Argentina![]() Otter
This country, located in the southeast of South America, is considered a great contributor in the global animal trafficking, sadly, this business raises up the country`s economy. It is estimated that this country is one of the hot spots in South America. By legal ways it receives between 80 and 100 million dollars per year, and by illegal ways it gets around 400% more, near to 300 and 400 millions annually. The most affected animals by these negotiations are bears, beavers, seals, leopards, minks, martens, slapsticks, scarlet macaws, foxes, pumas, boa constrictors and orangutans. There is a special case for an exotic animal, the Giant otter, which is captured for its skin, and it has already disappeared in Uruguay and there are few left in Argentina. In addition, Flemish (legal to sell) from Argentina can be found in the international market for a price of 3000 dollars, even if they are protected species.Most people think that those pretty tortoises they have in their house as pets are legal, but the truth is that the trade of this animal is illegal. The irony is that those are the most common pets in the country.
Moreover statistics show that 10.000.000 reptile skins are used for leather goods. The skin of an iguana costs around 12 dollars, the Giant otter skin seems to cost between 8 and 10 dollars, and for the fox skin they ask between 10 and 37 dollars.One of the principal birds trafficked is the talking parrot, and this is the process how they get it: The “first boss” pays to the hunters 3.5 dollars per bird, and then the “first boss” sells the animal to a specialized market man for 8 dollars. In a local shop, they sell the bird for 30 dollars, and afterward an exporter man of birds (especially, small talking parrots) sells the animal for 60 dollars. However, the big money goes to a North American merchant, who earns between 250 and 300 dollars per every single parrot, and even worst, an European merchant can get 500 dollars for the same parrot. Away from the bad news, there are also some good actions for this situations such as the help of RACTES (Red Argentina Contra el Tráfico ilegal de Especies Silvestres), with which around 3,000 animals were rescued during an impressive police operation in Argentina. There were released monkeys, birds and reptiles that are now in a bio-park for special recovery. In conclusion, “Argentina is considered one of the principal countries that has the worst number of animal trafficking with Spain, Thailand and Singapore” Bibliography
http://www.actuaeselmomento.com/2009/09/el-trafico-de-especies-un-negocio.htmlhttp://alas.galeon.com/numero02/supermanimales.htmhttp://informativos24.es/internacional/golpe-al-trafico-de-animales6http://www.actuaeselmomento.com/2009/09/el-trafico-de-especies-un-negocio.html. http://cloud.globalgiving.co.uk/pfil/1756/projdoc.pdf Written by: María José López- María Alejandra Zuluaga-Margarita Zuluaga
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Brazil![]() After the loss of habitats and subsistence hunting, illegal trade is the second greatest threat to the world’s wild fauna. Nowadays, this activity accounts for US$ 10-20 billion/year. It is also the third greatest illicit activity worldwide, being only surmounted by weapon and drug trafficking.
The traffic of animals and poaching began with the ignorance of the suppliers (in the majority Indians or peasants), which are extremely poor people without access to education and healthcare and that live in the backlands. They just are unemployed and do not have a salary, so they have to poach the animals that are within their reach, and receive a misery for it. Many times they just exchange the animals for groceries and subsistence products. Indian populations are incited by the middlemen who act in the rural and urban zones; they have the connection with major traffickers operating inside the country and abroad. Followed by, the traffickers trade through an emerging method as the Internet, which is done anonymous and by the easiest way. In the table below is showed the quantity of the principal trafficking species: *Primates: 25,000 - 40,000 = live animals, mainly for biomedical research. *Birds: 2 - 5 million live animals. *Reptiles: 3 million turtles bred in captivity. *2 - 3 million other live reptiles. *10 - 15 million shells. *10 million skins. *30 - 50 million manufactured products. (1) Most consumers keep wild animals as pets in their homes. Some breeding grounds, such as zoos, aquaria, circuses, major private collectors, tanneries, fur industry, fashion stylists and producers, pharmaceutical industry, and bird-lover's clubs have active participation in this trade. Although small, the wildlife souvenir market for tourists with its stuffed animals, pictures made from butterflies wings, and artifacts made from teeth, claws, feathers and fur, is another activity that contributes to this illegal trade. Developing countries are the major wildlife suppliers and parts of their populations make a living out of this activity. Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Guiana, Venezuela, Paraguay, Bolivia, Colombia, South Africa, Zaire, Tanzania, Kenya, Senegal, Cameroon, Madagascar, India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, and Russia are among the major exporting countries. Portugal, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Spain, Greece, Italy, France, and Belgium, countries where the products of wildlife smuggling are usually legalized, are among the major wildlife traders. Major consumer-countries are: U.S.A. (world's greatest wildlife consumer), Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, England, Switzerland, Greece, Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, and Japan. By the other hand the animal traffic is totally bounded with the drugs traffic, which usually make use of the fauna to transport the drugs that are frequently found within live animals or hidden out in their skins. Lots of animals are killed before being stuffed with drugs and it frequently causes their death during transportation. The interface between drug trafficking and wild animals trafficking is much more common than it appears to be. In consequence, the animal trade is a big factor for the transmission of serious diseases, because animals do not have any type of sanitary control when they are illegally traded, which may bring about serious sanitary consequences to the importer country. Countries as US and some European countries officially banned all imports of primates to be kept as pets, based on the evidence that primate bites may transmit rabies and other diseases. All in all, even if there are entities that fight against the animal traffic, it is still hard to reduce it, because people’s ambition is able to do what they want just to get enough money. People do not even think about the complete destruction of our actual world. |
Black Market of Endangered Species