ILLEGAL TRADE FAUNA 

Thanks to the financial support of the small grant Tropical Rainforest Program of NC-IUCN in the Netherlands, EALA (under its earlier name LAES) investigated during two years the illegal trade of fauna in Colombia, together with the Colombian "Fundación Biocolombia" of Bogotá. Various investigators have travelled through some 20 departments of Colombia and visited markets, zoos and communities in remote areas to trace illegally captured snakes, deer, felines, apes, and other wild animals but also many species of illegally captured birds.

The volumes of the trade are high: in the year 2000, worldwide the gross amount of the trade in drugs was estimated at $ 30 billion, the illegal trade in animals at $ 10 billion and at approximately $ 1 billion the trade of animals from Colombia alone. To give an example: in Leticia, Amazonia a live puma is sold for $ 1000, in the capital Bogotá for $ 3000 and in USA for $ 30,000.

EALA has published a comprehensive report which is available in Spanish and Dutch. To ask for a copy, please mail us at latinsoc@tutopia.com