Wildlife trafficking is considered to be the fourth most lucrative crime among illegal businesses and confronting it requires joint actions from multiple actors, including centers dedicated to the care and protection of species where community participation plays an important role. This is the case of the Zanja Arajuno Ecological Center in the high rainforest of the Pastaza province.
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“Every living being, no matter how small, has its function in the ecosystem, is part of a chain of events and fulfills an objective that allows for the planet’s equilibrium,” said Lucero Mora, a zootechnical engineer at the Zanja Arajuno Ecological Center (Centro Ecológico Zanja Arajuno), sitting in a thatched house in the Upper Amazon rainforest, in Pastaza, Ecuador’s largest province, with more than 29,000 km² and some of the richest biodiversity in the world. What Mora says is not only her personal view, but also part of the collective worldview of the people who work there and who proudly define themselves as biodiversity workers.
“Indigenous and campesino people have the necessary knowledge of the forest’s resources; without it, it is impossible to carry out their conservation. To study the forest’s ecology, it is essential to investigate the dynamics of each species as a whole,” reads the information material we accessed during our visit.
This is of great relevance, and it is not an isolated reflection here in the Amazon, where the problems arising from environmental crimes are increasing. The expansion of the mining and oil frontier, the loss and degradation of ecosystems, the change in land use due to agribusiness and hydroelectric concessions are all threats in a region where the Center carries out its activities. To this scenario we must add another problem: illegal wildlife trafficking.
We are not talking about a common crime” experts consulted for this report agree that wildlife trafficking is linked to drug trafficking and human trafficking. Pamela Arias, coordinator of the fight against wildlife trafficking at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), points out that wildlife trafficking in Ecuador is the fourth most lucrative crime internationally, after arms, human, and narcotics trafficking. While Paul Aulestia, a conservation and environmental specialist with the Wildlife Unit at the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Energy Transition (MAATE), reports that so far in 2024 alone, between January and April, as many as 700 animals have been rescued. “Trafficking is increasing, more and more, it is like any other form of illicit trafficking,” he stressed.
Since species trafficking was typified as a crime under the Organic Integral Penal Code (COIP), approximately five years ago, 25,000 animals have been seized. In 2022, the Environmental Police Unit (UPME) rescued 6,817 wildlife individuals, according to Tarsicio Granizo, former Minister of the Environment and current director of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Ecuador. This number is quite high for a small country like Ecuador if one considers that, in Peru’s much larger Amazon region, and over a much longer period of time (2000-2018), 79,025 specimens were seized, according to a report by the Prevenir Amazonía project. “Only about 100 cases have been prosecuted and four have been resolved. The UPME has 234 police officers, and this is insufficient since we only have two environmental prosecutors specialized in the subject in the country,” Granizo emphasized.
Zanja Arajuno, Biodiversity Workers
Lucero Mora is a Colombian researcher who has spent 24 years in the Ecuadorian Amazon doing investigation on Amazon’s resources, wildlife management and conservation, environmental education, and rural community development. The Zanja Arajuno Ecological Center is located in the Pastaza province, on KM 32 of the Puyo-Tena highway. The center’s work is based on a balanced millenary philosophy of land use management and alternative development practiced by the Kichwa populations of Pastaza, based on how they manage their own biological resources, which is intimately intertwined with the cultural and social identity of their peoples.
Located on one of the last remnants of the colonization frontier, with important ecological and biological characteristics that allow its fauna to find a refuge and a habitat, the Center works with the rural community from Mariscal Sucre, Colonia Libertad, between the San José and Teniente Hugo Ortiz parishes, by taking care of 52 hectares of forest for: the reintroduction of recovered species, the conservation of natural habitats, and to guarantee the survival of both the rehabilitated native fauna and the natural populations.
The work includes not only conservation, but also the study and approach to the social, economic, and environmental reality of the inhabitants in the region, which allows the Center to propose strategies to meet biodiversity conservation objectives and involve the population in the construction of alternative economies that also allow for the development of their communities. To this end, they have constantly raised awareness through environmental education workshops and promoted economic activities such as community and ecological tourism.
“We have place our hearts, souls, and lives into the conservation of fauna and flora in this region where we are closely tied to Mariscal Sucre and Kichwa communities such as Palma Roja and San Ramón,” Mora pointed out. As a transitional environment typical of the subtropical Andes between the high and low rainforests of the Amazon, the area is rich in amphibians. More than 40 species have been recorded, 9% of Ecuador’s amphibians, as well as 150 bird species. Among many types of mammals, there are 5 primates that are severely threatened in other regions.
The species report is not only the work of biologists. The presence of the monk saki monkey Pithecia monachus (Sipuru in the Kichwa language) was discovered by the children of the community thanks to the environmental education work carried out by the Center. Similarly, the endangered pygmy anteater Cyclopes didactylus (or silky anteater, by its common name), was identified thanks to the “citizen science” biodiversity census, an activity where civil society participates in scientific activities such as data collection, analysis, and its dissemination. “Despite the fact that we are in a region with human intervention, we protect forest enclaves with species considered biological indicators that show the state of conservation and the ecosystem’s health,” emphasized the zootechnician. An example of this is the Atelopus spumarius frog, one of Zanja Arajuno’s emblematic species, discovered in the area by renowned Ecuadorian herpetologists from the Jambatu Amphibian Research and Conservation Center.
Community participation is a decisive factor for the Center. Mariscal Sucre is an enclave of farmers dedicated to sugarcane farming and the cultivation of products such as plantain, yucca, and papa china (similar to yucca), as well as fish farming, and raising livestock and domestic animals for family consumption. Lupe Romero, a community member, emphasizes the importance of wildlife for them: “Of the 50 families that live here, there are many who are interested in conservation; we have held talks, conducted training, and even ventured into experiential tourism as an alternative.” Edil Cabrera, a local leader, recalls that “before I met Lucero and Medardo, I was also a hunter, but I started to realize [the harm]; just imagine taking an animal out of this warm zone into the highlands.” For Cabrera, conservation through community participation is extremely important and emphasized, “We are the ones who observe what is happening around us, we are the eyes that see everything that happens, because the people see and know everything.”
Trafficking, a Structural Problem
Wildlife trafficking represents one of the greatest threats to biodiversity and is linked to other illicit activities such as human, arms, fuel, and drug trafficking. Not only does it endanger the Amazon ecosystem but also those who live in it. It also contributes to the extinction of species at risk or those with a very limited distribution area (endemic species). According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), wildlife trafficking generates revenues ranging from $7 billion to $23 billion per year, making it the fourth most influential illicit activity worldwide, after drugs, arms, and human trafficking.
Javier Vargas, former director of MAATE in the Orellana province, warns that the problem of animal trafficking affects the forest’s ecology and dynamics, especially in the dispersion of seeds, which is why it is necessary to identify all the actors in the commercialization chain to be able to address the problem. “One actor is the hunter, another is the intermediary who buys and sells to a retailer who has fixed bushmeat trading posts,” he emphasized. Vargas led an analysis in 2022 of commercial dynamics based on wild resources that revealed that small game hunting focused on small species (lowland paca, agoutis, armadillos) in mosaic landscapes composed of fragments of degraded, regenerating, and cultivated forests in Napo and Orellana, which represented about 70% of the bushmeat sold in local markets. The remaining 30% corresponded to forest hunting, which focuses on the search for larger species such as peccaries.
Trafficking mutates and develops according to demand, adds Paul Aulestia, who emphasizes that in recent years, the trafficking of reptiles (charapa turtles, boas, or caimans) for the purpose of petrification (the action of keeping wild animals in a domestic state) has increased. Birds of the Psittacidae genus (parrots, macaws, parakeets) and mammals, especially primates (woolly, squirrel, or titi monkeys), also continue to be heavily trafficked. There is also trafficking of animal parts for medicinal purposes (jaguar, river dolphin, or Andean bear) and for meat consumption (deer, white-lipped peccary, agoutis, lowland paca), not for subsistence purposes, but rather for commercial purposes.
Luis Suárez, biologist and director of Conservation International (CI) in Ecuador, recalls the time of the rubber boom in the Amazon, when caimans and feline skins (jaguar, ocelot, and jaguarundi, for example) were commercialized. This lasted several decades and created a large flow of animals that were sold in Leticia (Colombia), Iquitos (Peru), and Manaus (Brazil). This activity generated significant pressure and caused a sharp decline in many species that became endangered species. In addition to felines, the specialist also mentioned the main faunal groups trafficked include birds like parrots and macaws, reptiles like alligators and lizards, as well as primates among the mammals.
A report prepared by the Alliance for Wildlife and Forests, and in which Pamela Arias participated, revealed 269 news stories on wildlife seizures—or their parts—between January and June 2022 in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Brazil, which involved 5,368 live wild animals belonging to 183 species subject to trafficking. Of these, 65.5% were reptiles, 23.8% birds, 5.7% mammals, 0.9% amphibians, and 3.9% fish. Although Ecuador generated the least news stories (22 stories or 8.2%), in June of that year alone, 84 Galapagos tortoises and 5 golden iguanas were seized.
The same study showed that the most frequently found species were the slider turtle Trachemys sp., the saffron finch Sicalis flaveola, and the cotton-top tamarin Saguinus oedipus, listed as a critically endangered species in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The yellow-spotted river turtle Podocnemis unifilis and the pirarucu fish Arapaima gigas, listed in CITES Appendix II, were also often among the seized animals.
Almost every taxon (fauna or flora group) is susceptible to trafficking, such as amphibians, insects, or ornamental fish. For Tarsicio Granizo, the aquarium industry moves millions of dollars in the world and 99% of the fish tanks use freshwater, with Ecuador being a major supplier of Amazonian species. “A species that costs 20 dollars here can cost 2,000 dollars in Europe or the United States. The economic profit can be significant. The traffickers capture 100 parrots and even if 99% die on the way, one survivor is enough for the business to be profitable,” said the former minister.
Patricia Mendoza, a biologist and researcher at the University of Washington and the Neotropical Primate Conservation Association in Peru, has studied trafficking for 15 years in the region and indicates that the direct impact is more critical among species with low population density or that are severely threatened. The indirect impact, however, occurs through the spread of animal to human or human to animal diseases or zoonosis. “Animals that are taken from the forests bring with them microorganisms that are not common in urban environments, they also catch microorganisms associated with the human ecosystem in the urban environment. If these animals are trafficked or even released into the wild, they can spread diseases, and this threatens human populations, domestic animals, and forest species where they are reintroduced,” she explained.
Traceability in Ecuador and Abroad
Being able to trace the flow of trafficking varies according to the conditions inside each country and how they influence each other. For Luis Suárez, the US ban on black bear hunting and the commercialization of their gall bladder led Asian traders to South America in search for Andean bear gall bladders, to cover the demand that had previously been satisfied by the North American market. This demonstrates the interconnection between one market and another, and how control in one country can influence another country, generating demand and pressure on its wildlife.
MAATE has identified the country’s routes within the state network which, despite the existence of controls, are often evaded. The traffickers also use waterways and then they transport them by land to Quito and Guayaquil, from where they are sent to other countries. “In the last few years there have been seizures of species leaving Ecuador, such as seahorses and orchids, while turtles, starfish and parakeets come from Peru. From Colombia there is a persistence of exotic species due to demand and world trends. They have seized Burmese pythons, hedgehogs, ferrets, and axolotls,” said Paul Aulestia.
Peru has become a country where Ecuadorian endangered species can be purchased. For example, shark fins confiscated in Hong Kong that originated in Ecuador but were exported from Peru, or tortoises found in a Peruvian zoo that had been stolen from the Galapagos, explained Tarcisio Granizo. There is a lot of talk about the Asian market, where there is a great demand not only for Amazonian products but also for seafood (sea cucumbers and shark fins). Luis Suarez mentioned the existence of world markets for arachnid insects, birds (hummingbirds), or amphibians (poisonous frogs) collectors. In fact, the spider trade has become a lucrative business, and tarantulas of Ecuadorian origin can fetch up to 500 dollars, according to a recent article in Youtopia magazine.
Occasionally, a region will have greater control, lowering the illegal trafficking there, while other regions see an increase of trafficking because it has to supplement the market’s need. “As regulations for big feline trade in Asia increase, there is greater demand for the jaguar trade in Latin America. There are variations when, for example, there is increased regulation in Colombia and suddenly we see greater extraction in Peru; the animals go to port cities like Guayaquil in Ecuador to Guayaquil or Lima in Peru, from where they enter the international traffic and leave for other countries. Within the Amazon there is a certain concentration in Iquitos, where the river route to Colombia and Brazil begins,” specified Mendoza.
According to Javier Vargas, the Putumayo region in Puerto Leguízamo stands out, where bushmeat is transported through Puerto Asís and Puerto Ospina to the triple border of Colombia, Peru, and Brazil. Currently, however, the dynamics could be reversed, and the business could be more profitable from Colombia to Ecuador due to the conversion of the peso to the U.S. dollar. Within the Ecuadorian Amazon, Vargas warns that, due to the control in the northeast, the routes may also have migrated south towards Napo in the Chonta Punta parish (San Pedro Market). “When you start to solve the problem on one side, there are leaks to another. The dynamics of commercialization varies depending on the conditions since traders move around a lot; the problem must be addressed simultaneously on all sites,” noted the biologist. From MAATE’s headquarters in Quito, researchers agree that there are different routes; they are not the same for pets as for bushmeat. A team from the ministry operates at airports, since the most demand for shark fins, seahorses, or anything that has a medicinal connotation, currently comes from Asia.
Community Participation and Environmental Education as Part of the Solution
While touring the natural sites of the Zanja Arajuno Center, we return to Lucero Mora’s stories about their work in the Amazon in a calm environment where one can reflect and disconnect from the rest of the world and its problems. After the first stages toward developing technological material such as species management guides through research on Amazonian fauna, they developed a program with MAATE for the rescue, rehabilitation, and reintroduction of illegally trafficked fauna.
In Ecuador, data on this issue have been reported in rescue centers in Guayaquil, such as the study between 2018-2020 that recorded 743 animals from 106 species, of which 45 (42.45%) were directly related to trafficking and illegal possession: 15 birds (33.3%) where Brotogeris versico lurus at the top of the list, 19 mammals (42.2%) where Saimiri sciureus as the most trafficked, and 11 reptiles (24.4%) where Podocnemis expansa was most prominent.
The Center protects the rainforest where the animals are released through reforestation, ecosystem restoration, and the connection with the communities through environmental education. “We are increasingly connected to the land, we implement demonstration farms, agroecological work based on millenary ways of land, forest, and crop management by indigenous and peasant communities and campesino communities. This way we produce our own food, we have food sovereignty,” emphasized the conservationist.
Twenty years ago, the Center began environmental education with the community’s children, using community theater as one of their passions and strengths. At the beginning, community members were exclusively engaged in sugar cane monoculture, but through the Center’s intervention, they were able to look for other economic alternatives that were more environmentally friendly. Currently, an experiential tourism association has been established that has significantly motivated the children to pursue environmental conservation; they are agents of change to educate their parents. Additionally, a group of women is implementing demonstration farms (edible forests), showing that sustainable alternatives for the balanced use of forest resources do exist.
Mariell Buxbaum, a volunteer at the Center, points out that one of their strategies was education through theater, which not only strengthened the local population’s environmental awareness but also generated a positive effect on the volunteers who came monthly to the Center and disseminate their learning once they returned to their country of origin. “By participating in an organization like Zanja Arajuno you can have a significant socio-environmental impact, you can really feel connected to the place and go back to your country with a feeling that we are all human beings connected to plants and animals; we can have a really different, transformative perspective,” said the young US citizen.
Margarita López is a Kichwa historic leader of the Arajuno district of the Pablo López del Oglán Alto Ecological Community (CEPLOA), a model space established with the dream of protecting biodiversity. Her words are a clear expression of the indissoluble relationship between the communities and nature: “For us, all animals are of equal importance, as well as the forest spirits that take care of our rivers, mountains, sacred places, salat flats (kachis). We have our statutes and regulations to strengthen animal care, because we believe that they help us take care of the forest and have spirits like the Juri Juri Kawsay.”
Danny Reascos, former director of MAATE in Pastaza, highlights the importance of establishing community education and participation programs for environmental conservation actions. Many communities have identified zones for hunting and wildlife care, management, and recovery, establishing zoning and community regulations that establish hunting bans, among other biodiversity control and self-regulation mechanisms from a community perspective.
Experts consulted for this report agree with the strategic role of community participation in conservation efforts, noting that such strategies cannot be merely enunciative and must include budgets for management plans developed by the organizations themselves. Indigenous peoples are the best guardians of the fauna and flora because although they use them, they know that if they do not do so in a rational manner, they will run out of these resources. Our interviewees indicate that we need to learn from them and how they have adequately and sustainably managed wildlife for hundreds and thousands of years. The communities themselves must become the overseers of species trafficking, the ears and eyes that denounce these illegal activities.
A Transnational Crime
Wildlife trafficking is a crime equivalent to other international crimes such as human trafficking or drug trafficking and is considered very lucrative due to the interests behind this activity. So lucrative that, according to the Interpol, illegal products derived from wildlife were worth up to 20 billion dollars in 2023 alone. Amphibians, birds, reptiles, fish, and plants are the most trafficked species.
For Luis Suárez, coordinated action is needed between several countries and control entities to act simultaneously to attack international mafias that traffic wildlife in bordering countries. The participation of Amazonian nationalities is also essential, many of which are transboundary, as is the case of the Achuar, Awajun, or Wampis peoples between Ecuador and Peru, as well as the Sionas, Siekopai, Ai`Kofan, or Awá between Colombia and Ecuador.
Tarsicio Granizo adds that there is evidence that drug traffickers are using the trafficking of species as a strategy to divert the attention of the authorities. This illicit activity is linked to other illegal businesses, such as drug, arms, or human trafficking, leading to the presence of national and international mafias. Corruption and the infiltration of drug trafficking in the police force, the military, and the judicial system can hinder efforts to fight it, especially without clear political decisions or policies, nor a solid institutional framework in a state weakened by recent governments, he said.
For Javier Vargas, “The merger of the Ministries of Environment and Water reduced the number of officials; the provincial directorates were concentrated in regional or zonal directorates, which reduced authority and operational capacity. Now the ministry has only provincial directorates, and this does not allow it to attend to the problem because there are other priority issues.”
As a transnational crime, this reality crosses borders. A study on illegal trafficking in Venezuela reported that San Antonio Abad, a private breeding farm, exported 8.5 tons of live wild animals to India, Thailand, and Kuwait between September and December 2023, of which almost half (4.18 tons) corresponded to Psittaciformes birds (parrots, macaws and cockatoos). Most of the species trafficked worldwide are protected or on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Actions and Multidisciplinary Work Become Indispensable
According to Paul Aulestia, MAATE has a specialized illegal forest and wildlife trafficking unit with fixed checkpoints on the country’s main highways and mobile coverage that carries out joint operations with the National Police. Conservation facilities recognized under specific regulations, such as zoos, rescue centers, and transit centers, also play a crucial role, providing priority and emergency veterinary and nutritional care to ensure the health and well-being of the species. Depending on the species and particular conditions of each, they can also facilitate their release into the wild.
“We are about to develop a technical and a national group to join these efforts. The police have environmental crime investigation units that are in charge of carrying out more in-depth investigations, such as organized crime and its links to drug trafficking. We are promoting the participation of some decentralized autonomous governments so that they can take on wildlife control and management competencies in their territories. As for monitoring, it is carried out through physical and electronic reports, where each province sends monthly statistics on the species locations and conditions under which they were held. This data is shared with the Ministry and the Prosecutor’s Office’s legal units to apply the corresponding sanctions. We hope in the coming months to improve the system so that the information is reported in real time,” emphasized the biologist.
Based on his experience as a minister, Tarcisio Granizo advocates for the identification of routes, collection centers, and export permits as the bottlenecks that influence how the problem is dealt with. “There must be improved coordination between environmental authorities, cooperation agencies, indigenous territories, and decentralized autonomous governments since the two most serious problems of trafficking are corruption and impunity. In this sense, Pastaza has adopted a good policy by declaring itself an ecological province, an example that other provinces could follow and that hopefully will be maintained over time, regardless of who the prefect is, because territorial organization is the only guarantee to be able to conserve Amazonian resources,” he added.
Javier Vargas highlights the importance of the Challua Mikuna Association, a Kichwa women’s initiative in Coca that went from selling bush meat illegally to establishing a store that is now one of the city’s reference points. This policy made it possible to establish agreements with more traders by means of agreements specifying the time required to leave the trade and engage in a different activity, moving from a purely punitive role to a proactive one. “The bushmeat trade in Pompeya—one of the main bushmeat markets in the Amazon—was significantly reduced and the problem was solved to some extent,” said the biologist.
For Luis Suárez, the combination of positive incentives and sanctions is a key part of good governance. “If we allow impunity to prevail or we underestimate wildlife crime, the situation will be unmanageable. We are seeing it with the case of illegal mining, if there had been drastic sanctions at the beginning when the first complaints were made, today we would not be seeing the enormous destruction of some areas in the Amazon as a result of this illegal activity. It is essential to move on to alternatives and possible solutions. How do we develop forest-based economies that do not entail converting the forest for other uses?” he asked.
As indicated, one of the strategies used by Zanja Arajuno was to involve the population in research through citizen science, where people who are not biologists collaborate in generating data in an interactive and friendly way, through an app on their cell phones. “It is essential to strengthen national public policy within an international guideline, for which we have the CITES conventions, the Convention on Biological Diversity or CBD, among other tools and pacts. But the most important thing is that countries can implement the recommendations in an effective way,” said Pamela Arias.
Germán Ojeda, former director of productive development of the Decentralized Autonomous Municipal Government of Santa Clara, the canton which Zanja Arajuno belongs to, highlights the importance local governments coordinating efforts, developed through the Center. Ojeda added that this type of action is related to a municipal regulatory framework and contributes to achieving the goals and objectives under the Plans for Development and Land Use or PDOTs. “We had the opportunity to carry out one of these experiences in Zanja Arajuno with good results, not only for the center but especially for the community’s Women’s Association,” said Ojeda.
From Discourse to Practice
Zanja Arajuno does not move through the limits of rhetoric and has incorporated conservationist praxis in their daily lives, as an important link between community practice, scientific research, territorial public entities, cooperation agencies, volunteering, among others. While we accompany Lucero Mora in search of the barisa monkeys or to feed turtles, caimans, or birds that inhabit the Center, or as we simply drift amidst the sounds of amphibians and insects that make themselves felt in this portion of tropical rainforest, we receive from her latest reflections on the importance of generating links with other entities, creating multidisciplinary networks “because when we’re alone, we limit our actions, but if we maintain networks with other organizations, our capacities are mutually strengthened.”
We reflect, then, on the subject that summons us to write this report and that has allowed us to know the experiences that many anonymous people are developing locally with joy, optimism, and perseverance. Thus, we measure the importance of understanding the factors that motivate and unravel the causes and effects of the phenomena that occur around us, just like a scientist who discovers the interrelationships between the organisms of an ecological population, or the biologist who scrutinizes the dynamics of the forest and the dialectics of nature.
To find solutions, it is fundamental to recognize the existence of the crime of wildlife trafficking and identify its drivers and the actors. It is also crucial to identify the connections between the national and international market, and how they are related to other crimes that threaten nature, which is endowed with rights under Ecuador’s Constitution, although they are often ignored.
Despite efforts made, the work done so far is still insufficient. While control agencies struggle to combat this problem in the midst of considerable adversity, the contribution of citizen initiatives and the fundamental role of community participation as concrete agents in conservation and to fight this complex problem, are noteworthy.
This report was produced with the support of Earth Journalism Network
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: https://voz.confeniae.net/el-papel-de-la-participacion-ciudadana-en-la-conservacion-de-la-vida-silvestre-en-la-amazonia-ecuatoriana/
