Effective and sustainable farming of green pythons requires a sound chain of custody and conservation taxation of end consumers

Abstract

The recent article by Lyons and Natusch (2011) provided muchneeded evidence of the illegal harvest and subsequent launderingof green pythons by commercial breeding farms in Indonesia. Inaddition, the paper details results highlighting the unique mor-phology of green python eggshells, in comparison to four sympat-rically occurring python species. The authors conclude that thisdifference can allow eggshells retained by commercial farmingoperations to be used as provenance of their captive bred originsfor subsequently traded pythons and rather worryingly, argue itbe trialled as a method to regulate exports of green pythons.Whilst it is encouraging to see researchers suggesting novelforensic methods to attempt to monitor and regulate the trade ingreen pythons I believe that eggshells as a sole tool will not pre-vent further unsustainable harvest of wild snakes. Of particularconcern is the fact that the authors fail to highlightone major loop-hole that might be exploited by breeding farms – selective harvest-ing of gravid females from wild populations. Even with a proposedimprovement in monitoring regimes for breeding facilities it is notinconceivable that farm owners could pass off incubating eggs ta-ken from wild caught females, as being produced by ‘‘breedingstock’’ registered to the premises. Shifting illegal harvest fromthe current indiscriminate collection of encountered snakes, to fo-cused extraction of mature reproducing females could result indrastic declines in population recruitment and male biased sex ra-tios in wild populations, as has been seen in selectively harvestedshovelnose sturgeon populations (Tripp et al., 2009). Further sus-tained removal of reproductive females of the more desirable col-our variants located on the smaller islands mentioned in theirarticle could lead to localised extinction events.As Lyons and Natusch (2011) state, effective long-term manage-ment of green python trade requires effective enforcement of Indo-nesia’s pre-existing wildlife conservation laws. I would argue thatin order for this to occur we require a focused approach to estab-lishing a comprehensively monitored and internationally certifiedchain of custody for traded snakes. Green pythons do represent agood opportunity to establish such a scheme, as a result of the rel-atively small number of individuals traded internationally on anannual basis when compared with other globally traded snakesand the fact that they are able to command high market pricesfrom end buyers in European and North American markets.Through an international certification scheme end consumerscould be charged a conservation tax as a percentage of the pur-chase price, which could be directed towards improving monitor-ing and regulation of commercial farming operations.Part of such a monitoring scheme could then include the use ofmicrosatellite genotyping and parentage assignment techniques asa comprehensive forensic technique to reduce the risks of wildcaught snakes entering the trade. Given the fact that a library ofpolymorphic markers is already known for Morelia viridis (Jordanet al., 2002) and the accuracy of parentage assignment techniquesis well understood this approach could be put in place with imme-diate effect, through collaborations between Indonesian authori-ties and national or international laboratories with relevantexpertise. Employing genotyping approaches would provide a fool-proof method to prevent further laundering wild caught animals,with definitive results unlike the use of eggshells and would pro-vide end consumers with confidence that they were not contribut-ing to further declines in wild populations.Given all we know about the consequences of overexploitationand the need for new approaches to prevent future declines in spe-cies, radicalapproaches are needed in regulatingthe future wildlifetrade (Pernetta, 2009). As a result, I believe that while the ap-proaches suggested by Lyons and Natusch (2011) are laudable intheir intentions, the goals they purport will not be achieved with-out creating consumer driven demand for ethically and sustainablysourced animals, backed by a certified chain of custody, even if itmeans the costs of certification are passed on to end buyers. Forsustainable exploitation of wildlife to be achieved the conservationcommunity needs to rethink its approach to change consumer atti-tudes from being price-based to conservation focussed.References