We refer to the malaysiakini report Ban on monkey trading lifted. Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) has also received word from the International Primate Protection League (IPPL) that the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment had approved the sale of long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques to China preferably for breeding purposes.

The issue only came to light recently when news of the export was highlighted in the Zoo Biology List. The list stated 'that a well-known supplier had approached the Malaysian minister for a licence to export monkeys to China and it seems that the minister had given approval'.

At the same time SAM received news reports of a booming monkey breeding business on China's mainland as demand from US bio-defence programmes rises. Domestic demand in China is also on the rise as more and more overseas laboratories are setting up research facilities on the mainland where there is less interference from animal rights activists.

The biggest primate breeding centres in Guangxi - a region that produces half of the nation's monkeys used for experiments - is known as the Guangxi Weimei Bio-Tech Company. It started with fewer than100 crab-eating macaques four years ago and now has more than 12,000. A huge expansion project covering the size of 31 soccer fields, when completed next year, will be home to 20,000 monkeys.

Apart from the Weimei breeding centre, there has been a growing number of farms on the mainland, mostly found in Guangxi and Guangdong, for raising monkeys. With support by mainland governments of various levels and heavily funded by profit-seeking private investors, the scale of the primate farms on the mainland has tripled within a decade stimulated by a soaring demand from US bio-defence programmes.

Last year, Guangxi's eight registered farms housed about 4,000 monkeys with a significant higher number this year because of expanding farms. Several new breeding centres are making applications for production licences.

The need for non-human primates is expected to grow enormously as vaccines and therapies against biological weapons and emerging diseases are being developed by the US. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) lists the number of crab-eating macaques imported by the US rising from 3,266 to 12,878 over the past decade. The price of a monkey also rose on the international market from 1,500 yuan (RM750) to 20,000 yuan (RM10,000) presently.

The monkeys in Guangxi are also sold to European Union countries, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

SAM recalled a statement by Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment parliamentary secretary Azmi Miah who proposed that monkeys be sold to Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong for either their exotic meat or as pets.

Exporting our macaques to these countries as either food or pets could be a guise for sending them to horrifying deaths conducted under US bio-defence programmes. Subjecting our wildlife to a life of misery and torture under the most horrendous of conditions whilst undergoing tests for vaccines and therapies against biological weapons and emerging diseases is both unthinkable and unacceptable.

So far no study has been carried out to verify an increase in population for the long and short tailed macaques in Malaysia. How can there be an increase in population numbers with the high rate of deforestation and lost of food sources?

The ministry and the Wildlife Department should be reminded of past incidents of the use and abuse of our long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques by the US in the early 80s, when they were subjected to torture such as having weights dropped on their spines, irradiated with super lethal doses of radiation, out through neutron bomb testing and subjected to biological warfare agents.

These and other abuses at military research centres and institutions of higher learning drew a storm of protest from NGOs and international wildlife groups leading to a ban on monkey exports.

The ministry should therefore take the lead in withdrawing the export licence given to wildlife suppliers. Past experiences should be a lesson enough. After all, how much will Malaysia earn from the exports?

The government should show concern for wildlife in this country and continue with the ban on the export of our monkeys.