The rare-breed trade

Pakistan has a distinctly patchy record when it comes to the protection of rare breeds of fauna. Birds such as the houbara bustard are hunted by prominent people resident in the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf states. They are allowed to hunt the rare birds, courtesy permits issued by the Pakistani government. The irony of this is that Pakistan is a signatory to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This is an intergovernmental agreement, which aims to ensure that international trade in wild animals — and plants — is not a threat to their survival. The houbara bustard is an endangered species, a fact which does not prevent the Pakistan government from profiting by its annual slaughter by visiting Arab dignitaries and ‘influentials’.

Trafficking in rare breeds is also good business. It is unlikely that the man caught attempting to smuggle five rare falcons at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi will ever have heard of the CITES agreement. In his luggage were five birds, all falcons and according to the arrested man, all had their origins in Balochistan. They were bound for Dubai where the erstwhile smuggler works as a driver. Three of the birds were rare Saker falcons. Rare breeds command high prices internationally, and the Arab Spring is widely and reliably reported to have produced an upswing in demand, with countries like Pakistan, where controls are lax, happy to supply. Be they hunted or smuggled, any animal or bird that has a rarity value and lives in Pakistan seems to be fair game. There are 42 species of birds identified as ‘endangered’ in Pakistan, as well as 24 mammals. Not all of them are trafficked or hunted, and those that are not are endangered by virtue of the destruction of their habitats, usually by human encroachment. Currently, the Indian Pangolin is one of our most at-risk species. Hunted for the keratinous scales that cover it and its body fat that is prized for its medicinal purposes in China, it is verging on extinction in Pakistan. Rare species have a global ownership, and we are clearly poor custodians.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2014.

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