TED Case Studies

Patanal Wildlife Trade

Go to All TED Cases

          CASE NUMBER:          217
          CASE MNEMONIC:      PATANAL
          CASE NAME:          Patanal Loss and Species Loss

A.   IDENTIFICATION

1.   The Issue

The Pantanal is a wetland in South America which is about the
size of the state of Florida, spanning the countries of Brazil,
Paraguay and Bolivia. The region is teeming with wildlife,
insects, birds, amphibians, trees and plants. However, the region
is under seige by gangs of poachers who illegally kill animals,
primarily jaguar, caiman, foxes, alligators, and wolves which
inhabit the region. Smuggling rings have been set up to export
these skins to the garmet manufacturers in the U.S., Germany and
Italy, where producers of finished goods made of the skins are
lucrative on the intenational market. A problem has arisen,
however, where these animals are becoming endangered, given the
high magnitude of their slaying. In addition, the ecosystem of
the Pantanal is being disrupted, such as an over-abundance in
other smaller animals which are normally prey to these larger
animals which are poached. 

2.   Desription

On September 17, 1985, Jose Sarney president of Brazil at the
time, declared the large wetland,called the Pantanal in the Mato
Grosso region of Brazil, a priority area for research and
conservation. His announcement was part of a ceremony of a
worldwide campaign directed at the conservation of wetlands. The
campaign was promoted by UNESCO, with the cooperation of the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources (IUCN) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). 

The Pantanal with its extrodinary diversity and abundance of
wildlife, is a region under seige. Among the environmental
threats are: deforestation, expanding agriculture, the pollution
of the water as a result of herbicides, pesticides a by-products
of fuel alcohol production, and the animal skin trade. These
factors taken as a whole have rendered the Pantanal one of
Brazil's most important ecosystems at high risk. 

This report will focus on one aspect of the Pantanal's
environmental threats, illegal poaching and trade, as it is
relavant to the issue of environment and trade. The Institute of
Environmental Poaching and Control of the State of Mato Grosso do
Sul (INAMB) is a small governrnental agency with limited powers
and few resources. Investigation of poaching in the Pantanal
falls within its jurisdiction. The poaching effort in the
Pantanal is so overwhelming that few offenders are brought to
justice. It is also important to note that the majority of the
crimes are not committed by individuals protecting their property
or for personal consumption, but rather by large organized groups
who kill thousands of caiman, fox, jaguar, wolf, and alligator
each year for their precious skins and furs to sell abroad. 

Of those the offenses which have been found and documented are:
in 1981, a shipment of 435 Jaguar skins was confiscated from
poachers in the Pantanal. In April 1985, 3200kg of caiman sk.ins
were intercepted at Galeao International Airport in Rio de
Janeiro. In 1985, the Brazilian Institute for Forestry
Development (IBDF), the federal agency responsible for wildlife
and enforcement, confiscated a shipment of animal skins in
Viracopos International Airport in Sao Paulo. The shipment
consisted of 2500 kg of jaguars, mane wolves, foxes, caimans, and
snakes. The smugglers admited that the shipment represented on
13% of skins that they had sent to Germany in the previous six
months. Many of the skins were from the Pantanal. 

Unfortunately, due to the lack of enforcement of trade laws
regarding the export and purchase of these skins it is difficult
to estimate exactly how many wolves, foxes, alligator, snakes,
jaguar, and caiman are slain each year and what the profits
earnedGermany, continues unabaled. However, most recently a
regional research-exchange plan has been signed by universities
in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, three countries covered by the
Pantanal. In addition, last year the state of Mato Grosso do Sul
in Brazil, an environmental exchange program with Florida was
started to try to save the Everglades and Pantanal.

3.   Related Cases

     ATATURK case
     COLORADO case
     MEKONG case
     THREEDAM case
     ISRAELH2 case

     Keyword Clusters    

     (1): Trade Product            = MANY
     (2): Bio-geography            = TEMPerate 
     (3): Environmental Problem    = HABITat Loss Land

4.   Draft Author: Patricia Greer

B.   LEGAL Clusters

5.   Discourse and Status:  DISagreement and INCOMplete

6.   Forum and Scope:  BRAZIL and MULTilateral

7.   Decision Breadth: 5 (ARGENTINA, BRAZIL, PARAGUAY,
     BOLIVIA, URUGUAY) 

8.   Legal Standing:  LAW

C.   GEOGRAPHIC Clusters

9.   Geographic Locations

     a.   Geographic Domain : South America [SAMER]
     b.   Geographic Site   : Southern South America [SSAMER]
     c.   Geographic Impact : Brazil (Pantanal)

10.  Sub-National Factors:  YES

Although Bolivia and Paraguay have no agency to enforce local and
international laws against the poaching and sale of caiman, fox,
wolf, jaguar, alligator and snakes, Brazil has a small and
meagerly funded agency, the Institute of Environmental Poaching
and Control of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, whose function is
to police the killing and export of these animals. However, given
the limited resources and power of this agency, much poaching
goes unabated.

11.  Type of Habitat:     TEMPerate

D.   TRADE Clusters
     
12.  Type of Measure:    Regulatory Standard [REGSTD]

13.  Direct vs. Indirect Impacts:  INDirect

14.  Relation of Measure to Environmental Impact

     a.  Directly Related     : YES TRANSport   
     b.  Indirectly Related   : NO
     c.  Not Related          : NO
     d.  Process Related      : YES  HABITat Loss

The Pantanal is a vast floodplain along the course of the
Paraguay River in the South American contintent. About two thirds
of the region, 54,000 square miles or 140,000 square km - an area
the size of Florida, is in Brazil, with the rest shared by
Bolivia and Paraguay. The maximum north-south extent is 450 km,
and the width is 200 km at the latitude of Corumba in the state
of Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil. Taken together, these parts make
up the largest wetland in the world. 

15.  Trade Product Identification:  FUR

16.  Economic Data

17.  Impact of Measure on Trade Competitiveness:  LOW

18.  Industry Sector:    TEXTile

19.  Exporter and Importer: BRAZIL and MANY

E.   ENVIRONMENT Clusters

20.  Environemnt Problem: HABITat Loss

21.  Name, Type, and Diversity of Species 

          Name:          MANY      
          Type:          MANY           
          Diversity:     MANY

Species under immediate threat and endangerment

Dusicyon thous (crab-eating fox)
Chrysocyon brachyurus (maned wolf)
Speothus venaticus (bush dog)
Felis paradalis (ocelot)
Pantera onca (jaguar)
Pteronura brasiliensis (giant otter)
Lutra longicaudis (neotropical river otter)
Myrmecophaga trida,ctyla (giant anteater)
Priodontes giganteus (giant armadillo)
Tolypuetes trincinctus (three-banded aramdillo)
Ozotoceros bezoarticus (pampas deer)
Blastocerus dichotornus (swamp deer)

All of these species live in the Pantanal. There loss via poacing
for international buyers has rendered a severe ecological
imbalance, where there prey are becoming over-abundant. In
addition, their loss as a result of greedy poachers and garmet
manufacturers to the world as beautiful creature of the earth
through extinction is a shame. 

22.  Impact and Effect: HIGH and PRODuct

23.  Urgency and Lifetime: MEDium and 100s of years

24.  Substitutes: LIKE

F. OTHER FACTORS

25.  Culture: NO

26.  Human Rights: NO

27.  Transborder: YES

28.  References