The rising wealth of Asians is one focus of hope, the founder of the Hong Kong-based Animals Asia Foundation, Jill Robinson, told AFP on the sidelines of the Asia for Animals Conference.

"A lot of people with money in their pockets use it very, very wisely to educate their children to become more informed about environmental and animal welfare issues," Robinson said. "It's those sort of people that we have to work very hard to reach."

However Robinson described the phenomenon of Asia's newly rich as a "double edged sword".

"People with more money in their pockets want to spend it on more outrageous things and usually those outrageous things become the fur off an animal's back, or shark's fin (soup) or tiger bone, something that exploits wild and endangered species," she said.

Tougher law enforcement, mainly by imposing stiff penalties and punishments for those in the supply chain, as well as getting the region's authorities to mount a joint effort are vital next steps, according to the activists.

"What we have to do is to stop the supply," said the founder and president of the Visakha Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in India, Pradeep Kumar Nath.

"So the Indian authorities, the Chinese, the Japanese and all these other people should come together and form a core group, a task force only for this purpose."

At a regional summit in Bangkok last year, Southeast Asian nations agreed to coordinate efforts to crack down on the region's booming illegal wildlife trade, estimated at between 8-10 billion US dollars.

However there were no details on how and when the system would work.

Nath fears any joint efforts now will be a case of too little, too late.

"Now they (governments) are waking up to the call but I think most of the damage has been done," Nath said.

"I feel it's too late... we feel that, in the future, there will not be any large animals left."

Animals and trees from Asia account for nine out of the top 10 species in the world listed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as most likely to become extinct. Among them are tiger and elephant species, the pig-nosed turtle and the Indonesian yellow-crested cockatoo.

The president of the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society in Singapore, Louis Ng, agreed on the need for tougher legislation.

"I think the real basic thing we need is animal welfare laws which Singapore has... a lot of the delegates are hoping to ride on our legislation," Ng said.

"For example, Indonesia doesn't have animal laws. So if you kick a dog there, or throw a cat down the building, you boil them, there is nothing in the legal system that will prosecute you.

"Even in China there is no animal welfare law."

Under Singapore's Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act, a first offence for smuggling one endangered species carries a fine of up to 5,000 Singapore dollars (3,000 US), one year's jail, or both.

In areas where significant progress has been made in recent years, activists point to the improving treatment of bears in China following an intense lobbying campaign.

"There is a general closing down of bear farms, which is without doubt the most cruel trade ever," Ng said. "Animals Asia Foundation has rescued more and more bears, so there is also a general trend to closing down bear farms in Asia."

Since 2000, Animals Asia Foundation has rescued almost 200 bears in China.

However, Animals Asia Foundation's Robinson said there were still 7,000 bears in China being farmed for their bile and gall bladders for their perceived therapeutic benefits in traditional Chinese medicine.

In Vietnam, the government also announced this year it would phase out bear farming.

"Vietnam said it is going to end bear farming altogether," Ng said, "and that is the Vietnamese government's own initiative."

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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