an idea of the wildlife pets being kept by people, was funded by the Caribbean Program of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The results of the survey will be released soon.

The campaign is now being funded by donors and in-kind donations by supporters who are members of the organisations associated with the campaign.

As it relates to the campaign having financial support from the government, Gibson said, “We believe we are able to have the most impact working as a civil society coalition.

“At this point, it’s fair to say that governance is not what most people would like to see, so we believe we act best when independent, but we are strongly supportive of government agencies.”

Thus far, Gibson said the campaign has been well received by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA), the Forestry Division and the Tobago House of Assembly’s Department of Natural Resources and Forestry.

He explained that while the campaign’s goal is to raise awareness about the harmful wildlife trade, there is no one particular traded animal species being focused on.

Instead, over 70 species of animals, which are currently at risk due to the harmful wildlife trade is, being highlighted.

“We’re not really focusing on (the illegal trade) of a particular type of animal.

“We are definitely creating content for species that are commonly traded, but our concern is really the overall trade and it’s far-reaching impacts,” added Ali.

Vaughan added, “What I found really interesting doing trade data collection is the trade of the bullfinch (bird) and just the scope of it. We’re quite accustomed to seeing people walking around with these little birds in these little cages and that’s quite normal but they’ve become nearly extinct in the wild in TT.”

With the campaign focusing on creating a grassroots movement to stop TT’s harmful wildlife trade, its organisers are also calling on those in authority to strengthen TT’s legalisation and law enforcement mechanisms to deal with the issue.

“There are things that an NGO coalition can’t do alone. Our core stuff is raising awareness to create behaviour change among individuals such as trying to get them to stop buying wildlife for pets.

“But the bigger stuff we’re focusing on is law enforcement. We are trying to develop some new partnerships in law enforcement. We’re also focusing on legal reform as there is a lot of room for legal reform.” said Gibson.

Apart from improving TT’s law enforcement mechanisms, Gibson said a vast majority of people trading wildlife in TT doesn’t have proper paperwork.

He describes TT permitting system as disastrous.

Even when permits are issued for people to engage in the trade of wildlife, Gibson said in his opinion the vetting system is not as rigorous as it should be.

For example, he said people applying for permits to trade wildlife must have their houses properly evaluated to ascertain whether they have the ability to care for the animals they are either trading or buying to keep as pets.

With some people even openly engaging in illegal wildlife trading online, Gibson said he hopes the relevant authorities can put a stop to the practice and ensure people are well aware for the fines in place for such practices.

If there continues to be easy accessibility to getting wildlife, such as online, Gibson said it emboldens people to buy and trade pets illegally.

“You can just go on Facebook and see all types of illegal animals sales. People are selling everything from macaws to anteaters to armadillos. It’s not supposed to be happening and it’s very clearly in the public view,” added Ali.

Even if people may not be involved in the harmful wildlife trade and think it doesn’t concern them, Gibson said people need to understand diseases like covid19 can be transmitted by wildlife being traded and mishandled.

As such, the harmful trade of wildlife can also be a public health threat as it can lead to the spread of diseases.

When it comes to TT’s harmful wildlife trade, Gibson said the scope is much wider and people need to pay attention as illegally traded animals doesn’t only come from South America.

“There is definitely wildlife being brought in illegally from places beyond South America.

“I interviewed a trafficker recently and asked what is the most exotic animal you can get me? He was confused by the question and asked what do I want?

“He said if you want a lemur from Madagascar, I will try to get you that. He said there are ways he could get it in (the country) if he wanted to,” said Gibson.

From his research, Gibson said animals as exotic as tigers have been bought into TT.

With the campaign being received positively and gaining traction on social media, Gibson said his hope is for the campaign to go on for at least another two-years once adequate financial support is maintain.

He is calling on people interested in contributing to give whatever they can to the campaign to help sustain its efforts.

Once covid19 public regulations permit, it is the campaign team’s hope that they can do more in-person education tours at animal rehabilitation centres and explore more public activities.

“We have some really unique biodiversity in TT and many people don’t appreciate it because we don’t know that much about it.

“I really think that research is the way forward. The more we know the more we can teach people about the really valuable wildlife that we have in TT,” said Ali as she asked people to support the campaign.

People interested in learning more about the Nurture Nature campaign or donating to its efforts can reach out to the campaign’s organisers on Facebook at Nurture Nature campaign, Instagram @nurturenaturett or by visiting the campaign’s website: www.nurturenaturett.org