There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
When I see Chinese companies approaching wildl areas, independent of being extractive companies (oil, minerals, gas ...) or infrastructure (roads, bridges, railways ...), concerns arise and become evident in facts. Scattered around the world, its employees soon absorb new possibilities to increase their financial gains, through products and by-products from the wildlife and examples are not lacking ... this investigative report approaches the surrounding region and Madidi National Park, just one example where the opportunity led to a search for canines, testicles, fur and claws of jaguar, whose existence was not known in this reogião. In this case, it seems redundant to identify that this "business" is a direct result these newly arrived citizens.
It is not a matter of wishing that these companies fail to carry out their works, many of them are important sources of development. It is a question of understanding that these crimes are propagated as long as they find a favorable environment. Bland laws and inefficient execution lead the balance to go down in favor of crime. In many underdeveloped countries foreign citizenship already provides certain tolerances among other perks, and nothing like corruption and public inefficiency to propel an illegal market in a place where such practices did not exist.
Fang trafficking to China is putting Bolivia’s jaguars in jeopardy
by Roberto Navia on 26 January 2018 | Translated by Sarah Engel Mongabay Series: Latin American Wildlife Trade
Residents in Bolivia’s Sena community say that they can sell a jaguar canine for about $215 on the Chinese market.
According to Bolivian authorities, the fangs are valued in the Asian market at prices as high as cocaine.
Between 2013 and 2016, 380 jaguar canines were seized by Bolivian authorities, which correlates to 95 jaguars killed.
Residents say an influx of Chinese companies to build roads and bridges in Bolivia is contributing to increased trafficking of jaguar parts. However, authorities deny these claims.
BOLIVIA — A skull rests in the hands of a hunter. It is a jaguar’s skull that has all of its teeth in place, except the four fangs that the jaguar used to sink into the necks of its prey – until Jesús shot him with an old shotgun in the Bolivian Amazon.
“For the tiger, you have to aim at the heart to leave it dry,” says the hunter, boasting of his aim.
Jesús, like many other hunters in the Bolivian jungle, usually uses the word “tiger” to refer to the jaguar (Panthera onca). He killed this particular jaguar in the thicket of a forest that he is very familiar with.
Jesús claims that he killed the jaguar three months ago because it was about to attack him, and that he shot it dead from about 30 meters away. He also says he would do the same thing again, because two Chinese citizens visited him in his home in Sena, in the Pando Department, to “open his eyes” and offer him $215 per fang. He also says that he sold them to them generously because he had never seen so much money in the same place. It surprised him that someone would pay so much money for a few jaguar fangs that were worth nothing to him...
