Executive Summary
The research under investigation provides insight into the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) in dried seahorses at the global level between countries. The literature review and secondary data analysis suggest that the demand for seahorses is concentrated in the East Asian countries of mainland China, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. Furthermore, illegal markets from Africa are directing their exports toward East Asia through the transit country of Belgium. The major purpose of the demand for dried seahorses, which accounts for almost ninety per cent of total global demand, is to serve the purposes of traditional Chinese medicine. The CITES Trade Database provides reports from member states to the agreed 2012 convention, suggesting discrepancies in export and import figures, with the latter exceeding the former. Data analysis suggests that the African countries of Guinea, Senegal, and Togo are primary exporters of dried seahorses to the East Asian market despite legal barriers prohibiting the export of wildlife species. Policy recommendations include a focus on East Africa, capacity building, awareness among law enforcement agencies, and effective trade regulation and international collaboration as a way forward for research, policy, and practice in curtailing the global trade in dried seahorses.
Background
Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) in seahorses accounts for a significant portion of the illegal trade in wildlife animals and ranks highly. The primary reason for the demand for dried seahorses is to provide traditional Chinese medication that is believed to cure erectile dysfunction, infertility, and arthritis, accounting for ninety-five per cent of the total demand for seahorses. The analysis in this paper takes into consideration the causes, demand, and sources of supply for seahorse trade at the international level, followed by an assessment of trade from Africa to Asia. The major purpose of seahorse imports in East Asia is to utilize the powder of the species for traditional Chinese medicine. Trade from Africa is growing, and official reporting of export statistics either does not exist or is heavily understated. It is evident that African countries are expanding their operations to export dried seahorses through the main transit hub of Belgium, which directs exports toward their destinations in East Asian markets. The paper attempts to understand the trade dynamics of dried seahorses from Africa to Asia among the signatory countries reporting to the CITES Trade Database.
Decline In Seahorse Population
According to the classification of seahorses, there are forty-six species in the genus ‘Hippocampus,’ which are small marine fishes. They reside in temperate saltwater and tropical regions around the world, that is, between 45 degrees south and 45 degrees north. Most commonly, coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, and estuaries are areas where seahorses find shelter. Seahorses form part of the family ‘Syngnathidae,’ which includes sea dragons, pipe horses, and pipefish. The family as a whole is vulnerable to exploitation and habitat loss, with the global seahorse population sharply declining over the last few decades. A few of the causes of rapid decline are related to biology, life history, and ecology (Foster and Vincent, 2004). The estimates for seahorses in the IWT data from the Pacific and Southeast region also suggest that the grouped species (seahorses) stood at 15.95 million individuals for the years 1998-2007, which were exported toward the countries of China, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan, and Poland for use in traditional Chinese medicine.
Data Methodology
The adopted method of data analysis is a qualitative and quantitative assessment of illegal trade dynamics in seahorses. Most of the quantitative and qualitative data are available in published literature, which is cited to provide an assessment of illegal seahorse trade dynamics. The secondary data on quantitative aspects of the import and export of illegal seahorse trade in the present study are from the “CITES Trade Database” for the trade of seahorses from Africa to Asia over ten years (2008-18). In 2002, all seahorse species were listed as ‘Hippocampus spp.’ within the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). All signatory members are bound to submit their respective seahorse trade figures for imports and exports; however, official records are often under-represented and fail to accurately explain actual trade volumes.
However, the centralized nature of the CITES database provides empirical evidence related to trade dynamics between the signatory countries to the convention and consequently assists in understanding global trade patterns. The CITES data set is the best available through the formal reporting process of parties to the convention, and it assists researchers in evaluating the trade dynamics from Africa to Asia in dried seahorses. The value of dried seahorses is measured in kilograms and labelled as ‘bodies’ and ‘skeletons’ to distinguish desired sub-demands from consumers. Thirty per cent of the records, from a total of 314 records on “importer reported quantities” and “exporter reported quantities,” are assumed to represent individuals due to a lack of provided units in the records; furthermore, the figures are then translated into kilograms for proper assessment of the volume and flow of quantities. To avoid recounting, the paper involves an assessment of dried seahorse trade originating from the country of export as part of direct trade assessment.
Analysis Of Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) Of “Seahorse”
The existing literature on the illegal wildlife trade in seahorses suggests that there are three main anthropogenic factors, which include “targeted exploitation, accidental capture in non-selective fishing gear (retained by-catch) and habitat degradation” (Louw, S. and Bűrgener, 2020; Otero-Ferrer et al., 2017). In the process of direct exploitation, seahorses are targeted to supply dried seahorses for trade purposes, that is, import and export. Direct exploitation takes place when local fishermen utilize methods of large industrial-scale fishing, such as trawl gear, which has damaging consequences for seahorses’ coastal habitats around the world and results in the global decline of the seahorse population (Pollom, 2017a). The global decline of the seahorse population is also caused by extraction through bycatch in large numbers, which is unsustainable at the cost of tens of millions of seahorses on an annual basis. The removal of a vast portion of the seahorse population on a yearly basis significantly hampers the ability of seahorses to recover from decline; moreover, the situation worsens with each passing year.
Demand: Trends, Patterns, And Characteristics
Louw and Bűrgener (2020; p. 1) analyze the dynamics of seahorse trade and rank Indonesia, mainland China, Senegal, Malaysia, and Hong Kong as the top five countries that account for ninety-nine per cent of global reported exports of dried seahorses. The estimated number of individual seahorse exports over the last ten years stands at 11,250,098, with estimated total global imports of seahorses at 15,772,838 (Louw and Bűrgener, 2020). Furthermore, the findings state that seventy-one per cent of the reported global exports of seahorses come from Indonesia, followed by Senegal, Hong Kong, mainland China, and Malaysia with 10, 1, 15, and 2 per cent, respectively. In a similar way, illegally exported seahorses in the Southeast Asian region had Indonesia as their origin between 1999 and 2009. Indonesia, along with Malaysia, is a major coral source in Southeast Asia. For example, approximately one to two million individual dried seahorses were confiscated in Poland (Mallari, 2014).
Overall, Nijman (2010) argued that harvesting and trading wildlife had reached a staggering level and that during the years 1998 and 2007, an estimated 34 million animals were traded globally. Uhm (2012) also argues that the wildlife trade continued to grow after the publication of Nijman (2010), and World Bank (2014) estimates suggest that crimes related to natural resources and the environment constitute an industry worth approximately 213 billion U.S. dollars with booming prospects. In a similar way, IWT figures for countries such as Colombia, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Norway are around six to twenty billion U.S. dollars on an annual basis. Trade in seahorses is among the highest in wildlife categories, while the number of individuals reported is approximately 15.95 million, subsequently followed by the trade in reptiles at around 17.43 million U.S. dollars (Nijman, 2010). In terms of consumers, China and Hong Kong rank high in Southeast Asia, and the United States of America (USA) and the European Union (EU) follow afterward. Mallari (2014) argues that illegal wildlife products from common source countries, such as Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Viet Nam, toward importing countries such as Japan and China also establish the link showing that Southeast Asian countries are heavily involved in IWT.
Destinations, Consumptions, And Methods Of Sales
The international trade in seahorses involves dried seahorses for the purpose of “Traditional Chinese Medication” (TCM), while live seahorses for curiosities and ornamental display account for the remaining five percent of global demand in the illegal dried-seahorse trade. The target for the seahorse trade involves smooth, pale, and large seahorses that are believed to have a higher value for medication purposes (Louw and Bűrgener, 2020). Processing dried seahorse specimens into powder through grinding allows their use as medication, either as a sole ingredient or sometimes in combination with other products for treatment. The immediate discrepancies identified in the data are the overstatement of imports and the understatement of exports. Estimated global figures for dried seahorse exports are slightly more than 11.25 million individuals, while the total imported dried seahorse figures listed in Figure A are approximately 15.77 million individuals. Table A also explains the total globally exported dried seahorses, which account for ninety-nine per cent of total exports to five countries, that is, Thailand (71%), mainland China (15%), Hong Kong (1%), Malaysia (2%), and Senegal (10%).
On the other hand, global imports of dried seahorses are split among the top three countries in such a way that a large share of eighty-eight per cent is imported to Hong Kong, followed by mainland China, which accounts for eleven per cent, while Singapore accounts for only one per cent. This phenomenon explains the exporting of dried seahorses from Africa to Asia, which accounts for ninety-seven per cent of total exported dried seahorses. However, there is a lack of available records on live seahorses that would assist in analyzing the use of dried seahorses from African countries in exports for commercial purposes.
The reporting data of the CITES Trade Database suggest that Togo, Guinea, and Senegal were major dried-seahorse-exporting countries in Africa within the time frame of 2008-10. Apart from major discrepancies that affect reporting of the data, Senegal ranks highest in exporting dried seahorse individuals, with a staggering percentage of ninety-eight per cent. The growth pattern for Senegal’s exports suggests that the approximate figure for year-end 2016 was three tonnes. Surprisingly, the import figures for countries in the database suggest no exports during the years 2017 and 2018. Approximately eleven years between 2008 and 2018 report only one export figure for the first year; however, import figures in the records of several East Asian countries mention higher quantities of dried seahorses from Guinea. In the case of Togo, reported figures suggest a smaller quantity of exports only in 2011 to Hong Kong, although statistics of Hong Kong reporting imports of dried seahorses from Togo do not exist.
The vulnerable population of West African seahorses is subject to sourcing for the export of wild seahorses in dried form. Moreover, the only country in Southeast Asia that reports the import of dried seahorses from Africa is Hong Kong, but African countries only report exports to Taiwan, mainland China, and Hong Kong. A total of five countries and territories account for ninety-nine per cent of global exports in dried seahorses for the period between 2008 and 2018, as cited in the CITES Trade Database; that is, Malaysia with two per cent, Senegal with ten per cent, Hong Kong with two per cent, mainland China with fifteen per cent, and Thailand with seventy-one per cent.
The peak of Hong Kong’s imports of dried seahorses took place in 2009 with an estimated 10t, which was reduced over the next three years to an estimated 2t. The imposition of Thailand’s policy and law enforcement allowing a quota of 1.5k kg per annum as the maximum export limit might be reflected in the declining figures for Hong Kong’s imports. The resulting impact of the difference between quantity demanded and quantity supplied defines the rise in import prices for dried seahorses per kg, that is, USD 600/kg in 2013 from USD 250/kg in 2008.
Illegal Seahorse Trade From Africa To Asia
Media reports in online sources between the years 2010-2019 show that some African countries have seized seahorse shipments (TRAFFIC, 2018) (300). Illegal exports from African countries are destined to meet the demands of Southeast Asian countries. Madagascar accounts for the highest export of dried seahorses from Africa to Asia, with Belgium as its major transit location. West African countries such as Senegal, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra, and Congo rely on Belgium as a transit location for shipments to East Asian countries, including Indonesia as a top consumer. The seahorse seizure that took place in South Africa did not show any evidence of a possible trade route because the seizure took place on land, even before the shipment to another country for transit purposes. An interesting finding in the literature is that ninety-five per cent of total global dried seahorse exports come from countries with laws and customs prohibiting seahorse exports (Foster et al., 2019). For example, the Biodiversity Act of 2004 in South Africa protects certain species that have been listed as endangered species in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (Pollom, 2017b). Despite the legislation in place, Hong Kong is reported to have imported seahorses from South Africa, and Senegal remained the key exporter of dried seahorses to Asia despite legislation in 2016 that prohibited the import of H. algiricus from the country. The unstable levels of seahorse exports from the African countries of Senegal and Guinea are a result of the lack of regulations, which is reflected in the major data discrepancies reported within member filings in the CITES database.
The countries involved in the import of dried seahorses are primarily East Asian countries that rely heavily on seafood, and legal trade accounts for a significant portion of global trade. However, the hidden economy in which trade in dried seahorses is sourced from Africa, especially West and East Africa, is increasingly exporting products to destination markets in East Asia in growing numbers. However, there are two barriers to the process of exporting dried seahorses from Africa to East Asia. First, legal barriers to the export of seahorses to the world instigate illegal trade that benefits the source country in terms of financial inflow; however, states cannot openly commit to export reporting due to social and legal commitments to the prohibition of the seahorse trade at local, regional, and international levels.
Moreover, the resulting impact of global trade in dried and live seahorses is affecting wildlife species within the ocean, and a threatening rate of decline is probably going to disturb the marine ecosystem within a relatively short time frame. In recent years, consensus on platforms such as the 2012 Convention for Safeguarding Wildlife Species encouraged the process of accountability; however, under-reporting is an obstacle that creates further barriers to research and policy processes. Since 2012, there has been a constant decline in reporting due to the understatement of export figures from African regions, which calls for collective action in an incentivized manner. The functioning of international regulatory bodies, coupled with national law enforcement and government regulation, can be an effective model for reducing the threatening decline in seahorse populations. Last but not least, the growth in consumption and production of the dried and live seahorse trade owes a great deal to traditional Chinese medicine, which can be effectively addressed by civil society groups to avoid serious threats to endangered species.
Conclusion And Recommendations
The illegal seahorse trade adversely impacts the wild population of Hippocampus algiricus, which subsequently places it on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The reported statistics on the trade in dried seahorses not only explain the understatement of export figures, as import figures exceed them. Additionally, the reported data show a major decline since 2012, which may not be an authentic reflection of the state of international trade pertaining to dried seahorses. The policy recommendation for CITES member countries in 2012 was to consider suspending dried seahorse exports from Viet Nam, Guinea, Thailand, and Senegal, which account for most (98%) of the total global trade in dried seahorses. However, the actual effect of the suspension of dried seahorse trading resulted merely in the understatement of export figures in the records.
The analysis of Hong Kong’s imports in the research study illustrates high quantities of imports from countries in which suspension of the dried seahorse trade is taking place. The localized decline in trade volumes also owes to retained bycatch from incidental capture through trawling vessels, which adversely impacts habitats. The exploitation of seahorse individuals from source countries is due to the high demand for dried seahorses in Southeast Asian countries. The under-investigated nature of literature on seahorse trade in Africa over the last few decades should not overshadow the fact that countries in Africa continue to export dried seahorses to consumer markets in Asia despite legal barriers to export. Additionally, countries such as Guinea and Senegal in West Africa emerged as key players in exporting dried seahorses to countries in East and Southeast Asia (Louw and Bűrgener, 2020).
Focus On East Africa
The future focus of research and policy reform needs to be East Africa, investigating the trade in seahorses in East Africa. The legal trade list does not include any figures for dried seahorse trade in the region; however, known harvesting and confiscations of quantities for trade signify the presence of a hidden dried-seahorse economy. The region of Africa is underdeveloped, and the struggle to improve living standards directs the population toward actions that might endanger the survival of species such as seahorses, which is why increased attention to understanding the patterns underlying seahorse trade is instrumental in reducing the steady decline of the seahorse population in the world.
Trade Regulations
Trade regulations and standards require upgrades, and customs and government agencies are attempting to limit opportunities for illegal seahorse trading operations in South Africa, Senegal, and Guinea. Higher barriers to the entry of African countries into the international dried-seahorse export market mean limiting the opportunities available to illegal operations in African regions to expand their respective trade volumes. Trade regulations are at the core of saving the steadily declining seahorse population in marine life. Policymakers need to improve the policymaking process through the utilization of empirically sound policy-oriented research.
Training And Capacity Building
Knowledge through research is one thing, and practically implementing laws through law enforcement agencies is another. Training and capacity building of law enforcement officials, such as border police, fisheries officers, port officials, and compliance officers, are necessary to support CITES implementation of the agenda in the African countries of South Africa, Senegal, and Guinea. A UNODC report suggests that strengthening law enforcement with respect to crimes in the fishery industry of West Africa is officially an indicator for measuring the effectiveness of legislation, coupled with reducing the level of illegal trade, especially from African countries that have legal barriers to trade in seahorses.
Rising Awareness Among Law Enforcement
ECOWAS member states agreed in 2018 to develop a coordinated response for tackling trafficking in wildlife species in West Africa, which requires awareness among customs and law enforcement agencies within the region of Guinea and Senegal. The potential for trading in illegal seahorse products within Guinea and Senegal suggests that the products may be smuggled through land borders within the countries, either as part of legal or illegal trade and whether concealed or otherwise. In this regard, increased awareness among law enforcement officials, such as border police, fisheries compliance officers, and port officials, can be extremely useful in achieving the desired results.
International Collaboration
The avenue of international collaboration for mutual coexistence is at the core of debates at international organizations with representation from states that are either producing or consuming illegally traded dried seahorses. The process of incentivizing efforts to curtail the production and distribution of illegally traded seahorses in African countries can be extremely useful in mitigating future threats to aquatic life. International collaboration between the major suppliers and consumers of East Asia and West Africa can be extremely useful in balancing the reported figures for trade in seahorse individuals.
References
Foster, S.A. and Vincent, A.C., 2004. Life history and ecology of seahorses: implications for conservation and management. Journal of fish biology, 65(1), pp. 1-61.
Foster, S.J., Kuo, T.C., Wan, A.K.Y. and Vincent, A.C., (2019). Global seahorse trade defies export bans under CITES action and national legislation. Marine Policy, 103, pp. 33-41.
Louw, S. and Bűrgener, M. (2020). SEAHORSE TRADE DYNAMICS FROM AFRICA TO ASIA. [Online] TRAFFIC: The Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network. Available at: https://www.traffic.org/site/assets/files/13501/seahorses-africa-asia-final-1.pdf [Accessed 11 May 2021].
Otero-Ferrer, F., González, J.A., Freitas, M., Araújo, R., Azevedo, J.M., Holt, W.V., Tuya, F. and Haroun, R., (2017). When natural history collections reveal secrets on data deficient threatened species: Atlantic seahorses as a case study. Biodiversity and Conservation, 26(12), pp. 2791-2802.
Pollom, R. (2017a). Hippocampus Agaricus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 8235.
Pollom, R. (2017b). Hippocampus capensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 8235.
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