Little Lizards: Big Money For Indonesia

If you thought the Geico gecko was the most important and popular (not to mention cutest) of the world’s family of small lizards, you may be surprised to learn that geckos are big money for impoverished villagers in Indonesia where there is a growing demand for critter-based beverages and reptile-based traditional medicines. This need has given rise to a tremendous boom in gecko farming.

Even though the gecko we all know and love has an Australian accent when he tells us about insurance, in actuality these pale, soft-skinned lizards with their own distinctive call, are best known in China and Korea where they are believed to help cure cancer as well as some skin and respiratory disorders.

On the island of Java, the residents of one rural village composed of struggling farmers have discovered that geckos are extremely lucrative. For one farm hand, Tohasyim, (who like many Indonesians has only has one name) his earnings have skyrocketed from 10,000 rupiah (about $1) per day feeding other people’s cattle to 1 million rupiah (about $110) hunting geckos in a local forest.

“I start hunting the geckos in the evening after I finish my job, feeding other people’s cattle. I normally start hunting the geckos at 6 in the evening until 5 in the morning,” says Tohasyim.

Geckos are small to average-sized lizards that are found in the warmer climates of world. They are unique among lizards in their vocalizations, and there are currently an estimated 2,000 different species of geckos throughout the world.

The reptile-based traditional medicine industry began four years ago when one villager, Abdurrahman, began drying geckos at home and selling them to an exporter. Environmentalists are alarmed by the rise in gecko farming and the instability of the gecko’s role in the ecological system that this industry is causing.

“The gecko is a wild animal and should not be traded. The problem is that there is no protection for these animals in Indonesia. We have a principle that a wild animal belongs in nature,” says R. Tri Prayudhi, a campaigner at East Java-based conservationist group, ProFauna.

The high season for gecko hunting is during Indonesia’s rainy period, from December to February. Many villagers, both men and women, are now involved in dry gecko production. These workers earn about 20,000 rupiah per day. Hunters wearing battery-powered head lamps venture in to the forests, capturing the lizards with their gloved hands while housewives spend days stretching, drying, and packing the lizards. They often work from 7 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon.

For the Indonesian villagers, the surge in family income is a magnet that draws like no other. Unfortunately, for the gecko, there is no place to run to and no place to hide!

What do YOU think about this?

(Link)

By MDeeDubroff on 02-02-2010