A report by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) revealed that 5,368 live wild animals, victims of trafficking, were confiscated in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. 183 species are involved among birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish, which continue to be the object of the illegal wildlife trade in these countries.
The report was drawn up with the analysis of 269 news about confiscations of live vertebrate wildlife, or its parts, of illegal origin, which were registered between January and June of this year in the Andean-Amazonian countries.
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It is estimated that the 5,368 living individuals that were retained were possibly destined for a pet market, private collections, or human consumption. Of these, 65.5% corresponded to reptiles, 23.8% to birds, 5.7% to mammals, 0.9% to amphibians and 3.9% to fish.
Among the species that were most frequently found in the seizures are the hicotea turtle (Trachemys sp.); the golden button or canary bird (Sicalis flaveola) and the white-headed monkey (Saguinus oedipus), which is listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and on the List Red of threatened species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as a species in critical danger of extinction.
Also very common species in the seizures were the taricaya turtle or river peta (Podocnemis unifilis) and the paiche or pirarucu fish (Arapaima gigas), which are species listed in Appendix II of CITES, which means that they could become threatened with extinction unless trade is strictly controlled.
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“The illegal extraction and without sustainability criteria of species of wild origin weakens ecosystems, making them more fragile and vulnerable to climatic effects or diseases; which impacts, directly or indirectly, the human groups that depend on these natural resources to live. Likewise, it generates a significant loss of biodiversity, which, without a doubt, is one of the main assets of the countries in our region,” said Adrián Reuter, principal advisor on species trafficking for Latin America and the Caribbean, from WCS. , referring to the impacts of this crime. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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