CITES bans exports of wild caught Emperor Scorpions from Benin and Togo

[pocock1899]

On May 3, 2013, CITES announced the imposition of several new trade suspensions for several species and countries. The one of interest to most arachnophiles is the inclusion of wild-caught Emperor Scorpions from Benin and Togo.

When CITES determines that a country is not making the required non-detriment findings for a species, they cannot establish that trade in the species is sustainable and not detrimental to the wild populations. Consequently, until these countries can supply the CITES Secretariat with the required findings, trade from those countries (in those particular species) is suspended.

We will be seeing fewer wild caught Emperor Scorpions in our future. ...at least until these countries and CITES work it out.

Here is the link to the offical announcements that USFWS made on their website, regarding this CITES Notification:
http://www.fws.gov/le/publicbulletin/05-03-2013-Public-Bulletin-on-Trade-Suspensions.pdf
http://www.fws.gov/le/publicbulletin/Annex-to-05-03-2013-Public-Bulletin-on-Trade-Suspensions.pdf

 

[ShredderEmp]

I see this as a win-win situation. With less wild caught specimens, captive breeding goes up. While this is going on, the wild populations have time to recover, which is obviously good.

 

[Galapoheros]

I heard they were going to do this a couple of years ago from a local importer, I only told a few people because I didn't want to spread rumors. I also had a tiny bit of doubt but the guy didn't have any reason to lie to me. I kept my last brood of emps in case it turned out to be true. Another thing I was told then was that they are going to shut down the Ghana export, but don't know if it's true or not. Or it might be in the links you posted that I haven't looked at yet haha. This stuff has to do with the UN and Agenda21, sustainability, ..google Agenda21 if interested. Many people used to call it a conspiracy theory, good or bad. Maybe it was but not so much a theory anymore imo.

 

[Shufle3]

Thank God! Seriously, I think we have enough Emperors in the trade to keep them in circulation for decades to come. I'm hoping that sends a message, so other populations aren't hurt in the future. Go nature! Me, personally, I prefer to keep/breed buthids, but hey, a scorpion's a scorpion. As it's always been, live, and let live.

 

[Michiel]

Good stuff, but are we really expected to think this helps these Africans stop catching them. I mean these catchers don't give a hoot about CITES, they are trying to make a buck to make a living.....catchers will catch and deliver to exporters. The exporters will find ways to ship some out, legal or illegal...with or without the help of corrupt customs etc etc....

 

[Galapoheros]

Yeah I guess it might not do much, bet it makes a dent though, don't they eat these scorpions over there? Also, for most inverts, recovery should be fairly fast because of the number of offspring they have. It also makes sense that more offspring survive in a depleted population because their prey grow in numbers, easier pickins maybe.

 

[pocock1899]

Good stuff, but are we really expected to think this helps these Africans stop catching them. I mean these catchers don't give a hoot about CITES, they are trying to make a buck to make a living.....catchers will catch and deliver to exporters. The exporters will find ways to ship some out, legal or illegal...with or without the help of corrupt customs etc etc....

These scorpions are still listed under CITES, and the requirements for a CITES certificate are not insignificant. The range countries have quotas of scorpions that they can/will export. On each CITES certificate you can see the yearly quota and the numbers remaining in the quota after this shipment is taken into account. The certificates are sequentially numbered and if someone wanted to, they could actually go back and look up how each quota is used up. Several groups, including CITES itself, often do this to check up on the honesty of some countries and how well they are adhering to their quotas.

It's not incredibly difficult for customs officials to tell when one country is laundering animals for another. While the certificates themselves are not as secure as something like paper money, they are difficult to forge because of the small numbers of individually numbered certificates, and the fact that customs can check on any individual, questionable certificate with an email or phone call.

Additionally, these aren't P. metallica spiders worth hundreds of dollars each. Money is what drives smuggling, and unless there is enough to justify the risk, it just doesn't happen to any great extent. If there is a worldwide shortage of Emperors, and the price skyrockets, we might see some serious attempt at smuggling. As it is, they really aren't worth it to the big time smugglers. The shipment would have to be huge to make any real profit. You could make much more from one or two rare tortoises or geckos, than a large shipment of Emperors.

 

[Galapoheros]

Hmm, yip, good point. People will probably start liking emps more and they will go the way of the G. African millipede. I noticed I was just taking care of mine better today haha. btw I kept offspring of one of the bigger ones hard to get in the hobby in the first place. Most of them are sub-adult and are already the size of adults we would normally see in stores so I think they are going to be pretty large. I one of those people that leans to there being populations of genetically larger imperators like there have been reports of, but the proof has been hard to find.

 

[Michiel]

They ban the export from Benin and Togo,but not from Ghana...so, you only have to bring them to Ghana from the aforementioned countries to export them legally. Besides this, I highly doubt that your average customs Joe will see the difference between a real and false cites certificate....