CITES Proposal Highlights Rarity of Asian Nocturnal Primates (Lorisidae: Nycticebus )

Abstract

In June 2007 the Asian slow lorises, genus Nycticebus, will be put forward by Cambodia at the 14th Conference of Parties to be transferred from Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to Appendix I. Appendix II allows trade, albeit regulated, whereas Appendix I will preclude all international commercial trade in the genus [CITES, 2007]. At present capture for trade is rampant and unregulated [Schulze and Groves, 2004]. The large volume of trade has led to the conclusion that Nycticebus species are not common enough to withstand the current level of off-take, being the number one protected species encountered during many in-country animal market surveys [Malone et al., 2002; Harris, 2003; Webber and Nekaris, 2004; Shepherd et al., 2005]. In order to qualify for listing in Appendix I of CITES, the CITES listing criteria require that the wild population is small, has a restricted area of distribution or has suffered a marked decline in the population size in the wild. Other than those from the trade, few data have been published from wild populations that can be presented to support the transfer from Appendix II to I. Until recently, slow lorises were considered a single highly polymorphic species, ranging from northern India to China and Vietnam, south to the Malay Peninsula, and into western Indonesia and the southern Philippines [Groves, 1971, 1998]. In Cambodia’s proposal [CITES, 2007], three species are listed, whereas recent and ongoing research shows that slow lorises in fact comprise a minimum of five cryptic species, differing in dentition, morphology, and genetic make-up [Roos, 2003; Brandon-Jones et al., 2004; Chen et al., 2006; Nekaris et al. , 2006]. At an IUCN Red List Primate Specialists Group Conservation Assessment and Management Plan (CAMP) in Cambodia in September 2006, these five species were individually assessed as Vulnerable or Endangered on the basis of continuing habitat loss alone. The threespecies approach can have a drastic impact on the conservation status of Nycticebus , underestimating threats in terms of habitat loss and the impacts of the trade. Before permitting exports of species listed in Appendix II of CITES, each national government within a species’ range is required to determine that trade is not detrimental to the species’ survival or to the ecosystem in which it occurs – in effect, to confirm that the species has been harvested at a sustainable level [Vonk and Published online: May 8, 2007

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