Letters Needed: Protect Monkeys and Apes in Uganda

[Guest guest]

*** LETTERS NEEDED TO PROTECT MONKEYS AND APES IN UGANDA ***

 

The April 2002 'IPPL News' provided detailed coverage about the re-opening

of wildlife trade in Uganda. International Primate Protection League

[http://www.IPPL.org] members learned that Uganda's export quotas for

wildlife included 1,800 vervet monkeys and 2,700 olive baboons. Uganda is

also home to chimpanzees and many other rare primate species which are

coveted in trade.

 

In the 21 May 2002 news article which follows, 'New Vision' (Kampala)

reports that the Uganda Wildlife Service has promised to re-examine the

issue of licensing wildlife traders.

 

**YOUR LETTERS ARE NEEDED!** [From the April 2002 'IPPL News' -- full

article appended further below]

 

Please send courteous letters requesting the Government of Uganda reconsider

its plan to allow animal dealers to export Uganda's wildlife. Point out the

inhumane nature of the animal trade and the suffering of the animals

involved. Request that all Uganda's wildlife remain legally protected so

that tourists can continue to visit the country to enjoy its natural beauty

and amazing wildlife. Postage from the United States to Uganda costs 80

cents per ounce. Address your letters to the following individuals:

 

Mr. Yoweri Museveni

Office of the President

State House

P.O. Box 24594

Kampala, Uganda

 

Mr. Justus Tindigarukayo

Assistant Commissioner for Wildlife Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry

P.O. Box 4241

Kampala, Uganda

 

His Excellency the Ambassador of Uganda

5911 16th St NW

Washington, DC 20011

Fax: 202-726-1727

 

To write a letter to the editor of New Vision, please send an e-mail to

letters or send a letter to the following address:

 

Letters to the Editor

New Vision

P.O. Box 9815

Kampala, Uganda

 

___

 

New Vision (Kampala), May 21, 2002

Clarify Animal Export Quotas

http://allafrica.com/stories/200205210500.html

 

THE UGANDA Wildlife Authority has suspended the licence of a leading

wildlife export company.

 

The UWA is investigating allegations that Avinature has been exporting

tortoises and chameleons far in excess of its allotted permits. The UWA has

found substantial discrepancies between the permits given to Avinature and

the export certificates faxed back by the Convention in International Trade

in Endangered Species in Geneva.

 

The UWA is to be commended for cracking down on this apparent abuse of the

present arrangements for the export of live animals.

 

Last month the Uganda Wildlife Society called for a moratorium on the export

of live animals until a detailed cost-benefit analysis of the trade has been

conducted.

 

The UWA had promised to re-examine the issue of licencing live animal

traders but also to finalise and release the annual quotas for live animal

exports.

 

It appears as though Avinature has been bending the rules by exporting

animals in excess of its permits. But it is hard to blame Customs or UWA

officials because no list has been released giving the official quotas for

exports of live animals.

 

It is easy for unscrupulous traders to exploit this grey area as it is still

not clear if animal exports are legal or not, and, if they are legal, how

many animals can be exported.

 

The best thing would be if government stopped the animal trade. It earns

very little revenue and only undermines the tourist trade. However, if

government and the UWA insist on maintaining live animal exports, then at

least publish the official list for live animal export quotas. Otherwise

animal traders are likely to continue exploiting this policy vacuum.

 

___

UGANDA RE-OPENS WILDLIFE TRADE - YOUR PROTESTS NEEDED IPPL News

April 2002

 

The East African nation of Uganda has decided to resume wildlife exports and

your protests are urgently needed now.

 

IPPL, working with our late colleague Ndyakira Amooti, a reporter for the

New Vision newspaper, foiled an attempt to open up large-scale wildlife

exports from Uganda in 1990.

 

The 1990 IPPL-Amooti Campaign

 

In that year US expatriate animal dealer Joseph Phillip Beraducci, who

operates a wildlife export business in Tanzania, established the " Wildlife

Center of Uganda " and collected animals, including monkeys, for export.

 

The 20 December 1990 issue of New Vision reported that around 100 of 300

monkeys slated for export had died at the center. New Vision went on to

report that the company, working with a man named Smith Maku, was holding

permits to trap primates and many other wildlife species.

 

Shirley McGreal of IPPL provided Amooti with US dealers' price-lists, which

showed the staggering profits made at the US end of the reptile trade.

 

As a result of Amooti and New Vision's concern, Uganda issued no further

monkey trapping licenses, and Beraducci returned to continue his animal

dealing business in Tanzania.

 

In September 1990, a Danish dealer named Ingemar Forss was able to smuggle

four chimpanzees out of Uganda, which he sold to a Russian circus named

Sovincirk. The animals were later confiscated when on tour in Hungary and

returned to a rescue center in Uganda in 1991.

 

Minister decides to re-open animal trade

 

In 2001 the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) decided to allow the export of

245,237 animals in 2002. Some of the spe cies listed on the Uganda export

quota list published in New Vision, such as 900 Beacroffs flying squirrels,

360 giant genets and 900 grey-headed lovebirds, are not found in Uganda at

all. The list included 90 black storks, which are migratory birds.

 

A New Vision investigation revealed that Uganda does not have the capacity

to regulate the wildlife trade. UWA spokeswoman Lilian Ajarova admitted to

New Vision, " We do not have the capacity to monitor. We depend on the

integrity of the dealers. "

 

IPPL finds such trust extremely naive. Sadly, the animals will pay the price

if the Ugandan government's trust in the integrity of animal dealers is

undeserved. The five companies reportedly allowed to export wildlife are the

American Pet Exchange, Hasena, Nile Breeders, Avinature, and Ontours.

According to New Vision, another company, Uganda Exotics Ltd., is seeking

permits for wildlife export.

 

Defending the trade

 

Defending the trade, Justus Tindigarukayo, Assistant Commissioner for

Wildlife of the Ugandan Ministry for Tourism, stated,

 

" The animals and trophies from Uganda are very popular on the global market

because Uganda has a very favorable climate and the food is good and

available, so the animals come out with very bright colors. "

 

However he admitted, " I give out CITES permits. The traders fax them to the

people they export to so that import permits can be processed for them. I

give them letters to Customs: UWA is supposed to verify what the traders are

exporting, but it has capacity problems because it has no experience in

capture. "

 

Mr. Tindigarukayo said he could not recall how many CITES export permits he

had issued in 2001.

 

Professor Edward Rugomayo, Uganda's Minister for Tourism, also vigorously

defended the animal trade, noting that New Vision was using an older version

of the list of species for export. He also claimed that the wildlife trade

benefitted Uganda and that foreign participation was necessary because of

lack of local skill in this trade. He justified the low prices by saying

that the wildlife trade is competitive.

 

Questioning the trade

 

Beti Kamya, Executive Director of the Uganda Wildlife Center, commented in a

20 March 2002 letter to the editor of New Vision, that,

 

" The Uganda Wildlife Authority's enthusiasm would be understandable if the

trade was profitable. Royalties due to UWA are about $2.60 per animal

exported, amounting to $600,000 out of the year's quota. This hardly covers

the cost of the administration and monitoring of the trade.

 

" Even if one stretched the employment statistics to 100 Ugandans for the

entire trade, their salary would not exceed $70,000 for the year: In

comparison, the market value of such volume, which is mainly the pet trade,

is about US $12 million -a rip off for Uganda!

 

" Mind you, for each animal that is successfully exported, nearly three

animals die in the capture process, due to lack of expertise in the trade in

Uganda. This means that up to 900,000 animals will leave Uganda's wild in a

period of one year. "

 

In a 28 March 2002 letter to the editor of New Vision, Prince Sadruddin Aga

Khan wrote,

 

" It is, however, with a deepening sense of anxiety that I read about

reported government plans to develop an international trade in wildlife for

the captive, exotic animal industry.

 

" Indeed, figures published in your newspaper indicate that almost 250,000

wild animals, ranging from serval cats to honey badgers, have been selected

for this trade. Uganda has an increasingly enviable reputation for its

wildlife conservation efforts, on which it has established a successful,

environmentally-responsible tourist industry. This reputation will, in my

view, be seriously jeopardized by the proposed trade, which is bound to be

condemned by a vast network of public and media concerned with

conservation...

 

" It has also been estimated that three times the number of animals to be

traded may die during capture, storage and transport. How can Uganda sustain

the loss of up to one million animals a year? Finally, it is certain from my

experience that the welfare of these animals will suffer most dreadfully.

Surely in our world there is enough suffering already without adding to it. "

 

Why action is needed

 

Among the animals on New Vision's list of proposed Year 2002 export quotas

for wildlife are 1,800 vervet monkeys and 2,700 olive baboons. Uganda is

also home to chimpanzees and many rare primate species coveted in trade.

 

In the past chimpanzees have been smuggled from Uganda to the Middle East

and Eastern Europe. Often smugglers ship chimpanzees and gorillas around the

world on documents calling them " monkeys. "

 

Ugandan officials admit that animal dealers are very hard to control and

that manpower and resources are lacking, leaving the government in the

position of trusting the dealers to police themselves. IPPL believes that

the best way to control them is to not allow them to operate at all.

 

STOP PRESS: IPPL has just learned that the Ugandan government is

reconsidering the export plan, so your input is vital.

 

***********************************************

Please visit IPPL's web site at http://www.IPPL.org for news;

updates; Action Alerts, and information for becoming an

IPPL member.