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Jakarta. Wildlife activists announced on Friday they had found 18 highly endangered Sunda slow lorises being sold openly in Jakarta, just a day after government officials and conservationists held a seminar on the threats facing the primate.

Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring network, said its staff had found the animals being displayed in cages in front of Jatinegara Market in East Jakarta on Dec. 10.

It also said one cage was seen holding six lorises, forest-dwelling primates who are hunted for their large eyes.

The find came after a Dec. 9 seminar organized by International Animal Rescue Indonesia, which identified the illegal trade in the animal as the main reason for the species’ decline in the wild and for the high rate of premature death in captivity.

Chris R. Shepherd, deputy regional director of Traffic Southeast Asia, said the problem was the lack of law enforcement against the practice.

“These animals exemplify the threats slow lorises and other protected species face in Indonesia — trade is carried out openly and dealers do not fear reprimand or penalties,” he said.

“Dealers are well aware of the illegality of their trade in these species. Only with successful prosecution and sustained efforts by authorities to close down this trade will the situation change. Anything less is meaningless.”

Karmele Llano Sanchez, the IAR’s veterinary director, agreed, saying “It is obvious that people do not take the Indonesian laws seriously.”

“Only a small percentage of traded lorises are rescued and even those can rarely be returned to the wild as traders remove their teeth prior to selling the animals,” she said.

Shepherd said another challenge was that only one of the three subspecies — the Javan slow loris — was protected under Indonesian law.

The Javan slow loris has been listed among the world’s 25 most endangered primates since 2008.

The country is also home to two other subspecies, the Malay and Borneo slow lorises.

Trade in all three is prohibited under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which Indonesia has acceded to but not ratified.

Traffic staff also found other rare animals being traded at the market, including the crested serpent-eagle, crested hawk-eagle, black-winged kite and leopard cat.

All are fully protected under Indonesian laws and cannot be legally traded.

Ahmad Saeroji, acting head of the Jakarta Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), said he would look in to the matter of animals being illegally traded in markets once be had formally taken up his new post.

“Once I start working, I’ll put these markets in order, just like in Surabaya,” said Ahmad, formerly with the East Java BKSDA.

Under the 1990 Law on the Conservation of Natural Resources and Ecosystems, anyone caught trading in protected species can face up to five years in prison and fines of up to Rp 100 million ($11,000).