ProFauna's Enforcement Assistances on The Case of Javan Langur Poaching for Meatballs

ProFauna's enforcement training to the East Java Police Department held on 15 February 2010 has brought good results as expected by both the organization and officials of the Department. One of the training main objectives was to give more information to the Department about wildlife crimes and punishments. A month later after the training held, on 13 April 2010, the District Police of Situbondo region, under the East Java Police Department, succeeded to arrest a couple who earned money from hunting the protected Javan langurs (silver-leaf monkeys) and selling the meat as meatball ingredient.

During the seizure, the police found 30 kilograms meat -estimated to come from 20 - 25 individuals, two rifles, and a live langur. The couple admitted that they had known what they did was against the law and they hunted the monkeys for their meat because beef and chicken were more expensive than the protected monkeys'. Ironically, the couple poached the monkeys in the Baluran National Park areas and sometimes they just easily found some groups of the monkeys roaming around by the roads to searched leftovers which were recklessly thrown by passengers. ProFauna thinks that this is mainly caused by habitat loss and lack of patrol. ProFauna and the National Park have discussed the problem and are working on to solve it.

At this moment, with the enforcement assistance provided by ProFauna, the police are still developing the cases as more people, especially the meatball sellers, are involved. According to the 1990 Wildlife Act Number 5 concerning the Conservation of the Natural Resources and Ecosystems, offenders of the wildlife crimes are liable to a maximum of five-year prison term and a maximum of five-million Indonesian Rupiah fine.