Indonesia is reviving efforts to supply long-tailed macaques for biomedical research, setting its first export quota for the species in four years and opening a new breeding facility in Lampung as it seeks to capitalize on international demand.
The move has placed Indonesia at the center of a renewed debate over the international trade in long-tailed macaques, or Macaca fascicularis, a species native to much of Southeast Asia that is classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Indonesian authorities argue that tightly regulated breeding and exports could generate economic opportunities, create jobs and help address growing conflicts between macaques and farming communities. Animal welfare organizations, however, say the policy risks encouraging the commercial exploitation of wild animals at a time when some countries and research institutions are attempting to reduce their reliance on non-human primates.
The disagreement reflects a wider tension between conservation policy, scientific research, rural livelihoods and animal welfare.
Indonesia’s government has defended the renewed export program by pointing to national assessments that characterize the country’s macaque populations as stable and, in some areas, excessively abundant. Conservation groups counter that local population estimates do not remove concerns over habitat loss, capture from the wild and the welfare of animals entering international biomedical research.
In June, Indonesia established a 2026 export quota of 1,920 long-tailed macaques, according to records under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES.
It was the first recorded Indonesian export quota for the species since 2022, when the figure stood at 1,680 animals.
CITES quotas are intended to help regulate international trade and prevent exports from threatening wild populations. However, the setting of an annual quota does not necessarily mean exports are impossible in years when no quota has been established. International trade can still occur when the required permits, assessments and other regulatory conditions are satisfied.
The new quota comes as global demand for long-tailed macaques remains significant, particularly from the biomedical research sector.
A 2023 review published in the Journal of Medical Primatology said long-tailed macaques had become the most widely used non-human primates in toxicity testing over recent decades.
Researchers have used the species in studies because of its genetic, physiological and biological similarities to humans. Macaques can therefore play a role in research involving medicines, vaccines, disease mechanisms and toxicity assessments.
Supporters of captive breeding programs argue that purpose-bred animals can provide researchers with healthier animals whose genetic backgrounds and medical histories are documented.
That argument is particularly important for biomedical research, where researchers need reliable information about an animal’s health and genetic characteristics before it is used in an experiment.
Critics, however, say such considerations do not resolve the ethical concerns surrounding the use of primates in painful experiments or the potential consequences of sourcing breeding animals from the wild.
The export push gained a physical base on July 31, when Indonesia formally inaugurated a new long-tailed macaque breeding facility in Mesuji regency, Lampung province.
The facility is operated by private company PT Bio Medika Nusantara Indah, or BMNI, and has capacity for up to 4,000 macaques.
Mesuji Regent Elfianah Khamamik said the overall site covers about 50 hectares, although only 4.9 hectares are currently being used for the breeding operation.
The facility includes colony and quarantine enclosures designed to house the animals and prepare them for eventual export.
BMNI director Reki Chandra said the facility currently contains 804 long-tailed macaques captured in Mesuji, Tulang Bawang and West Tulang Bawang.
These animals are intended to form the breeding stock. Their first-generation offspring, known as F1 animals, are expected to become the primary animals exported for research.
The distinction between breeding stock and export animals is central to the government’s argument that the facility represents a controlled captive-breeding operation rather than simply a mechanism for exporting wild-caught macaques.
But animal welfare organizations have questioned how the original breeding animals are being sourced and whether wild-caught macaques could enter commercial breeding systems.
Indonesian authorities see the United States as the main market for the country’s macaque exports, while China is being considered as another major destination.
Abdul Kadir Karding, head of the Indonesian Quarantine Authority, said demand from the two countries could be substantial.
According to figures cited by Indonesia’s national news agency Antara, potential Chinese demand could reach about 20,000 macaques a year, while demand in the United States is estimated at around 10,000.
Negotiations over China’s import requirements are reportedly still underway.
The figures illustrate why Indonesian officials see the sector as an opportunity. Even a relatively small share of international demand could generate significant revenue for breeders, exporters and communities involved in the supply chain.
BMNI’s Reki said the Mesuji facility could eventually export around 1,000 macaques a year.
Each animal could fetch between $3,000 and $4,000 depending on its quality, according to the company.
At that level, a shipment of 1,000 macaques could represent several million dollars in gross commercial value, although the final economic return would depend on breeding costs, quarantine, transportation, regulatory compliance and other expenses.
The potential revenue has strengthened arguments among some Indonesian officials and business operators that regulated macaque breeding should be developed rather than abandoned.
The commercial expansion is nevertheless controversial because the long-tailed macaque is classified as endangered by the IUCN.
The international conservation authority has identified habitat loss, hunting and capture from the wild as major threats.
It estimates that the global population has declined by about 40 percent over the past four decades and warns that the population could decline by another 50 percent during the next 40 years if existing pressures continue.
For animal welfare groups, the global conservation status makes Indonesia’s decision to revive exports particularly troubling.
Indonesia, however, has reached a different assessment of the species’ status within its own territory.
The country classified long-tailed macaques as “least concern” in its national conservation assessment conducted in 2024.
The assessment was incorporated into the Ministry of Forestry’s 2025-2029 conservation plan.
According to the national assessment, long-tailed macaques are distributed widely across Indonesia, and surveyed wild populations were generally considered stable. In some locations, officials said, the animals appeared to be increasing to levels that created problems for surrounding communities.
Data collected between 2019 and 2024 estimated nearly 49,000 long-tailed macaques across surveyed sites in Indonesia.
South Sumatra recorded the largest surveyed population, at 12,722 animals, followed by Lampung with 9,781 and Jambi with 8,342.
The Indonesian government argues that these findings demonstrate why its national policy cannot be based solely on the species’ global conservation classification.
Animal welfare organizations have strongly rejected that argument.
After the Lampung facility was opened, US-based nonprofit Lady Freethinker launched a petition calling on the Indonesian government to suspend plans to breed and export long-tailed macaques.
By Aug. 15, the petition had collected more than 37,000 signatures.
Lady Freethinker is part of a coalition that includes Action for Primates, the Jakarta Animal Aid Network, Natha Satwa Nusantara, Animal Lawyer Indonesia and Animal Friends Jogja.
The organizations issued a joint statement on Aug. 3 calling for an end to the renewed export program.
They argue that macaques are intelligent and highly social animals that suffer when separated from their groups, confined, transported and subjected to invasive biomedical experimentation.
Lady Freethinker founder and president Nina Jackel said restarting the trade could expose thousands of additional animals to suffering.
The coalition also argues that the renewed export program runs against a broader international trend toward reducing the use of non-human primates in some areas of biomedical research.
For animal welfare advocates, the issue is therefore not simply whether Indonesia can legally export macaques under CITES rules. They question whether the trade should be expanded at all.
One of the most contentious issues concerns the origin of the animals being used as breeding stock.
BMNI’s Reki was quoted by local media as saying that residents could sell wild macaques to the company for around 200,000 rupiah, or about $11, each.
That statement immediately raised concerns among animal welfare organizations.
The coalition said such a system could make it difficult to distinguish legitimately sourced breeding animals from wild individuals captured specifically for commercial purposes.
It warned that the practice could potentially allow wild-caught macaques to be laundered into commercial breeding operations.
Mesuji’s regent rejected the suggestion that the facility was purchasing macaques from residents as part of a commercial wild-capture operation.
She said payments given to residents should instead be viewed as a “token of appreciation” for people who handed over wild macaques.
Some residents, she added, had received training from Lampung’s Natural Resources Conservation Agency to capture macaques considered nuisances.
The distinction is important because Indonesian regulations allow the capture, breeding and trade of long-tailed macaques under certain conditions, even though the species is not classified as protected under national law.
Government officials have sought to reassure critics that the export system is subject to multiple layers of oversight.
Karding said macaques destined for export must remain at breeding facilities for about two years.
During that period, they must be monitored for physical health and disease, while authorities assess their suitability for international shipment.
He said several government agencies are involved in the process.
The National Research and Innovation Agency, known as BRIN, must issue recommendations on the number of animals that can be exported, while the Ministry of Forestry determines which species can be bred.
Quarantine authorities then oversee health and disease-control requirements.
“Exporting these macaques is not something that can be done arbitrarily,” Karding said during the inauguration of the Mesuji facility.
He emphasized that the number of procedures required meant companies could not simply capture animals and immediately send them overseas.
Karding also said Indonesia already had other breeding facilities, including operations in Sulawesi and the Thousand Islands near Jakarta.
The government maintains that facilities are established only in locations considered suitable for macaque breeding.
Another major argument in favor of the breeding program is the increasing conflict between macaques and people.
Human-macaque conflicts have been reported in various parts of Indonesia, particularly where agricultural areas overlap with macaque habitats.
In Mesuji, local officials say macaques frequently raid farms and destroy crops.
Elfianah said groups of macaques could destroy an entire hectare of crops.
Farmers, she said, had sometimes resorted to shooting or electrocuting macaques in an effort to protect their livelihoods.
The problem is not confined to Lampung.
In Tembilahan, Riau, macaque attacks reportedly injured 19 people between late July and early August.
The incidents have renewed attention to the challenge of managing macaques in areas where human settlements and agricultural production are expanding.
But researchers have cautioned that human-macaque conflict cannot simply be explained by an increase in animal numbers.
Changes in habitat, increased human activity near forests, the availability of food on farms and people feeding macaques can all alter animal behavior and increase encounters with humans.
Those factors complicate the argument that removing macaques from conflict areas is necessarily the best solution.
In South Sulawesi’s Selayar Islands, exporter Muh Yakub says local farmers have experienced similar problems.
Yakub, who owns Gowa-based PT Anak Atol Asugi, said macaques had become increasingly abundant and frequently raided farms.
He said residents sometimes killed animals that entered agricultural areas because they saw few other ways to protect their crops.
At village planning meetings, he said, farmers repeatedly raised the issue of macaque attacks.
“Imagine tending your corn for months, only to have the macaques wipe it out just as it is ready to harvest,” he said.
Yakub believes the government should allow larger quotas for capturing wild macaques for breeding and eventual export.
He said his company had received a quota to capture 1,046 macaques since he began his breeding business in 2021.
It did not begin exporting until 2024, when it shipped 540 macaques to the United States.
He said there had been no further shipment since then.
The wild macaques sourced by his company come from the Selayar Islands before being transported to a breeding facility in Subang, West Java.
For exporters like Yakub, the macaque trade offers a possible mechanism for managing animals that communities regard as agricultural pests while generating income from a regulated industry.
Animal welfare advocates strongly challenge that approach.
Femke den Haas, co-founder of the Jakarta Animal Aid Network, said macaques should not automatically be categorized as pests simply because they come into conflict with humans.
She acknowledged that wildlife can create serious problems for farmers, particularly when crops are damaged or people are injured.
But she argued that solutions should seek to reduce conflict rather than treating removal and commercial exploitation as the default answer.
“We need to find a win-win solution,” she said.
The debate reflects a larger challenge facing Indonesia as development pushes agriculture, settlements and infrastructure closer to wildlife habitats.
Where natural food sources disappear or become fragmented, macaques can increasingly depend on farms, plantations and human settlements.
At the same time, farmers often bear the economic costs of crop losses.
The question is whether commercial breeding and export can genuinely resolve that problem or whether it could create an additional incentive to capture animals from the wild.
The controversy is also notable because some Indonesian local governments have moved toward tighter restrictions on macaque exploitation.
Jakarta has cracked down on street monkey performances since 2013.
Surakarta has also banned such performances.
Bali took additional measures in 2025, urging residents not to keep long-tailed macaques as pets, banning street monkey performances and strengthening oversight of hunting and wildlife trade.
Den Haas said these steps had represented progress in efforts to change public attitudes toward macaques.
She described the new national export initiative as a reversal of that direction.
The conflict illustrates the differences between national and local approaches.
While the central government sees regulated breeding and exports as potentially compatible with conservation and economic development, some local administrations have adopted policies aimed at reducing human exploitation of macaques.
Local authorities in Mesuji argue that the breeding facility can provide benefits beyond exports.
Elfianah said nearby communities could supply corn, papayas and other fresh fruit used to feed the macaques.
The operation is also expected to create employment.
Plans include an animal hospital and a release area for macaques that do not meet export requirements.
Officials have even discussed developing the site as a tourist attraction.
For Mesuji, the project is therefore being presented as a combination of wildlife management, employment generation, agriculture and tourism.
The government says that if macaques are already creating conflict with communities, controlled breeding could provide an alternative to indiscriminate killing.
Yet critics remain concerned that the commercial value of the animals could eventually become an incentive for capture rather than a solution to conflict.
The central question is how effectively authorities can guarantee that breeding programs remain genuinely captive-based and that wild populations are not exploited to meet international demand.
Indonesia’s renewed export push comes at a complicated moment for the long-tailed macaque.
Internationally, the species faces serious conservation pressures, with the IUCN warning of substantial population declines linked to habitat loss, hunting and capture.
Within Indonesia, meanwhile, government assessments indicate that macaques remain widespread and that some populations are stable or locally abundant.
Both realities can exist simultaneously.
A species can have relatively large and stable populations in particular parts of Indonesia while experiencing significant declines across its broader global range.
That makes the management of international trade especially important.
For Indonesian authorities, a carefully controlled breeding industry could provide research institutions with animals bred under known conditions while reducing pressure on wild populations.
For animal welfare groups, however, the expansion of commercial breeding could normalize a trade involving animals that are highly social, intelligent and capable of experiencing distress.
The outcome may ultimately depend on how Indonesia implements its new quota and how rigorously it monitors the origins of breeding animals.
If the government can demonstrate that exports are based on sustainable captive breeding, that wild populations are protected and that welfare standards are enforced, officials will have a stronger basis for defending the program.
If wild capture continues to supply commercial breeding operations, however, the policy could face growing criticism both domestically and internationally.
The opening of the Mesuji facility has therefore done more than create a new source of macaques for biomedical research. It has reopened a fundamental debate over how Indonesia should balance scientific demand, economic interests, conservation obligations and the welfare of one of Southeast Asia’s most recognizable primate species.
As the country moves ahead with its 2026 export quota and considers potential access to the Chinese market, scrutiny of the macaque trade is likely to intensify.
For communities struggling with crop losses and dangerous encounters, the issue is immediate and practical. For conservationists, it is a question of whether commercial exploitation can coexist with long-term protection. And for the biomedical research sector, it is part of a continuing debate over how—and how extensively—non-human primates should be used in science.
Indonesia’s challenge will be to prove that its renewed macaque trade can address those competing demands without turning a wildlife-management problem into a new conservation and animal welfare crisis.
