Imports from Mexico, laws, history

[Socratic Monologue]

Given the number of animals on the market that may be more-or-less recent imports from Mexico (either directly or via an intermediary country), I'd like to get a better understanding of the legislative history regarding wildlife (CB and WC) exports from Mexico.

Some documented facts:

-- Mexico became a party to CITES in 1991 (Source:https://cites.org/eng/disc/parties/chronolo.php), and so exports of CITES listed species can be searched here: https://trade.cites.org/

-- Mexico's current legislation regarding exports all grounded in their Ley General del Equilibrio Ecológico y la Protección al Ambiente, "LGEEPA" (General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection) passed in 1988. (Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGEEPA ; https://www.traffic.org/site/assets...s-and-amphibians-of-the-chihuahuan-desert.pdf ; https://www.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/en/mx/mx028en.pdf )

-- Legal exports of herps from Mexico was talking place well into the 1980s, which makes sense given the 'General Law' passed in 1988. I had heard talk of heavy legal Lampropeltis collection in Mexico in the 1980's, some of which is documented in "Mountain Kings: A Collective Natural History of California, Sonoran, Durango and Queretaro Mountain Kingsnakes", Brian Hubbs, 2004.

-- There is some legal export of some wildlife from Mexico currently. The only documented non-CITES species I am aware of are CB Theraphosidae (http://www3.cec.org/islandora/en/it...n-tarantulas-action-plan-north-america-en.pdf). There are a handful of exports of live CITES listed reptiles from Mexico since 1991; I can't figure out how to attach a .csv file here, and don't think the URLs on the CITES database are stable, so if you're interested in seeing that data, search at https://trade.cites.org/.

I'm interested to see credible information regarding non-CITES exports from Mexico, both currently and before 1988. If anyone has info on those issues, or anything else to ask or add, please contribute.

 

[thamnophis123]

Mexico doesn't use a digital wildlife trade database. So the paper records can be more easily forged, as we see these days. There should be some clarity coming down the pike here before long though. But longer term solutions are going to require better cooperation with EU Countries like Germany, Spain, Canada, etc that are knowingly laundering trafficked wildlife, and the Mexico authorities that are not cooperative either.
Notice all the herps that are being trafficked thru Nicaragua these days. Basically Mexican smugglers taking advantage of the political chaos in Nicaragua. There is no doubt the smugglers are trafficking herps from other CA countries as well. All legal because they are "not CITES". I think a shoe will drop soon. I hope they drop on sites like this one, morph market, etc that facilitate illegal wildlife trafficking.

 

[Kfen]

I heard through the grapevine that a bunch of the Abronia came "legally" because they were listed as cb by a facility in Mexico but really were laundered wc. I have no intimate knowledge on the subject so take it as heresay. I am also curious though. There were a bunch of Mexican Rhinoclemmys that came in about 5 years ago and I was curious how. Hope some more people chime in.

 

[Socratic Monologue]

I heard through the grapevine that a bunch of the Abronia came "legally" because they were listed as cb by a facility in Mexico but really were laundered wc.

Yes, there have been Abronia exported from Mexico with permits. Purpose 'T' is 'commercial'; source 'c' is CB, 'u' is 'unknown'.