Bolivia doubles its alligator hide exports in two years
10/06/2013
In terms of volume, Bolivia exported 26,690 kilos of the raw material last year, more than double the volume it exported in 2010. Two years ago, it exported 12,526 kilos of the material, bringing in $1.6 million.
As proof that the trend is continuing, the official overseas trade body said Bolivia had exported alligator hides worth $2.2 million in the first four months of 2013. The principal destinations for the hides are, in descending order, Italy, Spain, the US, Mexico and Germany.
The government said that Bolivia’s success in growing its alligator skins business is having a positive effect on indigenous communities in Amazon regions. It is they who hunt the alligators, as part of a strictly controlled sustainable management programme run by the ministry for the environment and water.
A ministry official, Ninón Ríos, recently told local media that the government had imposed a strict ban on the hunting of all wide species of alligator in Bolivia’s Amazon regions because uncontrolled hunting and illegal trade had put some species in danger. However, after numbers built up again, there has been a controlled hunting programme in place since 2002. Ms Ríos said: “The indigenous communities are playing an increasingly important role. They are taking ownership of these resources, looking after them, valuing them and reporting any illegal hunting activities that they see.”
She said that some communities are also running small alligator farms now, in natural lagoons close to major rivers.
Only adult alligators of a minimum size of 1.8 metres may be killed, and the total kill in any year must not exceed 25% of the total population. This gives a maximum annual slaughter of 40,000 alligators, Ms Ríos said.
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