Though one-off wildlife export permits are supposed to be reserved for zoo-to-zoo arrangements and for scientific or breeding purposes, recent commercial shipments of dolphins and giant anteaters were permitted under this category.
Former head of the Wildlife Unit Dr Karen Pilgrim said that in principle, the one-off permit could be effected for species not generally exported for the purpose of breeding or scientific study. But she said a shipment under this category should not be a commercial transaction and must be between governments or zoos.
Another former officer of a government agency who had been close to the wildlife trade has decried the fact that one-off permits were granted to members of the public and companies. He said such a facility should be on the basis of a particular request with the government through the Guyana Zoo.
The source, active in today's business sector, said the proceeds of such an arrangement should also go to the zoo, recalling a case where the Guyana Zoo shipped a number of manatees. He called the issuing of the one-off shipment permits an "act of connivance".
In a letter to the Secretary to the Guyana Wildlife Management Authority Board Kellawan Lall, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon asked that a one-off shipment of dolphins be considered. This letter had been copied to former head of the Wildlife Unit, Khalawan (only name) and formed the basis for the controversial export of dolphins by McNeal Enterprises. But Luncheon said that letter should not have been construed as his giving permission for the shipments to go ahead but merely the tendering of advice. This issue was the cause of the recent upheaval in the Wildlife Unit that culminated in Khalawan's dismissal.
According to regulation 66 (paragraph 1) of the Species Protection Regulations, the Management Authority may declare an organisation to be an approved institution in relation to a particular specimen. Paragraph 2 states that the Management Authority "shall not declare an organisation to be an approved institution...unless it is satisfied that the organisation is suitably equipped to and will - manage, confine, care for, and where appropriate house the live specimens; maintain adequate records relating to the matters referred to...and to the breeding, mortality and disposal of such animals or plants; and produce those records when required to do so by the Management Authority."
The exports of the dolphins were facilitated by McNeal Enterprises, a company owned by Presidential Advi-ser Odinga Lumumba, and better known for promoting beauty pageants and boxing matches and not in compliance with the requirements of the regulations.
The regulations stipulate that the Management Autho-rity declares a zoological organisation to be approved when it is satisfied that the government or organisation owns the zoo and that there is breeding or public exhibition of specimens. It must also be a not-for-profit entity. The dolphins were said to have been shipped to a marine park in Venezuela in a commercial transaction.
The export or import of an animal specimen shall be taken to be an inter-zoological organisation transfer if the exporter or sender is an approved zoological organisation in relation to the class of specimen being considered for shipment.
Dr Pilgrim told Stabroek News it is a requirement of CITES that there be legislation covering the trade. She said the government had made several attempts at making laws but that those were never pushed. She said the Unit had received guidelines from CITES on what is needed.
She expressed the opinion that the regulations covering the export of wildlife should not have been under the Environmental Protection Act, since in her opinion they conflicted with each other.
The other former official with whom Stabroek News spoke said that the extant regulations governing the export of wildlife in Guyana had been hurriedly put together in an attempt to evade an export ban from the Convention on International Trade in Wild Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) and are less effective than they would have been as laws. Despite this he said they are adequate, since they were modelled after CITES regulations.
The regulations in question are the Species Protection Regulations 1999 made under the Environmental Protection Act of 1996. The Wild Birds Protection Act and Fisheries Act also have some bearing on the trade.
The officer told Stabroek News yesterday that at the height of a crisis in the local wildlife industry several years ago CITES had directed that Guyana put the necessary legislation in place failing which the trade would have to stop.
According to the source, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - which at that time housed the Wildlife Unit - got involved in formulating the regulations. He said those regulations should have been formulated as a Bill to be passed in Parliament. "It went through as a regulation made under the EPA Act, as a matter of expediency," the source said.
He said the regulations need to be made into full laws but there has to be provisions in place for monitoring of the trade. He is of the view that nothing has changed since 1999, and that the trade in Guyana has a bad name. "There is no analytical work going on," he said, adding that the trade is done from an "office" and that there is hardly any fieldwork involved. The person said there have been several incidences of corruption and there were some reports of illicit drugs going out with wildlife shipments. But he said that he would have agreed to the concessionary shipment of the four giant anteaters to the Czech Republic, were he in Dr Keshav Mangal's position. Mangal, who is Chairman of the Board for the Guyana Wildlife Management Autho-rity, said in a letter to the press he was advised by Secretary of the Board Kellawan Lall that the shipment of the anteaters would be a special concession due to circumstances explained by Khalawan, who noted that the shippers stood to lose a lot of money if the order could not be sent. According to Mangal's letter, the zoo in the Czech Republic had placed an order that included 126 monkeys and 600 caimans. Another 34 giant anteaters were allowed to be shipped through five different exporters prior to the Czech Republic shipment.
Speaking with Stabroek News yesterday, Dr Mangal said that he could not comment on the propriety for individuals acquiring permits for one-off shipments. But on the status of the investigation into various exports, he told Stabroek News that the Board's internal probe is ongoing and that the pertinent documents are being checked, adding that so far nothing conclusive has emerged.
Khalawan told Stabroek News yesterday that he still intends to go ahead with legal action against the government for sacking him. He said that he was able to retrieve some documents that he believes would exonerate him from any wrongdoing.