Conserving Musk Deer the Uses of Musk and Europe's Role in its Trade (pdf, 360 kb)
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Population in the Soviet Union and Russia
- (in thousands) 1989-93 (kg) (in thousands) in 1996 (in thousands)
- Total 160-170 240 90-100 53-60 12
- Legal protection of musk deer species
11 experts and were reportedly well-organised. About 4-6% of the estimated musk deer population, i.e. 5500- 6000 animals, including some 35-40% males was harvested each year (Prikhod‘ko, 1997). Up until the early 1980s, musk deer were chiefly a target for amateur hunters in the Soviet Union. In Russia today, hunting and poaching are the prime causes for the reduction of musk deer (Prikhod‘ko 1997). The animals are mainly hunted during the winter, from October to March. Poachers use guns and dogs and increasingly snares, which are set at a density of 100-600/km 2 . Legal hunting for musk deer is regulated through licences, as it was in the Soviet Union (Anon., 1993), but in a less centralised system. In principal, local district hunting authorities report animal population figures every year, after the winter counts. Via the provincial governments, the information is then transferred to the State Service for Calcu- lating Hunting Licences, based at the Russian Ministry of Agriculture and Food in Moscow. A scientific commission establishes the number of hunting licences (number of animals to be shot) allowed for each of the provinces and districts for the next hunting season and a licence per deer may then be sold by the district hunting authorities to hunters (A. Vaisman, pers. comm., June 1998). In practice, the dissolution of the Soviet Union led to a rapid increase in poaching of musk deer in the late 1980s and 1990s in Russia and to lax enforcement of trade controls (Prikhod‘ko 1997; Prikhod‘ko and Ovsyanikov 1998; and TRAFFIC International, 1994). Demand for musk at the end of the 1980s in Russia was high (see Population in the Soviet Union and Russia). According to Prikhod‘ko (1997), specifically the transfer of power from Moscow to regional authorities, the lack of monitoring of hunting, and the official decision to allow the capture of animals with snares all contributed to conditions fostering intense hunting of musk deer in Russia. It is believed that, even in remote areas, 25-30% of the overall population may be removed by hunting (including poaching), at a rate exceeding that of reproduction in the population. Major population declines in the Altai region between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s were linked to intensive hunting (see Population in the Soviet Union and Russia). In the early 1990s, the most intensive commercial hunting and poaching took place around the Baikal-Amur railway, in the Amur region and around Khabarovsk, resulting in heavily depleted populations (see Table 1).
As Table 1 shows, Prikhod‘ko (1997) reported, (according to official data), that about 240 kg of musk were traded in the Soviet Union/Russia from 1989 to 1993. He further estimated that from 1989 to 1996,
Altai
42-45 122
35 16-18
Sayan, Krasnoyarsk 38-40
30 20 14-16 Irkutsk Region, Zabaikal 48-50
54.3 25 17-18 Amur Region, Khabarovsk, Primorskiy 24-28
33.5 20 4-5 Yakutia, Magadan Region 5-7
unknown 2 2-3 Island of Sakhalin 0.3-0.4
0.3 Total 160-170 240 90-100 53-60 12 the overall quantity of musk traded legally and illegally in the Soviet Union/Russia amounted to about 350-380 kg. This latter quantity was estimated to represent the capture of 23 000-26 000 male animals, or a total of 90 000-104 000 musk deer. The banning of all hunting of musk deer for five years in the Altai Mountains (1992-96) and in the Krasnoyarsk region is reported to have led to a partial decrease in poaching and to have shifted the hunting and trading of musk to the Transbaikal region and the Russian Far East (Prikhod‘ko, 1997). Fomenko (in litt. to TRAFFIC Europe-Germany, 1997) reported that, in the 1995/1996 hunting season, about 70 kg of musk from approximately 3500 male musk deer were available for sale in the regions of Khabarovsk, Primorye, Amur and the Jewish Autonomous Region. TRAFFIC Europe-Germany has no information about levels of legal and illegal hunting of musk deer in Kyrgyzstan and other countries of the former Soviet Union.
There are protected areas in many countries within the range of musk deer. It is unclear to what extent these protected areas contribute to preserving musk deer but, in Nepal, musk deer populations in protected areas are steadily increasing while the species decreases elsewhere in the country (Wemmer, 1998). In India, musk deer occur in 23 protected areas, but these cover only 5% of musk deer habitat in India (Sathyakumar, 1992). The following information on the legal protection afforded musk deer in their range States is mainly summarised from Wemmer (1998) and Green (1998): Û Afghanistan: Musk deer are not legally protected. Û Bhutan: Musk deer are totally protected by Royal Decree. Poachers may legally be shot on sight.
Û China: Musk deer are protected under the Wild Animal Protection Law 1988 as a Category II key species. Such Category II species may be taken in the wild only under permit granted by the provincial authority. In 1988, the Quinghai Provincial Government promulgated a special emergency notice under its regional wildlife protection laws to draw attention to the threat posed to musk deer species and to strengthen protection of the species. However, there are no indica- tions that the protection of musk deer in China is effective in aiding the species. Efforts to establish a network of protected areas to conserve the Giant Panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca have indirectly contributed to the protection of Forest Musk Deer, since both species occur in the same habitat.
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