Since studying to seize birds as a teen, Muhammad Rafiq has amassed a small fortune in Pakistan trapping and trafficking falcons – together with some endangered species – for rich Gulf Arabs.
A single falcon can fetch as much as tens of hundreds of {dollars} on the black market, which allowed Rafiq to renovate his household house.
“Each season, sellers come from Karachi and go away their contacts with us, and we name them again if we catch one thing,” stated the 32-year-old, from a close-by coastal village.
He just lately trapped a peregrine falcon throughout a one-week searching mission.
“I desperately wanted cash,” he informed AFP. “And God has listened to me.”
For years, Pakistan has stood on the nexus of the falcon commerce, each as a supply of the birds of prey, after which as a vacation spot to hunt with them.
Falcon poaching is formally banned, however demand for the birds is rising, in response to the World Wildlife Fund in Pakistan.
It estimates that as much as 700 falcons have been illegally smuggled overseas final yr alone, typically by organised legal networks.
Their vacation spot is generally Gulf nations, the place falconry is a treasured custom.
Homeowners deal with the birds “like their very own youngsters”, stated Margit Muller, the director of Abu Dhabi’s falcon hospital, which treats 11,000 falcons yearly, a quantity that has greater than doubled up to now 10 years.
One conservationist informed AFP an Arab falconer normally owns round 5 to 6 hundred birds, most of which might be captured within the wild in Pakistan or Mongolia.
Wild birds are prized over these bred in captivity as a result of they’re believed to be higher hunters, although there is no such thing as a proof to help these claims.
‘Pimps for the Gulf’
Each winter, lavish searching events from the Gulf flock to Pakistan’s sprawling deserts, the place they’re given permits to make use of their falcons to hunt houbara bustards, a migratory chicken wrongly prized as an aphrodisiac and categorized as weak by conservationists.
These excursions have forged a highlight on the deep ties between Pakistan and its allies within the Gulf.
For many years, the Gulf states have propped up Islamabad’s ramshackle funds with beneficiant loans, with one of many expectations being that they will proceed to make use of Pakistan as a searching playground.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and two different royals have been granted permission to catch bustards by Prime Minister Imran Khan’s authorities in December final yr, a comfortable diplomacy tactic that Khan had overtly disagreed with when he was within the opposition.
The federal government additionally presents falcons as items to world leaders.
“Our officers are working like pimps for the Arabs,” a authorities official requesting anonymity informed AFP.
A quick ban on the bustard hunts was overturned in 2016 by the Supreme Courtroom, however conservationists are actually pushing for the export of falcons to be regulated in an ongoing case on the Islamabad Excessive Courtroom.
Demand rising
Yearly, falcons escape the cruel Siberian winter and fly hundreds of miles to hotter areas, together with southern Pakistan.
Throughout the migratory season, wildlife traffickers descend on villages alongside the Arabian Sea shoreline, providing fishermen money to briefly abandon their boats and check out their hand at poaching.
“We pay them prematurely, ship meals to their households and in the event that they catch a chicken that’s valuable, we fortunately give them motorbikes,” stated one trafficker who spoke to AFP on the situation of anonymity.
A variety of techniques may be employed – sticky liquids, web traps or, mostly, utilizing smaller birds as bait.
Poachers particularly goal the peregrine falcon, whose populations stay steady – but in addition the saker, which is endangered.
Bob Dalton, a veteran falcon conservationist, helped oversee the rehabilitation of dozens of falcons seized by Pakistani authorities in October, with officers estimating the cache to be price properly over $1m.
“The unlawful commerce is rising, there’s more cash being spent, extra pursuit from the Gulf,” he informed AFP.
“Except one or two species, most falcon populations are in decline or on the purpose of being unstable.”
Regulating the market
With persevering with efforts to curtail rampant poaching failing, some officers in Pakistan have prompt regulating the falcon trapping market, impressed by a scheme involving one other uncommon native species, the markhor – an elusive mountain goat with putting twisted horns present in Pakistan’s mountainous north.
Yearly, foreigners shell out tens of hundreds of {dollars} for a handful of trophy searching permits, offering a monetary incentive for communities to stop poaching.
Naeem Ashraf Raja, the director of biodiversity on the ministry of local weather change, stated markhor numbers have rebounded on account of this controversial conservation methodology.
With searching events set to descend on Pakistan once more over the following few months, Kamran Khan Yousafzai, the president of Pakistan’s Falconry Affiliation, stated the nation desperately must implement a sustainable wildlife programme.
“Arab falconers can’t resist coming to Pakistan. They’ve been coming to those searching grounds for generations, and until they face any actual issues, they don’t seem to be going to seek for new locations.”