Every weekend, Bangkok's sprawling Chatuchak market is filled with young Thais buying the latest styles and sunburned tourists looking for souvenirs.
But shopping is not the priority for one group of local college students roaming among the stalls in the Chatuchak, or JJ, market.
Instead, they are looking for animals being traded illegally.
The 30 students are known as "JJ spies" -- additional eyes and ears to help combat the illegal wildlife trade in and around Bangkok's biggest market under a program launched by US-based animal rights group WildAid.
"They are aware of the issues and they want to make a difference," said William Schaedla, the deputy chief of party at WildAid, in Bangkok.
Kosess Somkid, a student at King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, said as a member of his school's environmental club he had jumped on the opportunity to take part in the JJ spy training class.
"I did not hesitate to apply because I wanted to be a part of helping to keep the wildlife in the wild as much as possible," he says.
While most of the wildlife for sale at Chatuchak market comprises legal animals -- there are also endangered animals like wild birds, rare reptiles and slow loris being sold and traded, WildAid said.
The illegal wildlife trade spills out into a smaller neighboring market and side streets, with dealers setting up temporary stalls and selling animals out of the back of their cars, Schaedla says.
Kosess says he has learned how to identify protected wildlife species and animals that are illegally traded in Thailand.
"We found so many shops selling protected bird species openly," he sayid. "I guess they are aware of acting against the law but they aren't afraid at all."
Under Thai wildlife laws, a smuggler could face up to four years in prison or a fine of about 40,000 baht (US$1,100).
But the illegal wildlife trade remains rampant even though police often raid Chatuchak.
"People see it as quick cash with low risk," said Petch Manopawitr, the deputy director at the Wildlife Conservation Society's Thailand chapter.
The illegal wildlife trade is the third most profitable source of global criminal earnings after drug trafficking and the arms trade, according to animal rights groups.
Thailand, with its highly developed infrastructure and location, has become a transportation center for the illicit animal trade in Southeast Asia, they say.
Last month, a group of 48 orangutans smuggled from Indonesia to Thailand was returned home, two years after they were discovered in a Bangkok zoo.
Animal products like the fur of Tibetan antelopes, tiger parts and scaly anteaters called pangolins are also being transported across Thai borders illegally bound for other countries, most often China, WildAid says.
So far this year, Thai authorities have confiscated wildlife being illegally transported 14 times, compared to only four seizures in last year.
The animals found this year include dozens of wild birds being illegally traded at Chatuchak market, WildAid says.
Police also seized some 15 star tortoises and 185 chameleons at Thai airports.
To combat wildlife trade in Southeast Asia, ASEAN last year set up the Wildlife Law Enforcement Network aimed at boosting cross-border cooperation and information flows.
Meanwhile, animal rights groups say programs like the JJ spy project represent good first steps to raise public awareness about the illegal animal trade and to build an informal network of people committed to stopping it.
Kosess said he had already shared what he learned at the JJ spy training course with other students.
"We all understand that everyone's cooperation, not only from related government agencies, but also from the public, will play the biggest part in solving this problem," Kosess said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
RSS