Nepal’s Indigenous communities pay the highest price for their part in the organized illegal wildlife trade

Estimated at USD 20 billion a year by the INTERPOL in 2023, illegal wildlife trade is the fourth most lucrative crime and trafficking industry, only after drugs, humans, and weapons. Most of the wildlife ends up in China and Southeast Asia to be used mainly in traditional medicine or as bushmeat.

Nepal is both the source and transit site for wildlife trafficking, and has long flourished as a route for the illegal trade. While authorities have been largely successful in protecting flagship charismatic mammals like tigers, rhinos, and leopards, the country still serves as a major transit point for less popular wildlife.

As such, Nepal has some of the strictest laws when it comes to wildlife crimes. For example, anyone found involved in killing, poaching, transporting, selling, or buying pangolin, which are in the country’s protected list, is punishable with a Rs 1 million fine and/or up to 15 years in jail. 

However, more often than not, members of Indigenous communities who are regularly recruited for the poaching of various endangered animals and plants end up getting arrested and prosecuted, while major players and ring leaders are rarely caught. Many of those who have been caught up in this trade are not hardened criminals, but just regular people hoping to make some additional money to get by.

Back in 2019, while speaking with Nepali Times, Bishnu Adhikari, 24, who was serving time in Kathmandu’s Central Jail, said as much:

Bikash Chhetri, 17, a Grade 11 student, was also accused of pangolin smuggling. He was travelling on a motorcycle with college friends when they were intercepted by the officers from Nepal’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), who uncovered pangolin scales in his friend’s bag.

“I knew smuggling pangolins was illegal, but I didn’t know he was carrying it,” Chhetri said in an interview with this author. “I would never imagine going through my friend’s belongings. I trusted him. I don’t know if I can afford bail, but I hope the state will look after me and consider my situation.”

Both Adhikari and Chettri were given five years in prison. And while both of them had some knowledge about pangolins and their status, most Indigenous and local people are often unaware of the protected status or importance of the wildlife they were recruited to smuggle, handle, or transport.

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“Most of the Indigenous people involved in wildlife trade in Nepal are not so much a criminal act as it is their means of livelihood or extra income, and most of the time it’s opportunistic killing,” says wildlife researcher Kumar Paudel of Greenhood Nepal in an interview with Global Voices. “And more often than not, they are exploited by higher-ups in the ladder of organised crime, they are often from poorer communities living near wildlife or in areas close to the border.” 

After interviewing more than 150 people convicted of wildlife crimes across Nepal, where he found most to be poor, illiterate, and belonging to marginalized groups, Paudel filed a petition at the Supreme Court in 2018 in response to private possession of wildlife parts and public flaunting by influential members of society. After five years, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Paudel and ordered the government to implement the law in a full, fair, and consistent manner. 

Indigenous people and wildlife

In the mid-hills of western Nepal live the Indigenous semi-nomadic Chepang community, who have a long tradition of eating small fruit bats. Dibesh Karmacharya of the Center of Molecular Dynamics Nepal in Kathmandu has been looking into new emerging and reemerging diseases for over a decade and a half, and this community in Makwanpur district, next to Chitwan National Park, was selected because of their high-risk behaviors.

“Bats are known to harbor a maximum number of viruses and bacteria, which are not harmful to them, but when humans get exposed to these microbes, they could mutate and potentially become pathogens, and some of them have very high transmissibility. That was precisely the case with many epidemics and pandemics we know of, such as Ebola, HIV, various flus, and even coronaviruses,” explains Karmacharya to Global Voices.

As Karmacharya’s team screened the community for various viruses and microbes, they also found a very high rate of incarceration for poaching among the local Chepang people. 

“Indigenous communities are often disenfranchised and at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, and need some kind of income. And because they are hunter-gatherers and have knowledge of the land as well as wildlife, they get recruited into poaching,” adds Karmcharya. “But more often than not, they are the ones who get caught and blamed for everything, exposing crucial limits in our judicial system.” 

Climate and pathogens

Increasing temperatures have meant that vectors that carry pathogens, as well as animals, are also moving. A classic example is that of mosquitoes reaching higher elevations in the mountains and causing Malaria outbreaks in regions previously untouched by it. 

Similarly, as the temperature rises, glaciers melt, and previously alpine, barren areas become lush with greenery. Because of this, many mammals, such as common leopards, which are found in the mid-hills, move up the mountain, and they might interact with snow leopards and share habitats.

From an epidemiological perspective, these encounters introduce a high risk of new emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. For instance, as the climate worsens, people look for new areas to farm. But in the process of land conversion, which includes clearing forests, humans might come in contact with various wildlife. A spillover event might take place wherein viruses from animals might jump to humans, which could possibly take a pathogenic role and cause diseases.

The same applies to poaching and wildlife trade. There are already reports about various animals, including tigers, moving up the mountains. “The end market for tiger parts, rhinos, most of them is for the use in Tibetan medicine, but along the value chain of organized crime, the risk to disease is highest to those killing, handling, and harvesting organs,” adds Karmacharya. “As it is, Indigenous communities have limited access to health care and nutrition, making them more susceptible to infections.”

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were speculations that the novel coronavirus had jumped from pangolins to humans, which has since been proven to be unwarranted.

Pangolins are the world’s most trafficked mammals. The scales of the anteater are thought to have medical properties and are used in traditional Chinese medicine in China, as well as eaten as a delicacy in parts of Asia.

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Tulshi Laxmi Suwal of the Small Mammals Conservation and Research Foundation (SMCRF), who did her PhD on pangolins from Taiwan, says there is a link between climate, increased human-wildlife contact, and new emerging diseases. 

“Climate change is directly affecting their food as well as their habitat. Pangolins need a lot of water to clean themselves, and if they don’t get to do that, ectoparasites under their scales might be easily released in their surroundings. Similarly, if they don’t have enough water to drink, they might release it in their excretion, too,” explains Suwal.

The way forward

 Researcher Kumar Paudel says law enforcement must be reformed so that they must be driven not by the total number of arrestees but by the goal of discouraging people from participating in the trade. This means fair and accountable implementation of the law, such that Indigenous and poor people are not disproportionately impacted, especially as ring leaders of these organised crimes can often afford political protection. 

“Investigation into the upper echelon of the trade must be carried out, the people who are not as easily replaced as the ones in the lower tiers,” says Paudel. “And while the poor and Indigenous community are involved in wildlife crime, they aren’t here primarily to afford food or basic essentials but an opportunity for extra income. This means livelihood options aren’t enough, there needs to be behaviour change and conservation awareness, and that takes time.”

Lack of education and awareness about endangered species and better alternative livelihood opportunities have been identified as some of the factors behind the involvement of Indigenous communities in illegal wildlife trade. As such, there are many repeat offenders, as many individuals go back to the same trade after being released from jail. 

The solution may lie in small, local incentives that can help communities realize the importance of conservation while also empowering them, socially and economically. One such example is the Pangolin Trail in Bagh Bhairav Community Forest in Kirtipur in Kathmandu.

After their study found the community forest to be a site for pangolins as well as protected birds, SMCRF built a trekking trail in the area in 2019, which was handed over to the local community to care for, also managing the income generated from the tourists and students who come for ecotours. The local government has expanded the trail, added an information center, and runs clean-up campaigns.

This gave local Indigenous people belonging to the Tamang community of 100 households a sense of ownership and agency. One of the local women Sun Laxmi Pakhrin (Tamang) is the first citizen scientist in the area. While not formally educated, she now works in pangolin protection using various data and GPS tracking systems, and is now learning to use camera traps with technical support provided by SMCRF.

Even the community formerly infamous for theft, drug traffickin,g and poaching is now reformed. Families are also involved in small businesses such as poultry. 

Suwal says: “Indigenous communities, women are now in decision-making roles and are now guardians of nature and wildlife. But given the utter injustice these communities face just for the very fact that they protect animals that are being used in traditional medicine in China and elsewhere, China could support these local communities with education and alternative livelihood.”

(SY)

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