The recent threat by President Bharrat Jagdeo to shut down the local wildlife trade has sparked concern from a number of persons.
Chief among them are wildlife exporters who say that the statement threatens their livelihood.
Thelma Reece, who has been exporting mammals, reptiles and exotic birds for the past twenty-five years, believes that the President’s statement should be taken seriously.
“We haven’t done anything; we are not responsible for whatever problem there is among those at the top. We are just trying to make an honest living, and it is unfair to us that the President would even think about taking away our means of livelihood as a mechanism to correcting these wrongs.”
She opined that a more realistic way of correcting the situation would have been to take the reins of the organisation from the hands of ‘party faithfuls’ and put it in the hands of true professionals.
Reece said that the time for such action is obviously long overdue since in the past three years, the organisation has changed three heads.
“There was Ramdass and then Balpersaud, and there has been allegations of theft and fraud and the like. Then the organisation was moved from the Ministry of Agriculture to the Office of the President. Nothing has changed. The way forward would be to hire true professionals to run the organisation,” Reece stressed.
Louis Martins, who has been involved in the export of all types of mammals, reptiles and birds, says that the true figure of those that stand to lose if the president makes good his threat is close to 20,000.
“This threat has implications for thousands of Guyanese. Not only will it affect the exporters themselves, but there are hundreds of other people involved in various aspects of the trade who will be affected.”
He noted that these would include trappers, transporters, animal keepers and food suppliers.
“Additionally, there are some farmers, who between crops, would catch animals. There are about 200 to 300 of them alone between Rockstone and Linden.
“President Jagdeo’s threat will affect so many people, its impossible to name them all. Even the plywood maker and the person who sells the nails to make the boxes will not escape.”
Martins lamented the fact that the President could consider to disband an operation that is responsible for bringing millions of dollars into the country, annually.
He questioned whether the President would have threatened to close the gold or diamond operations if they had suffered similar problems.
He said that he has a website and already he has received calls from customers inquiring about what obtains in the wake of the President’s threat.
“Imagine how insecure a customer, who has ordered a shipment valued at about US$30,000, and who reads on the Internet that the President of Guyana may shut down this trade”.
“This country is a struggling Third World country and can ill afford this kind of negative publicity.”
He stressed that a more appropriate way of dealing with this would be to launch an investigation and deal with the perpetrators instead of threatening to take away the livelihood of thousands of Guyanese bent on making an honest living.
Carmen Low, who with her husband pioneered the wildlife trade in Guyana some 30 years ago, believes that the time has come for the Wildlife Division to be revamped.
Commenting on the President’s threat, she said that she finds it unfair that the Head of State, instead of issuing a statement that made it clear that he would clean up the operations at the top of the division, issued one that puts pressure on the exporters.
“Why are we being made to suffer for the actions of people placed at the helm of this organisation by the very government?” she questioned.
She opined that the way forward in this issue would be for Government to focus on finding a professional with the requisite experience and knowledge to run the division.
President Jagdeo’s announcement came on Friday during a press conference.
He said that he may have to consider shutting down the local wildlife trade if the operators in the sector continue to subvert the legal channels to carry on their business.
This statement comes in the wake of the allegations that head of the Wildlife Division, Khalawan exceeded his mandate and caused wildlife species to be exported without the appropriate approvals.
The Board of Directors has since stated that it no longer has confidence in Khalawan and fired him.