Black Market: Inside the Endangered Species Trade in Asia (Paperback)

~ (Author), Patrick Brown (Photographer), (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With more than 100 powerful color and b&w photos, this at once eye-opening and deeply disturbing book is an urgent call to action. Davies, a Bangkok-based journalist, describes the plight of various disappearing Asian species, including tigers, bears and leopards in Thailand; pythons and other snakes in Vietnam; and Sumatran orangutans. Davies points to traditional beliefs in the healing powers of animal parts as a major driving force of the market, and takes the reader through several poaching scenarios to illuminate how the animal trade actually works. Some of the photos in the book are not for the faint-of-heart (severed tiger heads, bear paws, pickled snakes, etc.), but the book sheds light on a shadowy, often illegal set of practices.
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Review

"Unless we can get programs initiated in more protected areas, it's going to be too late; everything's going to be gone." - Tim Redford, WildAid

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Earth Aware Editions (September 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932771220
• ISBN-13: 978-1932771220
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 9.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #264,739 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #51 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Conservation > Endangered Species
  #84 in	Books > Business & Investing > Reference > Shopping & Commerce
  #86 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Ecology > Animal Rights

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, October 25, 2005

By	Charles Mortim "www.geckovilla.com" (Thailand) - See all my reviews

Black Market is resoundingly successful in portraying the scale of the trade in endangered species in Asia - its roots, its cancerous growth and its callousness. Equally importantly, it shows how and why the trade can exist.

What makes the book exceptional is that it is written not by an angry protester, but by a skilled journalist intent on telling the story as it is, and as accurately as possible. The book's author is not only a widely recognized photographer and journalist, but also a hard nosed economist with decades of experience in Asia. That he has managed to penetrate this black market, and emerge not only with gripping accounts of the trade but with photographs of it and the crucial local understanding to interpret its lifelines, makes for an educating read.

Through a predominant use of black and white photography, the author ties the present to the past, and living traditions to ancient culture. Monochrome images portray a black trade. Colour, what we stand to lose.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great photos and stories, December 12, 2006

By	D. J. Nardi "TurtleDom" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a superb book with easily readable text, tragic photos, and compelling stories. It has sections that alternatively focus on different geographic locations, animals, and types of problems. It also discusses some of the history of the wildlife trade.

If there is a downside, it is that the book is depressing because of the scale of destruction going on. In fact, the wildlife trade is one of the largest underground markets, second only to the drug trade. But the book is a great attempt to shed more light on this dark subject.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sad & real, October 25, 2008

By	Andrea R. Carvalho (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The pictures are so real, and the text is very descriptive. The best book about animal black market I've seen!