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Dozens of Lao Elephants ‘Illegally Sold to Chinese Zoos,’ Says Wildlife Investigator

Lao Elephants Sent to China

Laos accused of breaching CITES treaty to protect elephants, and China of encouraging trade in live animals.

BY THE GUARDIAN – JULY 25, 2017

Dozens of elephants from Laos are being illegally bought by China to be displayed in zoos and safari parks across the country, according to wildlife investigator and film-maker Karl Ammann.

According to Ammann, so-called captive elephants in Laos sell for about £23,000 before being walked across the border into China by handlers or “mahouts” near the border town of Boten. Thereafter they are transported to receiving facilities, which buy them from the agents for up to £230,000 per animal. “That is a nice mark-up,” says Ammann, “and makes it exactly the kind of commercial transaction which under Cites rules is not acceptable.”

Ammann and his crew stumbled on the illicit trade between Laos and China earlier this year, while investigating the sale of 16 Asian elephants from Laos to a safari park in Dubai. None of the elephants had the necessary permits for export. The translocation was stopped by a direct order from the new Laotian prime minister at the last moment, while an Emirates Airlines Cargo 747 was already on the tarmac in Vientiane, the country’s capital.

Lao Elephants

Many mahouts told Ammann on camera that their elephants are captive-bred but have been sired by a wild bull elephant. To avoid stud costs, mahouts in Laos tie captive-bred females to trees in the forest so that they can be mated with wild bulls. Under Cites Appendix I, an elephant with a wild parent in an uncontrolled setting is not considered captive-bred and therefore may not be sold commercially.

Almost 100 Asian elephants are believed to have been sold from Laos to China over the past couple of years. Chunmei Hu, an animal welfare advocate in China, says she has already established that six zoos – all government-owned – have a confirmed 38 elephants from Laos, with 50 more likely to be Laotian. But the trade in live Asian elephants contravenes international regulations. Like African elephants, Asian elephants are considered a species threatened with extinction. All international trade is prohibited by the Convention in the Trade of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) unless it is not for commercial purposes, or unless the elephants originate from a Cites-approved facility of captive-bred animals.

Laos does not have a single Cites-approved breeding facility, however, and, Ammann says, the transactions have been commercial. Some zoos have paid Chinese middlemen up to 10 times as much as the latter paid owners in Laos.

Elephants are a popular and renumerative attraction at Chinese circuses, zoos and safari parks – they are still expected to perform in some places, although this is increasingly controversial. Conditions can be poor – some reviewers on Tripadvisor describe elephants confined in small concrete boxes. The elephants are sourced from a number of places. In 2015, and again in 2016, amid a global outcry, Chinese zoos and safari parks flew in more than 60 baby African elephants taken from their families in the wild in Zimbabwe. The elephants are now at the Shanghai Wild Animal Park, the Beijing Wildlife Park and the Hangzhou Safari Park, among other venues.

This would not be the first time Laos had breached Cites requirements. In July last year, the Cites secretariat highlighted “gaps in implementation under Article XIII of the convention” and recommended that Laos improve its compliance ability and law enforcement of illegal wild animal and plant trafficking.

One of the measures available to Cites is to recommend that wildlife trade is suspended with Laos, says John Scanlon, the Cites secretary general. But he adds that the measure is used only “as a last resort, as our primary goal is to work with and assist Cites parties in the effective implementation of the convention”.

A Cites technical committee is in Laos at the moment to verify the country’s progress. Scanlon adds: “Our comment on the alleged export of Asian elephants from Laos will entirely depend on the nature of the trade and details of the particular transaction.”

Ammann is sceptical that action will be taken. “The Cites secretariat should have recommended the suspension of Laos for non-compliance and lack of enforcement a long time ago,” he says, “but they are a UN body and rocking the boat is not in their nature, even though suspension is a vital enforcement tool at their disposition and re-admission is an option once compliance has been achieved.”

While Laos still has considerable distance to go in stopping the trade, Ammann believes that China also needs to be held accountable. “China has been on the front lines of importing iconic live species from rhino to killer whales, elephants, and recently 150 chimps – all totally illegal – and Article VIII of the convention dictates that parties involved in the illegal import be prosecuted, the animals in question confiscated and, if possible, repatriated. But this does not seem to apply to China,” he says.

 

The Guardian
The Guardian UK, one of Britain’s top daily newspapers, provides coverage of international environmental issues. Earth Island Journal is a member of the Guardian’s Environment News Network.

Seven Shades of Indigo: The Laha Story

Laha Indigo Laos

In spiritual terms, indigo is the colour of intuition and perception. In fashion terms, it’s synonymous with denim – deep of hue and naturally dyed.

It’s also one of the seven colours of the rainbow and has up to seven of its own distinct shades.  But did you know that indigo also has mosquito repelling properties, and helps reduce perspiration. It’s for these reasons, and more, that indigo, derived from the plant of the same name, has been intricately linked to the livelihoods of Lao people for generations. In Laos, indigo is often dubbed “the living colour”, because of the procedures involved in its cultivation, a complex process that involves extracting the liquid from the plant leaves and fermenting it, until a chemical process turns it from a murky yellow to the deep indigo hue. During this process, great care is taken to ensure the colour does not “die” at each step, and it is then prized for its various practical, rather than simply aesthetic, qualities.

This is especially true for rice farmers, who often wear cotton dyed with natural Indigo. But today, all over the world, fashionable young things are toting bags and wearing jeans and shirts made from “natural-dyed indigo” and hailing from the popular Japanese chain store Muji, which has more than 470 branches worldwide. Most people are unaware of the brand’s long-established link with a workshop in southern Laos, home of the Thonglahasinh Company, which today exports several textile products to Japan.

According to the company’s founder, Bounthong Yodmankhong, the road to this point has been long and winding, beginning when he set up the company with his wife, Songbandith, almost 30 years ago.

Bounthong Yodmankhong

Back in 1990, Thongsavanhxay Company, as it was then known, began life as a garment factory in Savannakhet, exporting products to Europe. But when the European Union cancelled a special tax exemption, many foreign investors in Laos had to move their operations to China and Vietnam. Thongsavanhxay was among many local operations that were forced to close. But Bounthong says the move also forced him and his wife to change their business focus, and concentrate more on locally made products that reflected Lao culture.

Songbandith hails from Ban Laha, a small village in Savannakhet Province that has long been associated with indigo and cotton farming. Due to a family heritage of work in the area, she had hundreds of rolls of vintage fabrics scattered throughout the family home. It was these that caught the eye of Maki, a visiting conservationist and textiles expert from Japan, who was introduced to the family by an expert from JICA.

Laha’s products

“Mr Maki was interested in Lao weaving culture and saw the beautiful fabrics we’d collected,” Bounthong says.

“He wanted to understand more about the traditional weaving methods of the villagers of Laha from the village elders, and especially about the traditional indigo dyeing methods.”

The idea was to revive the traditional heritage of indigo and Lao cotton weaving, and combine it with modern designs, in a joint Lao-Japanese enterprise. After several years of studying and refining the local craft, the project, led by Bounthong and Maki, was able to export products to Yukenled, a leading import company in Japan, in 1997.

The delicate process of producing indigo

From this, the local Thonglahasing, or ‘Laha’ brand was born, an enterprise that was now large enough to export its products and gain international recognition. From then on, Bounthong regularly attended international textile exhibitions and trade shows, and it was while attending an exhibition in Japan in 2012 that he met a representative of Muji.

“He was interested in collaborating with the business, and said Muji had been monitoring Laha’s progress for the past 12 years,” Bounthong says.

This partnership led Bounthong, along with the general manager of Muji, on a study tour to India to research traditional Indian methods of indigo dyeing.

“When working with the Japanese, every step must be very detailed and meticulous in order to satisfy their quality standards,” Bounthong says.

“But this didn’t put us off at Laha – we’ve worked hard over the years to prove ourselves to Muji and maintain the relationship.”

Former President Choummaly Sayasone

Nowadays, the Thonglahasinh Company fills orders worth US$2 million a year for Muji, with the most popular item a simple denim tote bag in varying shades of indigo. The company sends off more than 1 million of these each year, alongside limited edition scarves, pillowcases and cushion covers.

“These products are limited because of the precision required in weaving and dyeing according to Japanese standards, which takes time,” Bounthong says.

“But we’re told they’re highly prized by Japanese customers.”

Today, Bounthong is wearing one of his own indigo shirts – faded and softly worn with age – and muses that the business of textiles is both beautiful and multi-faceted. An avid photographer in his spare time, he says the patience and attention to detail required to capture the perfect image is similar to producing beautiful cotton and indigo fabrics. And both require an appreciation for beauty that millions of people, the world over, can now share.

 

Champa Meuanglao
Written by:
Silvia Luanglath
Photos: Phoonsab Thevongsa
Originally Published in: Champa Meuanglao,  official Lao Airlines in-flight magazine, 2017 July-August Edition

Laos Announces Submission of Film for 90th Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film Category

Luang Prabang, 18 July 2017 — In a historic first for the small Southeast Asian country, Laos will submit a film to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for consideration in the 90th Academy Awards, to be held on 4 March 2018.
 
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, is an annual awards show celebrating achievements in cinema across a number of categories from the past year. Each year, the Oscars allow approved world nations to each submit one film to the Best Foreign Language Film category. This year will mark the first year that Laos will submit a film for the category.
 
A selection committee made up of Lao filmmakers and film industry professionals will decide the nation’s submission. The committee includes documentarian Vannaphone Sitthirath, producer and actor Douangmany Soliphanh, director and Lao New Wave Cinema co-founder Anysay Keola, Lao media fixture Somsanouk Mixay, the Lao Department of Cinema’s Deputy Director of the Film Promotion Division, Dethnakhone Luangmovihane, as well as Simmany Keokene, also from the Department of Cinema.
 
The committee has been facilitated by the team behind Luang Prabang Film Festival, an annual celebration of Southeast Asian cinema in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Luang Prabang, Laos. The festival, which will hold its eighth edition this 8-13 December 2017, has contributed to a recent rise in filmmaking in Laos.
 
“The filmmaking industry in Laos is still relatively small,” says Bree Fitzgerald, the Luang Prabang Film Festival’s Head of Programming. “However, its recent growth led us to form a selection committee for the Academy’s approval this year. This was something we always dreamed of doing, and now seemed like the right moment for Laos.”
 
And this past year was a big one for Lao film. The Luang Prabang Film Festival partnered with HBO to provide the channel with more Southeast Asian content, and as a result the Lao crime thriller At the Horizon made it into HBO Asia’s programming at the end of 2016. Directed by selection committee member Anysay Keola, At the Horizon is the first Lao film to be picked up by a major network. Keola’s filmmaking collective, Lao New Wave Cinema, has been a major force in the revival of Lao filmmaking since it started in 2011. Lao-American filmmaker Mattie Do’s recent horror flick Dearest Sister has also seen great success, appearing in 24 film festivals across the globe.
 
 
 
 
In spite of this growth, Laos still only has three working cinemas in the country, which is an obstacle for Lao filmmakers in gaining viewership. However, outside of the Luang Prabang Film Festival and Vientianale–an international festival taking place in Vientiane, Laos–Lao films are finding exposure through online platforms like Viddsee and on the international festival circuit.
 
This summer, the committee will consider and evaluate all eligible Lao films. Members of the committee will meet in September to decide the country’s submission for the 2018 Oscars, and the submission will be announced in October.
——————–
All Luang Prabang Film Festival press enquiries: 
Eliza Mott: eliza.mott@lpfilmfest.org / +856 20 59 70 11 59
 
LPFF Background:
Founded in 2009, the Luang Prabang Film Festival (LPFF) is an annual celebration of Southeast Asian cinema held every December in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Luang Prabang, Lao PDR. LPFF is a not-for-profit project that fosters cross-cultural dialogue within the region and supports the burgeoning film industry in Laos. Throughout the year, LPFF organizes a range of cultural events and educational activities, from film screenings to workshops for amateur Lao filmmakers. LPFF also manages the Lao Filmmakers Fund, a publicly-generated granting system that helps local artists realize their film projects.
 

Sang Jiang ‘Overdue for Demolition,’ Says Owner

Sang Jiang Overdue for Demolition

A fire that razed the Sang Jiang Chinese market to the ground last Friday evening has shocked the city of Vientiane Capital.

Meanwhile, the construction of a new and modern Sang Jiang shopping center directly adjacent to the existing market has raised questions among the population regarding the cause of the blaze.

Mr Ding Guao Jiang, a representative of Sang Jiang Lao Sole Co., Ltd, addressed the media at a press conference held yesterday. He said that the fire started at around 5:30pm, spreading quickly and raging for over three hours before firefighters were able to fully extinguish it.

Press Conference Sang Jiang Fire

Sang Jiang Market Overdue for Demolition 

“Most of the market stalls and shops had already reached the end of their lease agreements last year.”

“Our company had plans in place to demolish the existing market and move stall owners to the new shopping complex in April this year,” added Mr Ding.

He stated that the company has set up a specific task force to investigate the incident.

Scale Model of New Sang Jiang Shopping Center
Scale Model of New Sang Jiang Shopping Center

Shopkeepers and stall owners have expressed their concerns regarding the cause of the fire, many of them now out of work and with no place of business. 

One shopkeeper was quoted as saying, “we had all been informed about the eventual requirement to move to the new shopping center. Many of us had already paid deposits to reserve stalls at the new mall, but since the mall has not been completed on time, we had to continue operating our shops at the original market location.”

The new Sang Jiang Shopping Center is currently only 70% complete, although due to open this year.

firefighters-at-sang-jiang

Total Fire Damage Still Unknown

Over two hundred and sixty market shops and stalls were devastated by the fire, as well as several vehicles parked nearby.

The total cost of the damage caused by the fire has not yet been revealed, while authorities have stated that there has been no loss of life or injuries among stall owners or customers.

“Sang Jiang Lao Sole Co., Ltd shares the grief and sadness felt by all the victims’ families,” said Mr Ding.

20 fire trucks were dispatched to the scene, with 100 firefighters from the Vientiane Fire Suppression and Protection Police Department fighting the blaze, while rescue workers attended to victims.

The total destruction of Sang Jiang comes as the busy marketplace was due to celebrate its 10th anniversary this August, having been officially opened in 2007.

The Aftermath of the Sang Jiang Market Fire

Copyright: http://muan.sanook.com/12112/

In the aftermath of the Sang Jiang fire, it is clear that the destruction of the Chinese market has been total and indiscriminate. It is not yet confirmed whether anyone has been injured, but sources report that there have been no casualties.

The cause of the fire at Sang Jiang is still unknown.

In recent years, markets in Vientiane Capital have increasingly fallen victim to similar conflagrations, leading many to speculate as the source. Everything from faulty and poorly maintained circuit breakers to unusually hot weather conditions have been cited as incendiary factors. However, much of the population remains skeptical that this is the true story.

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Foul Play?

A number of conspiracy theories suggesting foul play and the involvement of nefarious business interests in the capital have been gaining wider acceptance. While a full scale, impartial investigation is far from being underway, this has not stopped casual observations on social media wondering why there seem to be high rise shopping center style buildings so conveniently and rapidly replacing these burnt down markets. Some observers are of the belief that markets were deliberately burned down to make way for these high rise shopping centers.

In the case of Sang Jiang, a new shopping mall and nine-storey office block next to the original market site (which went up in flames) is already nearly complete. 

A full explanation may remain forever elusive. The sad fact of the matter is there are innocent small to medium sized shop owners who have lost much due to these fires and there seems to be no end in sight to the destruction of what some are calling “undeveloped markets.”

Photos: courtesy of ABC Lao News
Feature Image copyright and courtesy: Muan.la

Miss Grand Laos 2017 Revealed

Chinnaly Norasing, Miss Grand Laos 2017
Chinnaly Norasing, Miss Grand Laos 2017

Chinnaly Norasing, also known as MG19, has just been declared the winner of the first ever Miss Grand Laos 2017. Ms Norasing is the first contestant from Laos to win this title and will be representing her home country in the world competition, Miss Grand International 2017 in Vietnam this October.

The runners-up were MG13, MG16, MG1, and MG5 (first runner-up, second, third and fourth, respectively).

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As the newly crowned Miss Grand Laos, Ms Norasing received: 

  1. A diamond crown, valued at 50,000,000 kip (approx. USD $6000)
  2. Cash prize of 100,000,000 kip (approx. USD $12000)
  3. Educational stipend/scholarship valued at 100,000,000 kip (approx. USD $12,000)
  4. Cash prize of 10,000,000 kip (approx. USD $1200)
  5. A laptop
  6. Cosmetics set

Source: laopost.com

Photos: Miss Grand Laos FB Page

 

 

Fire at Sang Jiang: Chinese Market Ablaze

fire at sang jiang

Vientiane, 17:00
A severe fire has broken out at Sang Jiang Chinese Market in Vientiane Capital. Firefighters are on the scene, however the fire has spread throughout the shopping center. The cause of the blaze at Sang Jiang is as yet unknown. More to come as the story unfolds.

 

 

sang jiang fire 2

Sang Jiang Fire

See Mahason Magazine‘s LIVE video coverage of the blaze.

Photos: www.laopost.com

Coffee, bagels and a loving push (the true Joma story)

Joma

Words: Francis Savanhkham
Photos: Phoonsab Thevongsa

Way back in 1994, a Canadian living in Vientiane opened a bakery. Much and More, as it was then called, had two main reasons for existing. One was to produce and supply sandwich bread to surrounding businesses. But its main purpose was to provide jobs for returning refugees, mainly Hmong people being repatriated into Laos.

More than two decades later, Joma – the name derived from the names of its four founders, Jonathan and Jocelyn, Michael and Aun – is a Lao institution, a legendary fixture in the country’s burgeoning modern café scene, with five branches in Laos, four in Cambodia and three in Vietnam.

From a humble wholesaler, to a café on Vientiane’s then-quiet main drag, to a slick, well-run chain spruiking coffee, bread, pastries and many more things besides, Joma is a comforting constant in a rapidly changing city, and a formidable presence in a market increasingly cluttered with coffee shops and bakeries. But despite different ownership, two name changes, and a secure place in the urban landscape, the business’ main ethos when it comes to its staff has stayed the same.

Stepping into a Joma café to order something from its extensive and “unapologetically Canadian” menu – staples include a “double-double” (a sandwich whose name is a riff on the Canadian habit of ordering a coffee with two creams and two sugars – a “double double”), taco salad and bestselling “bagel egger” – the average customer would be unaware that many of the staff were entirely unskilled when first hired. Some have disabilities, some are returning from traumatic situations, others were illiterate before fronting up for a job. And this, says country manager Jeff Spohr, is entirely the point.

 

Joma Phonthan Laos

“That core of creating jobs for refugees, that has influenced the company a lot,” he says. “Our hiring practice is one of our things I’m most proud of. People will often interview me, and say, ‘I’m just wondering if you have difficulty getting skilled labour’. And I tell them, ‘I don’t want skilled labour’. Our whole point is we give preferential hiring to people without skills. In fact, if you’ve got a disability, you’re going to get the job first.”

From deaf women baking in the kitchen to supervisors who, when hired, could not even read Lao script, the variety of disadvantaged and low-skilled workers who have worked at Joma is remarkable mainly for how little it affects the actual customer experience.

On a personal level, Spohr is heavily invested in the company’s staff. Another Canadian (and high school friend of one of the original owners), he first visited Laos in 2003 while honeymooning with his wife Alicia, fell in love with the place, and the two returned four years later to help run the Lao side of the business. In the nine years that he’s lived here, he has heard all the negative talk about Lao-style service, and resolutely ignored it.

Joma Donuts

It’s not surprising that, like many institutions, Joma has a certain mythology attached to it. The original Much and More wholesale bakery morphed into a café called Healthy and Fresh – taking up part of what is now the café’s flagship store in Vientiane’s downtown – which was eventually bought in 1999 by the two couples who comprise Joma. They rebranded the business in 2003, and since then the company’s defining altruism – both in terms of its staff, and the many, many projects it has funded through its business – is for real, and remains constant.“I really believe that there isn’t a lot of difference between me and them,” he says, of his staff. “The difference is I had the opportunity of good parents, good schools, good nutrition and good health…I’m not sure that all of those staff we hire have those opportunities. In fact, I’m sure they don’t. If they did, would they be any better at this than me? Yes they would… So if we can start there, all they need is an opportunity and a loving push.”

But despite its famous consistency and seamless service, times are changing for Joma. Look around, and suddenly there are cafes on every corner. Other chains that shall remain nameless are popping up in Cambodia and Vietnam. And more, and more, they’re filled with just as many locals as foreigners.

When Joma first opened, its clientele was almost exclusively foreign tourists and expatriates, and market competition was non-existent.

But, in the past five or six years, there has been a dramatic shift in the people who come through Joma’s doors, from branch to branch, and city to city. And this has led the company to make some adjustments. Regulars will notice subtle (some stalwarts might say dramatic) changes in the menu. There’s a whole new range of salads and sandwiches, five variations on the bagel egger (sales went up noticeably after this one), an almond croissant, doughnuts, baguettes and, in keeping with worldwide “wellness” trends, a range of matcha drinks. Everything, even the jam, is made in-house, and it’s all the result of market research, of responding to a morphing market.

Spohr says much of Joma’s business is focused on raising the bar, both in terms of training staff and giving back to the community. Joma now invests 10 percent of its profits into grassroots initiatives, local communities and projects involving those in need.

But for a long time, Joma didn’t publicise these activities.

“In the beginning, the ‘don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing’ principle was very heavily applied – they didn’t tell anybody,” he says.

But that principle no longer applies. Spohr says that with an increased profile comes increased responsibility, and Joma can also set an example.

“The company is showing that good business, ethical business principles and social responsibility in action can also still be done and have profit,” he says. “So we’re trying to raise the bar, and if you do good things and don’t tell anyone, it’s hard to raise the bar. That’s now become [a goal] in the last four or five years, figuring out how to tell people properly about the things that we’re doing…We’re definitely interested in giving back, through the way we run the business but also what we do with the money in the end.”

You can visit the Joma Facebook page at: facebook.com/jomabakerycafe

 

Champa Meuanglao
Originally Published in: Champa Meuanglao,  official Lao Airlines in-flight magazine, 2017 July-August Edition