Collecting Permit Ideas

[Doug Yanega]

Since people still seem to be berating me for such an icky suggestion, I'll
say it again: if the ONLY alternatives offered are

(a) restrictions such that butterfly (and other insect) collecting is
effectively limited to research only, so the only way for amateurs to
obtain things is via the black market
(b) an open market so amateurs have mail order, tawdry touristy safari, and
local butterfly stand as *options* to obtain exotic material legally AND
support the local economy

which would you choose?

        I wasn't saying this is the choice that I or any of you would WANT
to make, and I would also find NO joy in (b) at all, because I have no
interest in buying specimens, and only a marginal interest in having a
collection. Almost everything I collect is for research, and a safari tour
is not for me. The point is that alternative (a) is presently in place in
many regions, and no country is going to abandon that policy for one of (c)
"go in and take whatever you want, as many as you want, wherever you want",
which is what people here seem to prefer. But if you want something other
than (a), you're going to have to suggest an alternative a lot closer to
(b) than (c), I think, sad as that may be for the people who enjoy the act
of collecting. Alternative (c) offers essentially NO benefits for the
country adopting that policy, and (d) a cheap permit isn't much better.
        As for "tacking on" a permit process to an existing agency to
simplify things, nothing is ever that simple where administrative inertia
is involved. There must be a committee to decide what the permit policy
will be, a committee to actually WRITE the permit form, a committee to
process bids for the lucrative contract to *print* the permit forms, a
committee to decide on where permits will be issued and how they will be
processed, employees who will have to be trained in the rules surrounding
issuance and processing of said permits (and probably another committee to
decide the training procedures), a committee to arrange purchases of
equipment necessary to establish a central archive (even if it's only a
single PC), at least one employee who will have to handle the central
archive...and unless you can *force* the Customs officials in their booths
to take on a new job like that (since Customs does NOT handle permits in
any countries I know of - that's always some other Federal Agency), then
you'll need another committee to decide where to put the new permit booths,
another committee to decide who gets the lucrative contracts to design and
build the booths where permits will be issued or checked, design and make
the uniforms of the people manning the booths, another committee to decide
who will be hired, trained, and/or reassigned to booth duty, another to
decide on the training procedures for the booth attendants, and so on. And
that's just for starters, certainly - in reality it would probably be MORE
complex. We all know that's how things work (if we didn't, Dilbert wouldn't
be such a popular strip, right?). In the end, what real incentive is there
for any country to undertake such a thing?
        I know this thread rubs a lot of us the wrong way, but looking for
solutions to a mess like this is not easy or pleasant. What we would LIKE
and what is reasonable for us to expect are never going to be the same. If
we can't compromise at some level, then we have no right to complain about
the status quo.

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