In the Long Farewell to Amazon Rainforest, Animal Protector’s ＂Fifty Steps and Hundred Steps＂

Xiaonan heard that this winter is very cold, but Xiaonan is still very lucky, not only active in warm areas, but also talking with animals all the time! Love! Love (Xiao Nan is by no means a single bird! ), hugging little lions in South Africa, hooking up with slow sloths in the Amazon rainforest, and going deep into the forests of Indonesia to find orangutans. ……

However, many things are not as simple as imagined, just as even the best couples still have misunderstandings and contradictions with each other. As a common good friend of animals and human beings, Xiaonan often faces the question of "stepping on two boats with one foot".

-For example, in the Amazon rainforest, Xiaonan found many things, which are much more complicated than expected. If you don’t believe me, you can see how Mr. Huang, who is with Xiao Nan, "struggles internally" in the following article.

Wen Miao Huang Hongxiang

On the Amazon | sherry

"This is not the real Amazon rainforest. Look around, there are low shrubs and tall trees have disappeared. "

With the roar of the motor of the small wooden boat and the agitation of the Amazon river, pointing to the "forest" on both sides of the strait that tourists are moved by, our orientation has made us sigh like this. He has been to the depths of the Amazon river basin, where the trees are towering, and the banks can see flying macaws and drinking leopards.

In our location, around Iquidos, the capital city of the Amazon rainforest region in Peru, such forests and animals no longer exist because of logging and human activities.

Trees along the Amazon River are no longer "towering" | Huang Hongxiang　

The indigenous people here have also lived a modern life. They will only take off their clothes when tourists arrive and perform the gesture of "primitive tribe". After work, they will put on T-shirts to watch TV and soak in bars.

Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest with the richest biodiversity in the world. It is called the lung of the earth. 60% of this rainforest is in Brazil and 13% in Peru. From Peru’s point of view, 60% of the country is Amazon rainforest.

On the Amazon | sherry

It is saying goodbye to us: the rainforest is disappearing rapidly because of various reasons such as timber industry, oil exploitation, road development and rubber planting; River water has been polluted more and more because of mining and chemical industry. A large number of wildlife smugglers grab wild animals from the forest and sell them to zoos and local tyrants all over the world.

Of course, on the way to say goodbye, the rainforest is not without some struggles, even if it is twisted and wriggling, not too elegant. And this may also be the epitome of the global animal protection and environmental protection.

Eco-tourism: disturbing animals or keeping them at gunpoint?

Trying to tear off Teman’s Goma map | Huang Hongxiang

Goma leaned the wooden boat against the shore, struggled to pull a rich vine three or four meters high among the trees, and finally pulled it off.

"See the sloth’s face?" Goma pointed to the sloth that was exposed because the cover was torn off and began to crawl higher slowly, and smiled at us innocently.

Silhouette of "Exposed" sloth | Huang Hongxiang

Goma is the local guide of a leading travel agency on an internationally renowned travel platform, and this company takes "responsible travel" as its publicity highlight.

During the three-day and two-night trip, he dutifully helped tourists to see as many animals as possible at close range and gain a deeper and three-dimensional jungle experience: he would feed bananas to wild monkeys with long wooden poles, so that they could come to the branches and leaves of the river bank from the high treetops;

Goma feeds bananas to monkeys in trees on the shore | sherry

He will grab the small caiman in the water with his bare hands during the night flight and take photos for tourists. He will also help tourists catch piranhas and bring them back to the camp to become the food of the guests.

Follow Goma to catch small crocodiles at night | Huang Hongxiang

Seeing the palm-sized piranha being strung on a stick and its mouth moving, I felt a little uncomfortable. I remembered the experience of another ecological trip in Ecuador six years ago: the guide caught piranha, took pictures of us and then threw it back into the water.

At that time, I wondered whether these fish could survive even if they were put back into the water, and whether this kind of eco-tourism that would bring harm to wild animals was "ecological" enough, or compared with the "pot calling the kettle black" that directly hunted animals.

At that time, I desperately wanted to maximize the interests of animals. Therefore, in my critical eyes, eco-tourism is not good enough. The most "ecological" way should be that humans should never set foot in this rainforest. Otherwise, even the floating gasoline on the river brought by ships, the huge roar of motors and the activities when tourists approach may be disturbing animals.

Compared with the trip in Ecuador, I saw a series of great disturbances to animals, and my doubts were even stronger this time.

Will the initial intention of eco-tourism be gradually forgotten in commercialization, or are we slipping from "fifty steps" to "one hundred steps" unconsciously?

I returned to Iquidos from the jungle with doubts and met the hospitable boss in a Chinese restaurant. He told us that the Chinese bought a lot of jaguar teeth here. It is illegal for Chinese to hunt jaguars, so they just tell the aborigines who have the right to hunt legally that they are willing to buy them, and the aborigines will hunt them.

In the past, the aborigines only killed jaguars when they were threatened, and the amount of hunting was very small, maybe one or two a year. Today, however, nearly 100 leopards in this area have become tiger teeth in the hands of Chinese to ward off evil spirits and tiger whips to strengthen yang every year. In a few years, the jaguar tooth has changed from a few sols (one sol is about two yuan) to a few hundred or even thousands of sols.

Piranha map provided by Amazon Rainforest Restaurant | sherry

"The number is getting smaller and smaller," local hunters will sigh. Then they stepped up hunting, because "staying there will be killed by others and the money will be earned by others."

"We used to kill a lot of monkeys, tigers and cats and other animals here. Today, because of tourism, we kill a lot less. After all, we can make money by showing tourists." Goma told us.

A photo taken in this Amazon eco-hotel.

In his village, because of the eco-hotel where he works, the income of villagers increases every year. In order to please tourists, the aborigines have to say that they are disturbing wild animals on a scale different from that of hundreds of years ago, but at least they are no longer hunting wild animals.

Breeding and export of wild animals

Turning animals into playthings or replacing illegal capture?

Brother Yu counted the capybara in the yard and proudly told us that he exported 80% of the legal capybara in China Zoo and Mengchong Paradise.

Interactive picture of capybara between Zhongnanwu students and Yuge’s family | Huang Hongxiang

Yuge, from Shanghai, is in his forties this year. He runs the top three local animal export companies in Iquidos, Peru. What he has done is to export all kinds of capybara, monkeys, macaws, reptiles and tropical fish from the Amazon rainforest to China Zoo and Mengchong Paradise. His family has a long-tailed tiger cat, a wild animal with beautiful fur in the Amazon rainforest.

Holding brother Yu’s long-tailed tiger cat

Zoos, cute pet parks and animal trade are sensitive topics for international animal protectors today. A few years ago, Zimbabwe sold a batch of baby elephants to China Zoo. Although it was legal, it still attracted many people’s criticism. It is criticized by many people to take the elephant away from his parents and send it to other distant villages for people to enjoy, but it is easy to die in the process.

"Boycott zoos, aquariums, contact with animals and taking photos with animals" is the political correctness of many environmentalists today.

But is it really that simple?

According to Yu Ge, their animal sources must be legal: they were seized from poachers, or they were rescued wild animals that could not be released. After getting these animals, they will breed and export their offspring. These animals have a strict numbering and recording system, and the legal export of an animal takes up to half a year.

The tortoise map that Yuge’s family will import to China in the future | Huang Hongxiang

Faced with the demand for animals from zoos and even private buyers all over the world, such a system is bound to be in short supply. Brother Yu knew an American who was in Iquidos and focused on raising snakes. He had an extremely rare jade tree, and after waiting for 20 years, he could not find another one to pair with, so it was hard to say when he could breed.

Even so, he refused to buy jadeite trees from illegal sources.

Therefore, in fact, there is a large amount of illegal animal trade today: smugglers directly buy wild animals from local people and smuggle them around the world. The price of such animals may be a fraction of that of legal animals, and the delivery cycle is very short, so it can be delivered quickly.

Wildlife trade is the third largest illegal trade in the world after drugs and guns.

Different from drugs, the punishment of animal trade is still very light in many countries today, and it can often be fined. Smugglers are the least afraid of fines-an animal can be bought for hundreds of dollars in its place of origin, and it can be sold for tens of thousands of dollars or more in China. It’s no big deal to smuggle ten times and get caught several times.

"Today, China is the largest market for wildlife in the world, and a large number of wildlife are smuggled in the China market." Brother Yu told us that in fact, legal animal traders are on the opposite side of illegal animal traders-although no animal protection organization has ever cooperated with him to fight.

Many animal protection organizations and their sponsors are afraid of being seen standing with controversial people, even if cooperation can better protect animals.

Turtle meat sold in the market near the Amazon rainforest | sherry

Today, many animal breeding, traders and breeding bases have become white washing places for poaching animals. Brother Yu said that he didn’t do those illegal things, but only bred wild animals legally and sent them to zoos and cute pet parks to get close to people and play.

Not to mention whether it is really legal will be questioned, even if it is legal, because of many problems such as animal trafficking, contact, photo taking, etc., the business itself is also condemned.

Saved a turtle from the market and prepared to release it to the rainforest | Huang Hongxiang

How high a threshold should we set for animal protection?

As an investigator of international wildlife products trade, and as an educator concerned about animal protection and nature education, many people have asked me many questions about zoos, animal trade, animal contact and animal protection.

I always say that these things are very complicated and difficult to sum up in one word, and it is best not to let your existing prejudices stop you from hearing different voices.

Many people always like to see people and things from a black-and-white perspective: those who buy and sell ivory are heinous criminals; It is inhuman to take tourists hunting; Close contact with wild animals is to turn animals into playthings.

Photo taken with a sloth of a family in Amazon rainforest | sherry

I don’t support these behaviors, but after seeing the complicated aspects of the world, I am worried about oversimplifying judgment.

The world is not black and white, and we need to remember more that what we see may not be all. We need to listen more to what we don’t hear and understand people and things we don’t understand-especially when we want to find a solution to the problem instead of just "condemning" ourselves.

Smith, a friend of mine in South Africa, is engaged in "volunteer tourism". Every year, he sends a large number of volunteers from all over the world to a big cat base to get in close contact with several lions in the base. Those lions lost their ability to return to the wild because they were taken away by poachers and sold to zoos or rich people’s homes, and became pet lions accustomed to living with people, even after being rescued.

Walking with KAI, a little male lion growing up beside human beings | Banete

Many people attacked him, thinking that what he did violated the rules of animal protection-wild animals should not be in close contact with people and become pets and playthings.

Smith, who considers himself an animal protector, is very wronged:

"In a perfect world, people and wild animals should certainly not be in close contact. But the world is not perfect. Humans are constantly destroying the habitats of animals and hunting them. In this case, these individual animals have been unable to return to the wild for various reasons. Why can’t they interact with people on the premise of their comfortable life and play a certain educational role, so as to cultivate people’s love for animals, especially those who don’t like animals that much? Today, you don’t let people who don’t like animals themselves touch animals, saying that it violates animal protection ethics, but one day he may directly hunt animals or take away their habitats! "

Interview with Smith and park staff in South Africa

Smith called these animal protectionists Purist. These people live in their own world, have a lot of "should", speak a lot of terms, and judge others with these moral superiority, but they don’t realize that those who participate in their activities and recognize their propaganda are not those who would buy illegal animal products and hurt animals. They have long been separated from the public who really decide the fate of many animals in the world.

"They feel good about themselves, but they don’t really contribute much, because they just move in their own small circle."

Smith feels that every year, for various reasons, including the reason that it is not particularly "correct" to take photos with lions, international visitors who come to South Africa gradually like animals and develop the concept of animal protection in the project, which is a real contribution.

Close contact between the students and the little lion in the big cat park | ansen

"People who feel that there is something wrong with my project, please come to investigate in person to understand the specific situation. If there is any problem, please report it. Don’t come and have never been here. If you don’t investigate, you will be self-righteous."

He was a little angry with an American woman who tirelessly "reminded" everyone not to go to his project on facebook, because the American woman who said that their project was not good at all had never been to their base for investigation, or even to South Africa.

What Smith said resonated in my heart.

In the past few years, especially in the investigation, I have come into contact with too many people who are completely different from the "animal protectionists": they don’t like animals, don’t care about animal protection, and turn a blind eye to or even hate the education of various animal protection organizations. Therefore, the propaganda and education of animal protection organizations can’t touch them, but they are directly related to many behaviors that bring harm to animals and the environment.

In order to let them enter the world of animal protection, we may need to provide a low enough threshold-sometimes, the activities that can attract them are to feed the baby elephant, kiss the giraffe and take a walk with the lion.

Students walking with the little lion KAI Figure | Wang Zhen

Of course, a certain degree of guidance and education is needed in this process, and there are still many precautions in these activities, but at least, they came to us and gave us a chance to talk to them.

In the field of animal protection, today I have seen too many condemnations about zoos, contact with animals and taking photos with animals. However, I can’t deny my past:

When I was a very young child, it was precisely because my grandfather took me to the small zoo in my hometown where animals were kept in a small space every day and went to Mengchong Paradise to get in touch with all kinds of animals that I gradually became so fond of animals. If traced back, it may be the source of my ivory investigation, the establishment of Zhongnan House and my continued active work in animal protection.

Many western animal protectionists will tell me that people should go directly to Africa and South America to see wild animals, and zoos should not exist at all.

The truth seems right, but the question is, how many people have such economic strength and opportunities?

If such a small zoo and a cute pet paradise didn’t exist according to the wishes of Purist, I probably wouldn’t have the opportunity to get in touch with those animals and like them like those rich children living in developed areas.

It is definitely wrong to disturb wild animals, but when I hold a sloth, its body temperature makes me really feel warm and heart-warming, which is beyond my reach; It is probably wrong to turn wild animals into playthings, but when touching capybara, I really feel more impulse to protect these lovely animals.

Walking with elephants | Zhou Yuecheng

In wildlife protection, if zero step is to keep human beings completely away from the world of wildlife, what is the first step for the zoo to trade with legal animals? What is the first step to disturb the tourism of wild animals to some extent? What is the first step to play with the raised wild animals? What’s the first step in legal hunting? What is the next step in the illegal wildlife trade and mass killing of wildlife? In an imperfect world, if we can’t stop at all, where should we stop?

I haven’t been able to form an answer yet, and I don’t want to form an answer so soon, because the world is not black and white, and I still have too much to learn and understand humbly.

The plane climbed slowly, watching the Amazon jungle that I dreamed of when I was a child gradually go away, and I couldn’t help but get lost in thought about all kinds of contradictions. I also know that there is not much time left for us to meditate. Farewell, even if it is long, the Amazon rainforest is actually leaving us-maybe once she turns around, she just disappeared while waving.

Sunset map of Amazon rainforest | sherry

(The original title of this article is Fifty Steps and Hundred Steps of "Animal Protectors" in the Long Farewell to Amazon Rainforest, which was originally published in WeChat official account, Zhongnan House, to help China youth enter developing countries.)