Loureiro stresses the need to distinguish trafficking, which involves very large amounts and organi

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Environment Ministry prosec on Friday burned a ton of items made from endangered species whose international trade is prohibited. Aim is to "remove value" to pieces and sensitize society.
The Portuguese authorities seized in 2012, 501 specimens of protected flora and fauna and endangered species, of which 70% were eggs of birds such as parrots, whose international prosec trade is prohibited. 55 pieces prosec are less than in the previous year, when there was an exponential increase prosec that technicians of the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forestry (ICNF) attribute to the crisis, which have led many people to sell personal items such as wallets and coats animal skin, without the required license.
"There was in 2012 a reversal of the trend of trafficking but is still not enough," he said on Friday the Secretary of State for Planning and Nature Conservation, Miguel Castro Neto. Data for 2013 are not yet known, but the governor believes that the work of the authorities is to take effect. "We are increasingly prosec aware, because this type of trafficking prosec is gaining more interest," he said.
According to recent estimates by the World Wildlife Fund, the illegal trade in protected species prosec generates 14 million annually, making it the fourth most lucrative crime in the world. "Drugs are the main type of traffic that exists, but has very heavy penalty bands. This type of traffic [protected species], despite lower returns, has a slightly milder penal framework, which makes it more attractive, "admitted Miguel Castro Neto. Just last year, for example, a woman detained at airport with 61 parrot eggs wrapped around prosec the waist was sentenced to 14 months in prison, but suspended sentence.
Burn The value to remove ruler watched on Friday the burning of about 3000 items, like wallets snakeskin or crocodile, elephant statues in ivory, wood turtles in tropical butterflies or even embalmed. A ton of objects seized between 1983 and 2002, mainly in commercial ports and airports across the country, was incinerated in Central organic recovery Valorsul oven in Loures. It was the first operation of its kind in the country and is in line with the solution recommended by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species prosec of Wild Fauna and Flora Endangered Species (CITES) for objects seized.
"Only the removal of the value of such articles is that we will be able to eliminate your traffic," said the official, explaining that besides burning for other solutions: some objects are delivered to museums, universities and centers for environmental education. Live animals prosec are left to the care of zoos. "The pieces attracted by her beauty, but the challenge is we can communicate to society that in each of these pieces, there was an animal that had to give their lives," he said.
According to the Ministry of the Environment between 2003 and 2012 were seized prosec nearly 4000 specimens. The list includes mammals (which include objects made from ivory tusk), reptiles (10% are living snakes, the remaining portfolios are fur or stuffed prosec animals), corals, fish, flora and birds. The latter prosec has become a goldmine for drug traffickers: an egg macaw can yield 400,000 euros on the market.
The total number, however, does not include the amount of elvers seized between 2010 and 2012: nearly two million. "Only in the last three months, intercepted three attempted export of glass eels", one of the species covered by CITES, said João Loureiro, chief of the Division of Management Species of Flora and Fauna of ICNF. A pound of this baby eel is worth 20 thousand euros in China. "It can be consumed in the European Union but can not be exported outside", explains.
Loureiro stresses the need to distinguish trafficking, which involves very large amounts and organized commercially, the illegal trade. In many cases "people are unaware they are practicing a crime," adds Ana Zúquete, director of the Department of Natural Resources