The big difference between Australia and Indonesia is that the latter is made up of (mainly small) islands that show higher levels of endemism than almost anywhere else on Earth. So species that occur on one island often don't occur anywhere else. The black tree monitors in the pet trade, for example, are known from the Aru Islands, nowhere else. It's possible that they occur on other islands but it seems more likely to me that other islands would contain different forms (=species). The point is that if these species are endemic to very small islands and they are collected by targeting gravid females that should be a cause of concern. If it turns out that they actually have much larger ranges and are very common throughout then it wouldn't be a problem. But we don't know that and the little evidence available suggests the opposite. My opinion with things like that is that if you don't know you should expect the worst. The fact that we wouldn't know that these species existed if it wasn't for the pet trade isn't justification. In fact it demonstrates the very urgent need for independant investigations.
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Mampam Conservation

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