Collecting Permit Ideas

[Doug Yanega]

Jim Hanlon wrote:

>I am extremely disappointed at the difficult and complex process of obtaining
>a permit to collect butterflies in Brazil. I have invested so much time in
>learning about the country's flora and fauna, studying the language,
>geography, etc., only to find out that it is nearly impossible for an amateur
>collector to obtain a permit. Note: I only use Brazil as an example here
>because Brazil is my Country of choice, so keep in mind that the following
>concept can be applied almost anywhere.

Okay, I'll use Brazil as an example, and bear in mind (1) the following
concept can be applied almost anywhere (2) that this is just off the top of
my head (3) it's a long response, but it has a punchline (4) in principle,
I *agree* with you! But...

A country-wide permit process requires an administrative structure, an
enforcement protocol, and manpower and materiel to follow that protocol.
This means that you are asking that the government of Brazil expend money
on, among other things, employing a number of people (since it requires
employees whose ONLY job is to deal with these permits) on a year-round
basis, to deal with...what, a few hundred amateur lepidopterists who would
be willing to pay for a trip to the Amazon any given year (after all, there
may be a few thousand people who want to go, but would not do so every
single year, or multiple times a year - for some it might be once in a
lifetime). Unless the permits are expensive, this will not be
cost-effective for the government, because those tourism dollars spent by
the visitors are not going back into the government's pocket - only the
permit payment does. The bulk of the money will be going to airlines and
tourist agencies (many of which are not Brazilian-run), and $100 here and
there is a drop in the bucket when you've got clerks and administrators who
require paychecks on a regular basis. Or would you approve if the permit
itself was cheap, allowed unlimited catch, but when you left Brazil, you
were assessed a fee - which you HAD to pay - of, say, half the open market
value of the insects you had collected? (Hmmm...thirteen Agrias and twenty
Prepona, plus 522 miscellaneous...you have a lot of cash, I hope, amigo?).
If the permits are expensive, the demand for them will go down, and it
becomes even LESS cost-effective to have them in the first place.
        Note that you can't simply have a booth in the airport that sells
permits as you fly in, and checks your catch when you leave. That would
leave the system too open to abuse, since you could collect anything,
anywhere, even Red-listed species in National Parks, and just lie to the
guy in the booth. Further, if it's not legal to collect anywhere in Brazil,
then they can just catch you at customs - but if general permits exist,
then all it takes is a little sly mislabeling for you to collect anywhere
and get away with it - and that doesn't help either science OR Brazil's
parks. But I digress...if you want the person in the booth to be able to
spot when you're lying, then they'll need to have serious training in
entomology, and that won't come cheap, especially since you'd need at least
two such people in every international airport in the country. Brazil also
doesn't have its own Endangered Species list, so there are dozens of
species that would technically be legal to collect even though they might
be gravely imperiled at the moment. As an aside, you may not be aware, but
in February, Brazil implemented new, STRICTER laws regarding wildlife and
such and - for example - if one destroys an animal nest, such as a poacher
rifling a macaw nest, that means a minimum of six months in jail, plus
steep fines.
        In the end, economically, it's tough to make this pay when the
market is so small (I think you overestimate how many tourism dollars
butterfly collecting would generate for Brazil - a few riverside "jungle
lodges" and river tours don't amount to much), and ecologically, it's
simpler to just not allow collecting. It might be different if Brazil was
actually reimbursed for the market value of insects collected - that is,
after all, only fair (you wouldn't just let people take produce from your
garden and sell it on the street outside your house). It also might be
different if there was already a special structure in place to deal with
this sort of permitting, but the present labyrinthine and restrictive
process is what they've got. They're set up to deal with commercial
interests, and wildlife and plant poaching, and the tiny handful of
amateurs asking for insect collecting permits are probably not worth
creating a new policy and structure to accommodate. Ideally it would be
different, I'll admit.
        What would *I* suggest? That Brazilians go into the business of
farming and selling their own natural resources, instead of trying to
negotiate fair ways to let outsiders come in and take what they want. When
you arrive at your jungle lodge, then, the butterflies are already caught,
mounted, labelled, and for sale (at a fraction of the international market
price), and all you can do outdoors is take pictures of them, and go on the
guided tours of the little shop where the lodge employees take the
butterflies THEY catch, to mount and label them for sale. When you leave,
you have a bill of sale for every specimen you take with you. That is also
a win-win scenario, involves no permitting process at all, AND reduces the
incentive for poaching. Any serious objections?

Peace,

Doug Yanega    Depto. de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas,
Univ. Fed. de Minas Gerais, Cx.P. 486, 30.161-970 Belo Horizonte, MG   BRAZIL
phone: 031-449-2579, fax: 031-441-5481  (from U.S., prefix 011-55)
                  http://www.icb.ufmg.br/~dyanega/
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82