ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE IN MALAYSIA

ILLEGAL ANIMAL TRADE IN MALAYSIA

So many endangered wild animals have been smuggled into Malaysia, and then exported out with false documents, that wildlife officials call Malaysia one of the "black holes" of "animal laundering." Activists have warned that the illegal trade of endangered animals is flourishing in Malaysia because demand worldwide for exotic pets and of demand from restaurants in Asian nations where exotic meat dishes are prized. In July 2010, Parliament passed a new law to punish poachers and smugglers more severely.

Wildlife conservation groups have long warned that Malaysia has become an important transit point for smuggling endangered animals and animal products between Africa and Asia. Weak enforcement, busy shipping routes, and the profitability of wildlife trafficking have encouraged criminal syndicates to use the country’s ports and airports for illegal operations. In May 2017, Malaysian authorities intercepted more than US$2 million worth of pangolin scales at Kuala Lumpur airport, one of the country’s largest wildlife seizures. Pangolins are considered the world’s most heavily trafficked mammals because of demand for their scales and meat. [Source: Reuters, May 15, 2017]

In April 2009, Associated Press reported: “A wildlife official says Malaysian authorities have rescued more than 800 turtles and 160 protected snakes from being smuggled on a truck under a load of garlic to mask their smell. Masnim Abdullah, from the wildlife department in northern Perlis state, says customs officers near the Thai border on Saturday confiscated 160 king cobras and 814 turtles, including protected Malayan box turtles. Masnim says the reptiles were hidden in bags under 2.3 tons of garlic. They have been released back into the jungle. He says the Thai driver has been taken into custody and could face charges that carry a maximum three-year prison term. [Source: AP, April 26, 2009]

Lizards Saved from Cooking Pots While Bag of Snakes Burst in the Airport

Asean Post

In January 2009, Associated Press reported: “Malaysian wildlife authorities rescued 2,300 endangered lizards headed for restaurants that offer exotic meat, an official said. The clouded monitor lizards were found in cages at a storage facility holding live and dead animals that were destined for cooking pots in Malaysia and abroad, said an official with the state wildlife department. The lizards, which are about 5 feet long, will be released into the wild soon, the official said. Officials also found 319 owl carcasses and 22 paws of the protected Malayan sun bear, he said. The meat, which was worth about $140,000, was believed to be on its way to China, the official said. Three men were arrested at the location and will likely be charged with confining wild animals, which carries a maximum prison term of three years. [Source: AP, January 13, 2009]

In September 2010, Associated Press reported: “A Malaysian man pleaded guilty to wildlife smuggling after his bag bursting with 95 live boa constrictors broke open on a luggage conveyer belt at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, an official said Friday. Keng Liang "Anson" Wong, 52, who was previously convicted of wildlife trafficking in the United States, was charged Wednesday in a district court with exporting the endangered boas without a permit, said Shamsuddin Osman, an official with Malaysia's wildlife department. The offense that carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison and a fine, Shamsuddin said. [Source: AP, September 3, 2010]

Wong was arrested Aug. 26 after airport authorities found the boa constrictors, together with a few other snake s and a turtle, when his bag broke open on a luggage conveyor belt. Wong was transiting from Malaysia's northern Penang state to Indonesia's capital Jakarta.A decade ago, Wong was sentenced to almost six years in prison in the U.S. for running an animal-smuggling ring that prosecutors said imported and sold more than 300 protected reptiles native to Asia and Africa from 1996 until Wong's arrest in Mexico in 1998. It is unclear whether he served the full term.

Malaysia Seizes 330 Smuggled Endangered Tortoises

In May 2017, Malaysian customs officials seized 330 endangered ploughshare and Indian star tortoises that had been smuggled into the country through Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The reptiles arrived on a flight from Madagascar and were falsely declared on shipping documents as “stones,” according to customs authorities. Officials later discovered that the address listed for the shipment did not exist, raising suspicions that Malaysia was being used as a transit hub for the illegal wildlife trade. The tortoises were estimated to be worth about 1.2 million ringgit, or roughly US$277,000. [Source: Reuters, May 15, 2017]

Among the animals confiscated were ploughshare tortoises, a species found only in Madagascar and regarded as one of the world’s rarest tortoises. The species is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with illegal poaching and trafficking posing major threats to its survival. Indian star tortoises are also heavily trafficked because of strong demand in the exotic pet trade across Asia and the Middle East.

Malaysian Box Turtle in Peril

In January 2009, AP and SAPA reported: “The box turtle is disappearing across Malaysia because of increased illegal hunting for its meat and use in traditional Chinese medicine, wildlife activists said. TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring network, said in a new report that the Malayan Box Turtle "is in peril due to overexploitation" despite a Malaysian government ban on its export since 2005. Since the ban, export of turtles for the pet trade in Japan, Europe and the United States ceased, but TRAFFIC found widespread evidence of continuing illegal export, mainly to Hong Kong, China and to a lesser extent Singapore. [Source: AP, SAPA, January 7 2009]

Exotic meats from wildlife are much sought after by the Chinese, who also use body parts of animals for traditional medicines including aphrodisiacs. There is no commercial breeding of the animal in Malaysia or elsewhere because it is expensive and time-consuming. "To meet demand, animals are being taken from the wild at an unsustainable rate, which has to be addressed or they will disappear from the Malaysian countryside," said Sabine Schoppe, the author of the report.

The report said a survey of stock at two traders in Selangor state found 385 box turtles in a 38 day period. Multiplying by the number of known illegal suppliers of turtles gives a conservative estimate of almost 22,000 animals illegally exported per year from Malaysia, Schoppe said. "Simple maths leads you to the obvious conclusion: stop the over-exploitation of Malayan Box Turtles, before we lose them," she said.

She said the vast majority of the illegally exported Malayan Box Turtles - distinguished by three yellow stripes on the head and a dark olive carpace - are adults. This is especially dangerous because the species has a slow reproductive cycle and produces a limited number of eggs in its life span of 30 to 35 years. A typical adult is about 20cm long.

The Asian Box Turtle, which includes a range of box turtles including the Malayan variety, was listed as vulnerable to extinction by IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, in 2000. TRAFFIC, a joint program of IUCN and WWF, urged Malaysia to strictly implement the export ban for one generation to allow numbers to recover. It also called for better regional cooperation in controlling illegal wildlife trade, particularly at border crossings. Misliah Mohamed Basir, deputy director of Malaysia's wildlife department, said it was difficult to stamp out the illegal trade. Smugglers, if even convicted, often get away with a fine. "We try our best to curb this, but it's not an easy job," she said.

Ivory and Elephant Tusk Seizures in Malaysia

In December 2012, Malaysian authorities recovered more than 1,000 elephant tusks in the country’s largest ivory seizure. Ron Corben of the Voice of America wrote: “Malaysian customs officials at Port Kelang near Kuala Lumpur uncovered the elephant tusks inside shipping container compartments destined for China, after beginning their journey in the West African port of Togo. Freeland Foundation Against Wildlife Trafficking Director Steve Galster says the seizure is “extremely significant”, because smugglers look for alternative routes onto the international market, which is largely headed to China. [Source: Ron Corben. Voice of America, December 12, 2012]

“The fact that that was seized in Malaysia shows that traffickers are always changing things so they do not get caught. And, it demonstrates that Malaysia is also entering the game of wildlife law enforcement - they are a member of the Association of Southeast [Asian] Wildlife Enforcement [Network]," he said. "They have had some seizures before, so this demonstrates that traffickers are taking a chance about using Malaysia as a transit country too."

The Thai-led ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network has seen stepped up policing at ports and air terminals in a bid to curb wildlife trafficking. Galster says the ivory trade has proceeded under agreements allowing for limited sales of ivory. He says the seizure in Malaysia should be a “wake-up call” that such measures to limit the illegal trade are failing. “It just shows - I hate to say it - that we need a complete ban again so that law enforcement agencies can catch up with the problem and start putting organized crime gangs behind bars and educating consumers about where ivory is coming from," he said.

In September 2011, AFP reported: “Malaysian authorities have seized nearly 700 elephant tusks bound for China, an official said, the latest in a series of hauls indicating Malaysia had become a key ivory transit hub. Inspectors discovered the 695 African elephant tusks, worth three million ringgit ($1 million), in Klang, Malaysia's biggest port, customs official Zainul Abidin Taib told AFP on Tuesday. They were in two containers labeled "recycled plastic" that had arrived from Tanzania's largest city of Dar es Salaam, he said. [Source: AFP, September 5, 2011]

He added that as-yet unidentified criminal syndicates were behind a series of recent attempts to smuggle tusks through Malaysia and authorities were struggling to keep up with increasingly sophisticated traffickers. "It is our social responsibility to end this ivory trade. The world at large has branded Malaysia as a hub (for elephant tusks)," said Zainul, the national customs bureau's assistant director general for enforcement. Wildlife watchdog TRAFFIC has said the global illegal ivory trade has grown since 2004, largely due to expanding demand in increasingly prosperous China, where ivory is often ground up and used in traditional medicines.

Hong Kong authorities a month earlier seized nearly two tonnes of elephant ivory worth about $1.7 million in a shipment that had transited through Malaysia. Malaysian authorities also have seized more than 1,000 African elephant tusks in two separate shipments in the past two months, the New Straits Times newspaper reported on Saturday. TRAFFIC's Southeast Asia Regional Director William Schaedla in a statement the latest Malaysian ivory seizure was "both heartening and disappointing." "It's heartening because it shows that the country's authorities can and will take action on the problem," he said. "It's disappointing because it clearly validates what TRAFFIC has been saying for some time now — Malaysia is a major transshipping country for illegal ivory." "Illegal wildlife trade is fluid. Now that the ivory traffickers have been caught out using some of Malaysia’s ports, they are likely to move through others in an effort to keep their black market business alive," Schaedla said.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 5: East/Southeast Asia:” edited by Paul Hockings; 1993; New York Times; Washington Post; Los Angeles Times; Smithsonian magazine; Encyclopedia.com; National Geographic; Live Science; Malaysia Tourism websites; Malaysia government websites; UNESCO; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Natural History magazine; Times of London; Library of Congress; The Conversation; The New Yorker; Time; BBC; CNN; Reuters; Associated Press; AFP; Lonely Planet Guides; Google AI; Wikipedia; The Guardian and various websites; books and other publications.

Last updated May 2026