Sri Lanka needs to revise reptile export rules: European Reptile breeder

In the midst of growing concern on animal rights and endangered animal adopting demand in European Union, Jurgen Ullmann of Regiuswelt in Germany said that Sri Lankan government needs to look at new ways of increasing exports in new sectors such as exporting reptiles.

Speaking at a Seminar on Ornamental Fish and Pet Accessories Industry at Export Development Board, Mr. Ullmann said that Germany alone has 500,000 reptiles at their homes which are all imported from African and Asian countries. “People in Europe like to adopt birds, snakes, fish apart from dogs and cats. Germany’s animal industry is about € 3.5 billion and European Reptile industry is valued at Euro € 3 billion a year” said Jurgen Ullmann speaking to Asian Tribune who is currently a reptile breeder in Germany.

However, many Sri Lankan so called conservative environmentalists and naturalists started to lobby as soon as German delegation with Ullmann who visited Sri Lanka on late September requested to look in to possibilities of exporting snakes and enter into non-venomous reptile breeding for the EU market with German assistance.

Industrialists say that during last 5 decades, Sri Lankan conservative environmentalists has raised their voices against natural exports without sharing their knowledge to legalize it or neither allowing the higher foreign exchange earning industries to grow while patenting the rights of locally available bio genetic creatures or the genetic value of them in order to gain long term benefits for the country’s economic development.
“Many industrialists who are doing animal exports are not highly educated so they need expert advice to secure the country’s biologically and environmentally important creatures while engaging in business that could generate more foreign exchange which in turn generate economic revenue reaching the rural community development. Rather than helping industries to grow and industrialists to get necessary approvals and patents to safe countries biological assets some environmental lawyers and environmentalists try to bring them down.

This happen due to personal jealousy that environmentalists and environmental lawyers having seen an entrepreneur growing high, earning foreign exchange as those conservative environmentalists never have the ability to run a business nor an economically income generating entity that serves the country. Those environmentalist rather get some environmental journalist to voice their ideas against it” said one exporter, Hemantha Wickramaratne explaining his views on lobbying conservative environmentalists who try to put up a blind story about an environmental imbalance.

However, legally under Section 30 of the Sri Lankan Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance (FFPO), all reptiles except those deemed deadly poisonous, are protected.

The law prohibits possession of all reptiles considered ‘non-deadly poisonous’ and breeding of any such variety can be done only for ex-situ conservation or scientific studies, for which a permit from the Department of Wildlife Conservation is mandatory.

According to export industrialists and analysts even the Export Development Board (EDB) has taken a ‘Deaf and Dumb, Blind Eye’ situation due to conservative environmentalist echoing against ‘Snake Exports’ after media reports which came in to light criticizing the move as country’s premier export regulator is also lack of knowledge on how the government can really involve in developing animal exports in the country.

“As an example Sri Lanka has a massive frog population but we never have the benefit to export them and earn some foreign revenue from these amphibians although countries like Singapore has a higher demand for frog legs we rather see our frogs dying in roadsides killed by rolling wheels of vehicles for nothing” said another industrialist Shantha Godakumbura adding that with proper rules implemented Sri Lanka can look into new revenue generating avenues for its economic growth.

According to data Previous estimates of trade volumes put the import of amphibians for food into the United States at 4000 tonnes from 1998 through 2002, or about 12% of the global market whilst the European Union imported over 6000 tonnes of frogs’ legs in 1990 and over 9700 tonnes in 1999, with the majority of this market belonging to Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Demand for frogs in Asia supports local consumers and markets predominated by Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.

During past few years the frogs’ legs market has shifted from seasonal harvest for local consumption to year-round global trade. Markets in the United States and France were initially supplied by domestic harvest to serve a seasonal demand, but overexploitation led to decline or loss of commercial stocks and by the time these local sources disappeared, improved food freezing technology enabled international markets to be tapped for North American and European demand, most notably in Asia where overexploitation again occurred. Later India and Bangladesh became major exporters of frogs’ legs beginning in the 1950s, producing more that 4000 tonnes year over the next 30 years and finally legal trade in frogs was banned by India in 1987 because of concerns over inhumane killing and loss of natural control of agricultural pests.

Seven snakes in Sri Lanka are said to be as “deadly poisonous” including the cobra, the Sri Lankan krait, the Indian krait, the Russel’s viper, the saw-scaled viper, the hump-nosed viper and the green-pit viper.

The current Sri Lankan law suggests that export of reptiles can be only for scientific purposes; for conservation or exchange which is certainly not for commercial purposes.

Jurgen Ullmann said that African countries have already started exporting live reptiles such as various types of snakes and pythons and they have relaxed the rules and regulations. “We have already helped them to set up snake breeding farms in countries like Ghana and South Africa. So the governments need to relook at their policies and identify the growing demand in different industries” said Ullmann adding that he could be of assistance on the expertise to set up reptile breeding farms in Sri Lanka. However he noted that the endemic reptiles could still be prevented from exports by having a proper regulation in place while extinct reptile population could be increased by way of breeding them in farms. Jurgen Ullmann said that reptiles often do not adapt well enough to captivity to feel at ease enough to mate.

Thus successful breeding signify a high set of skill in reptile husbandry. He further noted that for all reptiles, whether lizard, snake or turtle, successful breeding relies largely on ambient temperature and humidity as well as clear seasonal day-night cycles. Under this set up Sri Lanka is an ideal location for reptile breeding according to Ullmann.

Over 90 species of Snakes from nine families are represented within the diverse habitats found within the borders of Sri Lanka. Many of these species are found nowhere else in the world as per reports.

Ullmann’s Regiuswelt in Germany sells some reptile species such as Tiger Mannchen at € 7500 per snake and Pastel Desert at € 3800 per snake, while some white snakes are for sale ranging from € 1500 to € 2500 per creature. He was concluding his visit to Sri Lanka with a German Pet Industry delegation invited by the EDB and Association of Live Tropical Fish Exporters of Sri Lanka on October first week. He said that Germany has about 8.5 million cats, 5.8 million dogs,3.8 million birds and 6.3 million other small animals including ornamental fish adopted at their homes in which 90% of them are imported ones from mostly countries in Asia and Africa.