Within the context of international trade,
all species of living crocodilians are listed on the Appendices of the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES) - on either Appendix I or Appendix II:
Appendix I
“shall include all species threatened with extinction
which are or may be affected by trade. Trade in specimens of these
species must be subject to particularly strict regulation in order not
to endanger further their survival and must only be authorized in
exceptional circumstances.”
Appendix II
“shall include … all species which although not
necessarily now threatened with extinction may become so unless trade in
specimens of such species is subject to strict regulation in order to
avoid utilization incompatible with their survival”.
Current CITES listings of crocodilian species.
Family/Species
Common Name
Listing
Alligator mississippiensis
American Alligator
II
Alligator sinensis
Chinese Alligator
I
Caiman crocodilus
Spectacled Caiman
I & II
C. c. apaporiensis
Rio Apaporis Caiman
I
C. c. crocodilus
Spectacled Caiman
II
C. c. fuscus
Brown Caiman
II
Caiman latirostris
Broad-nosed Caiman
I & II
Caiman yacare
Yacare Caiman
II
Crocodylus acutus
American Crocodile
I
Crocodylus cataphractus
African Slender-snouted Crocodile
I
Crocodylus intermedius
Orinoco Crocodile
I
Crocodylus johnstoni
Australian Freshwater Crocodile
II
Crocodylus mindorensis
Philippines Crocodile
I
Crocodylus moreletii
Morelet’s Crocodile
I
Crocodylus niloticus
Nile Crocodile
I & II
Crocodylus novaeguineae
New Guinea Crocodile
II
Crocodylus palustris
Mugger Crocodile
I
Crocodylus porosus
Saltwater Crocodile
I & II
Crocodylus rhombifer
Cuban Crocodile
I
Crocodylus siamensis
Siamese Crocodile
I
Gavialis gangeticus
Indian Gharial
I
Melanosuchus niger
Black Caiman
I & II
Osteolaemus tetraspis
Dwarf Crocodile
I
Paleosuchus palpebrosus
Dwarf Caiman
II
Paleosuchus trigonatus
Dwarf Caiman
II
Tomistoma schlegelii
False Gharial
I
Some crocodilian species are abundant in
the wild (eg Caiman crocodiles, Crocodylus niloticus), in parts or the
whole of their former range, whereas others are truly endangered (eg Alligator sinensis,
Crocodylus mindorensis, Gavialis gangeticus).
Together with efforts to improve the status of endangered species of
wild crocodilians around the world over the last 30 years have been
efforts to re-establish international trade on a legal and sustainable
basis.
Sustainable use can be defined as: “use of wildlife associated with a
process aimed at ensuring the use can continue indefinitely and that its
impacts are maintained within prescribed limits. In practical terms this
usually means use associated with a management program that aims to
sustain the harvest program indefinitely and ensure adverse impacts are
avoided or minimized.”
There are many good examples of conservation benefits being linked
directly to trade, although some problems remain with some species in
certain countries. The economic importance of crocodilians has often led
directly to stronger institutional arrangements for their conservation
and ongoing management. Despite predictions that legal trade would
encourage illegal trade, an outstanding result of market-driven
conservation of crocodilians is that illegal trade has all but been
eradicated in the face of well-regulated legal trade.
The type of commercial use of crocodilians varies between species and
countries, and largely reflects the status of populations, their
abundance, national priorities with regard to uses considered
acceptable, and well-established concepts about the risks of harvesting
different life stages. Within the context of CITES, consumptive use of
crocodilians fits into three broad categories:
a. Captive Breeding (CB), production of eggs from
captive adults;
b. Ranching (R), collection of eggs, hatchlings or juveniles from the
wild, that are raised in
captivity; and,
c. Wild Harvest (W), direct harvest of crocodilians from the wild.
Use programs for crocodilian species in different
countries.
R= ranching; CB= captive breeding; W= wild harvest; (ud)= under
development.
The history of use for most crocodilian
species is similar. From the 1800s onwards, there was some commercial
use of crocodilians (eg Alligator mississippiensis in the USA), but
global demand did not increase significantly until after World War II.
By the late 1960s, most wild crocodilian populations had been reduced
markedly. However, by the 1970s and 1980s many programs were being
developed, based on the sustainable use of the crocodilians to generate
conservation benefits. Notable examples included programs in Zimbabwe
(Crocodylus niloticus), Australia (Crocodylus porosus), USA (Alligator missippiensis), Venezuela (Caiman crocodilus) and Papua New Guinea
(Crocodylus porosus, Crocodylus novaeguineae).
Today, 11 of the most commercially valuable/traded species are least
threatened with extinction. The 7 most endangered crocodilian species
includes some that are commercially valuable and others that have never
been traded - the main threat to their survival is the status of
habitats and human population pressure (eg Gavialis gangeticus,
Alligator sinensis, Crocodylus mindorensis, Tomistoma schlegelii).
Legal international trade, based largely on abundant wild species and on
production from farms, currently involves over 1 million crocodilian
skins per year, exported legally from some 30 countries that are Parties
to CITES. Between 2001 and 2005, international trade averaged 1.27
million skins, comprised of 44% classic skins and 56% caiman skins.
World trade
(1000s of
skins) in classic crocodilian and caiman skins, 2001-2005
(Source: IACTS 2007).
Species
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
Alligator mississippiensis
343.1
237.8
341.7
368.4
356.4
Crocodylus acutus
0.1
0.6
0.8
0.2
0.2
Crocodylus johnstoni
-
-
-
-
0.1
Crocodylus moreletii
2.4
1.6
1.0
0.5
0.9
Crocodylus niloticus
150.8
160.0
148.6
140.5
152.4
Crocodylus novaeguineae
30.6
30.7
27.3
39.8
34.1
Crocodylus porosus
28.2
24.3
26.6
30.7
38.8
Crocodylus rhombifer
-
-
-
-
-
Crocodylus siamensis
4.4
3.6
11.0
20.9
31.5
Subtotal - classic
560.0
458.6
557.0
601.1
614.2
Caiman c. crocodilus
25.5
22.7
34.6
70.7
72.6
Caiman c. fuscus
710.1
552.1
572.0
621.7
605.1
Caiman latirostris
0.1
0.1
0.2
0.2
2.8
Caiman yacare
32.1
78.8
60.3
41.9
53.2
Subtotal - caiman
767.8
653.7
667.1
734.5
733.8
Total
1327.5
1112.3
1224.1
1335.6
1348.0
Suggested reading
Caldwell, J. (2007). World Trade in Crocodilian
Skins, 2003-2005. UNEP-WCMC/Louisiana Fur and Alligator Advisory
Council: Cambridge.
Hutton, J., Ross, P. and Webb, G. (2002). A
review: Using the market to create incentives for the sustainable
use of crocodilians. Pp. 382-399 in Crocodiles. Proceedings of the
16th Working Meeting of the IUCN-SSC Crocodile Specialist Group.
IUCN: Gland, Switzerland.
Hutton, J. and Webb, G. (2002). Legal trade snaps
back. Pp. 1-10 in Crocodiles. Proceedings of the 16th Working
Meeting of the IUCN-SSC Crocodile Specialist Group. IUCN: Gland,
Switzerland.
Hutton, J. and Webb, G.J.W. (2003). Crocodiles:
legal trade snaps back. Pp. 108-120 in The Trade in Wildlife:
Regulation for Conservation, ed. by S. Oldfield. Earthscan
Publications: London.
Jelden, D. (2004). Crocodilians and the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora (CITES). Pp. 66-68 in Crocodiles. Proceedings of the
17th Working Meeting of the IUCN-SSC Crocodile Specialist Group.
IUCN: Gland, Switzerland.
MacGregor, J. (2002). International trade in
crocodilian skins: Review and analysis of the trade and industry
dynamics for market-based conservation. Pp. 12-18 in Crocodiles.
Proceedings of the 16th Working Meeting of the IUCN-SSC Crocodile
Specialist Group. IUCN: Gland, Switzerland.
MacGregor, J. (2006). The Call of the Wild:
Captive Crocodilian Production and the Shaping of Conservation
Incentives. TRAFFIC International: Cambridge, UK.
Webb, G.J.W. (2004). Article IV of CITES and the
concept of non-detriment. Pp. 72-77 in Crocodiles. Proceedings of
the 17th Working Meeting of the IUCN-SSC Crocodile Specialist Group.
IUCN: Gland, Switzerland.
Webb, G.J.W., Brook, B., Whitehead, P. and
Manolis, S.C. (2004). Wildlife management principles and practices
in crocodile conservation and sustainable use. Pp. 84-91 in
Crocodiles. Proceedings of the 17th Working Meeting of the IUCN-SSC
Crocodile Specialist Group. IUCN: Gland, Switzerland
