REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MALANG -- Wildlife poaching in Indonesia in 2014 is spreading through online media, according to the environmental nongovernmental organization PROFAUNA (Protection of Forest and Fauna).

"Currently, wildlife poachers are using online social media, and the intensity has also increased substantially," a PROFAUNA Indonesia spokesperson Swasti Prawidya Mukti remarked here on Thursday (8/1).

Wildlife poaching is posing a serious threat to wildlife conservation as most of the animals are caught from their natural habitat, such as Java eagle, King Cockatoo, Red parrot, gibbon, Java langur, lemur, and eclectus parrot.

According to Swasti, 3,640 advertisements appeared on social media in 2014, which offered various forms of wildlife, both for domestic and international markets.

China, Kuwait, Taiwan, and France are some of the destinations for smuggled animals from Indonesia.

"Wildlife poaching has spread across the country. The government must seriously handle this problem," Swasti stated, adding that at least 78 cases of wildlife poaching were reported in 2014.

The cases involved a Sumatran tiger's head and skin, 28 beaks of hornbill ivory along with 6 yellow-crested cockatoos, 3 cassowaries, and 53 Lorius lorry from Papua Island.

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