Wildlife Farming Possibilities And Challenges

Aamod Dahal

Wildlife farming is a debatable issue. Nepal has recently legalised and opened wildlife farming. The Nepali government has endorsed the 5th amendment to the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act and Rules to legalise it.  There are few benefits and many negative consequences of wildlife farming.

New Legal Provision

Section 15 A. of the National Parks and Wildlife Protection Act, 1973 has made a provision for the research, reproduction, and raring of wild animals. Any person or entity willing to do research, commercial farming or reproduction of wild animals has to take prior permission. 

Permission will only be granted if such work adds to the protection, promotion, and sustainable use of wild animals. Seed animals required for such purposes will be provided. Wild animals that have been commercially produced, their trophies and products manufactured from their trophies will be allowed for use, sale or export to a foreign nation. 

Rule 36B of the National Parks and Wildlife Protection Rule 1974  has made a provision that any person or entity willing to do commercial farming of wild animals has to apply along with the business plan and detailed plan to the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation. The technical committee conducts an examination and review of such plans and recommends to the department only if it meets all prescribed criteria and the department makes a final decision on whether or issue or not to issue a licence for it. 

The department can permit the licensee to import wild animals other than endangered ones from a foreign nation. Appendix 16 of the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Rule (fifth Amendment), 1974 has mentioned the list of animals and birds permitted for raring and reproduction. This list includes under mammals: musk deer, bison, swamp deer, chital, hug deer, muntjac,  hare, porcupine, and wild boar, under reptiles of all species except python, under amphibians;  frogs and turtles, and under birds;  peafowl, pheasant, luinche, partridge (titra), chukar, junglefowl, dove, mynah, parrot, piura, snow partridge and quail. The same Appendix has fixed the permission charge for wildlife raring and reproduction ranging from 1 lakh to 25 thousand and the price of seed species ranging from 75 for musk deer to just Rs 1 thousand for quail birds.

Benefits of Wildlife Farming

Government authorities have argued that wildlife farming can protect endangered species from poaching. They believe that, when wild animals are allowed to be farmed at that time, traders purchase trophies of wild animals from legal means and give up purchasing animal products from poachers. The government is planning to allow wildlife farming of Himalayan musk. 

In Nepal, poachers frequently kill adult male musk as it bears musk pod, which has high demand around the world to prepare high-quality perfumes. The government believes that allowing legal farming of Himalayan musk will reduce its poaching and help to increase its number in its natural habitat as well. 

According to a WHO report, in Nepal, annually, 20000 people are bitten by snakes and 1000 people die every year. Nepal is dependent upon India for anti-venom. Farming of snakes will help in the production of anti-venom and reduce dependency upon other states for its availability. 

On the other hand, the government believes that wildlife farming helps to create employment opportunities. More people will get involved in wildlife farming and generate income. 

Negative Consequences

Many ecologists stated that the ecological value of wild animals is loosed when they are domesticated. A vulture that doesn't eat the carcass has no ecological advantage. A deer that eat bread and butter doesn't help in pollinating plants and has no more advantage of the presence in nature.

Though supporters of wildlife farming claim that allowing lawful wildlife farming helps to control poaching and illegal trade. But still, in the countries where wildlife farming has been made legal, the illegal poaching of wild animals has not declined. Country where regulators are not strong and well mobilized in such a place the wildlife trader can create delusions. They may claim the illegally obtained wildlife trophies as a product of their production. 

Wildlife farming, which is done for obtaining animal products like meat is not sustainable. In our case, we are still unable to modernize cattle farming do mass production. We do not have a modern slaughterhouse for big cattle like buffalo and pigs. In Nepal price of Ostrich meat is just 1500 and it's difficult to find a market for expensive meat products. Wildlife requires lots of care, larger space and huge investment, and cannot be productive as it is difficult to find a market that pays the higher costs for their products. 

There are several legal challenges associated with wildlife farming. If wild animals kept within bars escape it and causes harm, then under such condition we don't have laws to make the owner responsible and liable for compensation. If the wild animals under captivity just destroy the property then the civil liability may be created to compensate the victim but if the wild animal causes bodily harm or takes away the life of any third person then we don't have clear laws that create liability on the part of the owner.

The government has opened up the policy of wildlife farming but has not issued any legal orders for guaranteeing the well-being of wild animals. There is a more chance of an increase in mishandling and cruelty against animals as their handling is also not easy. 

If the owner denunciated to own the licenced wild animal then who will take care of them, what will be the modality for their management? It is still unclear and we don't have mechanisms to handle such issues and situations.  In most cases, it is easy to domesticate animals but once they are domesticated, it is very difficult to return them to the jungle. 

These commercially raised and domesticated wild animals forget their skills and knowledge to survive in nature.  In 2003, the Nepal Natural History Society raised monkeys in captivity intending to export them to the U.S.-based National Primate Centre for testing. Later on, the government banned it and the monkeys raised were left in Shivapuri and Godavari Jungle but within a few weeks and months, many died after becoming unable to search and find food in the jungle. 

In nature, the wild animal gets healed from several diseases by natural process. Their natural diet also helps them to recover. But when animals are kept in captivity, they don't get such natural ways to heal and human intervention is required. 

When animals are kept within close boundaries, there is a high chance of communicable diseases getting transmitted to other healthy animals. In many cases, it's difficult to identify the disease and treatment method as they are new to us.  

At present 70 per cent of diseases that humans suffer are zoonotic diseases. It is a well-known fact that the SARs outbreak was connected with the farming of Civets. Covid 19 is also a zoonosis disease that is predicted to have been transmitted from pangolin or bats to human beings. In 2015, a case was reported that a female Rhino of Chitwan National Park died from Tuberculosis and different studies suggested that tuberculosis was first transmitted from humans to domestic elephants and domestic elephants to wild elephants and then to Rhinos. When we allow wildlife farming, it increases interaction between humans and wildlife which may result in the transmission of disease from humans to wild animals and wild animals to humans. This may in the future increase the number of new types of zoonosis disease in humans. 

Conclusion

There are many risks and few benefits from wildlife farming. So, wildlife farming should only be done for limited purposes and with severe attention. Where there is a medical necessity like producing anti-venom and other essential medicine, it may be very necessary to allow wildlife farming. But opening the wildlife farming for serving the purposes like producing a new variety of meet and obtaining trophies of wildlife for producing luxuries utilities should be reviewed well.   

While opening industries and extracting minerals environmental impact assessment is done but for wildlife farming, such examination has not been determined yet. 

The calculation of relative harm and benefit of both nature and humans is necessary before wildlife farming is widely opened. 

At present, there is a problem that we humans consider everything that is in nature as our assets.  We don't recognize the individualism of other wild animals. We think that we can do whatever we like. This approach may become problematic so while dealing with nature and wild animals we must be able to balance the environmental sustainability and humans' economic and other needs.

(Dahal is section officer at the Office of the Chief of Gandaki Province)