Sri Lanka on Wednesday confirmed that a Chinese company linked to Zoological Gardens had requested to import 100,000 endangered monkeys from the country, despite protests from environmental groups.
The request was made to the Ministry of Agriculture, according to Gunadasa Samarasinghe, a top bureaucrat in the ministry.
"We will not send the whole 100,000 in one lot. But we considered the request due to crop damages caused by the monkeys in several parts of the country. They will not be taken from conserved areas. The focus will be only in the cultivation areas," Samarasinghe told reporters.
The deal has raised concerns about the welfare of the animals and the impact on their endangered status, as well as the ethics of their use in research or other purposes. It is also notable that Sri Lanka is facing economic challenges, which may have played a role in the decision to consider the deal.
Monkeys have been a source of conflict in Sri Lanka due to their tendency to destroy crops and invade villages in search of food, which can lead to human-wildlife conflict.
Sri Lanka bans almost all live animal exports but the proposed sale comes at a time when the country is facing its worst-ever economic crisis.
In the midst of the economic crisis, a preliminary report on crop damage caused by wild animals in Sri Lanka has indicated that toque macaques and giant squirrels are responsible for damaging coconut crops, while elephants, wild boars, and peafowl cause damage to paddy fields. The report has estimated that this crop damage caused a financial loss of approximately 30,215 million Sri Lankan rupees ($87.5 million) in the first half of 2022.
The toque macaque monkey, which is native to Sri Lanka, is classified as an endangered species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list. The toque macaque is known to destroy crops in several parts of Sri Lanka, and even sometimes attacks people.
Last week, on Wednesday (April 12), Sri Lanka's agriculture minister, Mahinda Amaraweera, stated that the Chinese company's request for 100,000 endangered monkeys was intended to supply over 1,000 zoos in China.
Amaraweera also revealed that a committee has been established to investigate the request and create a proposal for the possible sale. This committee may take into account the concerns raised by environmental groups and conservationists about the welfare of the monkeys and the potential negative impact on the species' population.
"They want these monkeys for their zoos," the minister was quoted as saying.
Authorities in Sri Lanka have pegged the monkey population in the country between two to three million.
The cash-strapped island nation has removed several species from its protected list this year, including all three of its monkey species as well as peacocks and wild boars, allowing farmers to kill them.
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Meanwhile, China’s embassy here said that it is unaware of Sri Lanka exporting "100 thousand" of "endangered" toque macaque monkeys to a Chinese private company for “experimental purposes”.
The mission’s statement said the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the regulator handling the import and export of wild animals and plants had not received any such requests to allow the monkey imports from Sri Lanka.
Citing China as one of the top countries in the world in terms of wildlife protection legislation and law enforcement, the embassy said that the country has already adopted its Wildlife Protection Law in 1988 with several amendments afterwards and is a contracting party of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
”The Chinese government always attaches great importance to wildlife protection and actively fulfills international obligations,” the embassy here said in a statement on Tuesday.
With inputs from agencies.
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