Brazil Steps up the Fight Against Animal Smuggling
10/25/99
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Title: Brazil steps up the fight against animal smuggling
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 25, 1999
BRASILIA - Brazil has launched its first training course for police
to combat the massive illegal trade in animals ranging from Amazon
frogs to the endangered lear macaw, the official in charge of the
program said.
An estimated 12 million animals are smuggled out of Brazil every year
generating annual revenues of $1.5 billion for dealers, said Denner
Giovanini, head of the National Network Against the Trafficking of
Wild Animals (RENCTAS).
"Unfortunately the government has still not woken up to this
problem," Giovanini told Reuters. "Of the agents in charge of
monitoring environmental crimes, who are very few in Brazil, I would
say 95 percent are not prepared to do a good job."
The training course, launched in Brasilia this week and about to go
nationwide, aims to rectify this by teaching officers skills such as
detecting forged export permits.
Brazil, home to a vast variety of ecosystems ranging from the Amazon
rain forest to the Pantanal wetlands, is a rich source of exotic
species including jaguars and alligators.
But only one of every 10 animals removed from their natural habitat
survive the journey to private collectors, pet shops and
pharmaceutical firms in Europe, said Giovanini.
To illustrate the extreme techniques used by smugglers, he cited the
case of a German dealer recently arrested at Sao Paulo's
international airport with 550 Amazon frogs and 80 snakes stuffed
into his luggage.
The recently created RENCTAS, which is privately funded but works in
partnership with the federal police and the government's Environment
Agency (Ibama), is struggling to combat the problem on shoestring
resources.
Its 1999 budget is just $60,000, the same amount as a dealer can
fetch by selling a single lear macaw, a species native to Brazil of
which only 132 are left in the wild, he said.