Souvenirs, Shells, and the Illegal Wildlife Trade

Abstract

Shells are often seen as portable souvenirs, and both domestic and international tourists bring shells home. While part of this activity concerns individual tourists collecting a small number of shells on the beach, another part concerns large-scale commercial trade. Each year the Indonesian beach resort of Pangandaran is visited by several million tourists, most from within Indonesia. Here, I focus on the commercial trade in large-sized shells for decorative purposes and, using an anthropological approach, gain insight into the trade in marine mollusk shells of the area. A number of the large-shelled species are rare and over-exploited, and receive different levels of protection. By comparing three pairs of similar species, in which one species is legally protected (i.e., on Indonesia's protected species list) and the other is not, I attempt to gauge how rarity and protection affects trade. Protected species were as openly displayed as non-protected species, and more shops offered the protected than the unprotected species. The Indonesian shell trade involves a complex and organized network of collectors, transporters, middlemen, and sellers. Traders indicated that they purchased shells from middlemen, who obtained them from eastern Indonesia; no shells were collected in the Pangandaran area. The main buyers of these large shells are domestic Indonesian tourists. Pangandaran is a trade hub for shells to meet the demands of an urban consumer market in Java. While protected, there is no social stigma in buying these shells, nor do traders that display them run the risk of prosecution, indicating a lack of support for protective and regulatory measures.

Tourism Developments Increase Tsunami Disaster Risk in Pangandaran, West Java, Indonesia

“…This has been especially the case since in 2012 when Pangandaran became its own regency (kabupaten) with tourism on the Pangandaran peninsula as one of the regency's main economic drivers. Domestic tourists arriving in the 1990s were mostly from the cities of Bandung (60%), Jakarta (10%), and other cities in the western and central Java (Wilkinson and Pratiwi 1995); these same two cities, in addition to Yogyakarta (central Java) and Surabaya (eastern Java), have made up the majority of visitors in recent years (Nugroho et al 2013;Nijman 2019). None of these cities are situated along Java's southern coast and their inhabitants are not familiar with the risks of tsunamis.…”

“…2). While in the 1990s foreign tourists originated mainly from Europe (Wilkinson and Prawiti 1995), in recent years most have come from other Asian countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and China (Nijman 2019). Data from 2019 show that during Lebaran (or Idul Fitri / Eid al-Fitr), the annual International Kite Festival, and New Year about three times as many visitors come to Pangandaran as on an average day (Rachman 2019(Rachman , 2020.…”

“…Data from 2019 show that during Lebaran (or Idul Fitri / Eid al-Fitr), the annual International Kite Festival, and New Year about three times as many visitors come to Pangandaran as on an average day (Rachman 2019(Rachman , 2020. Weekends are more crowded than weekdays (Nijman 2019). Trips from domestic visitors are shorter than those of foreign tourists-two and four days on average, respectively (Wilkinson and Prawiti 1995).…”

“…I have visited Pangandaran 12 times over the last 25 years, first in 1995 and most recently in 2019 (Nijman 2012(Nijman , 2019) and as such I am thoroughly familiar with the layout of Pangandaran. Over this period, I have kept track of the annual number of visitors, both domestic and international, that have visited Pangandaran as these figures are announced at the beginning of each year in the local press.…”

Trends in illegal wildlife trade: Analyzing personal baggage seizure data in the Pacific Northwest

“…Previous research finds that mollusc shells are one of the most heavily confiscated wildlife products at ports of entry across the U.S. [137]. Of increasing concern is the role tourism plays in the illicit trade of shells and coral to meet demand for souvenirs [138][139][140]. Lastly, leather products account for a high number of PNW seizures.…”