Conservation: Please Read and Contribute (1 Viewer)

[Azamour]

Hello all,

Just want to ask you what you would do if you found a foreigner doing something very illegal in your country. For example, collecting reptiles, rare plants (orchids…), birds or nests or whatever else as long as it does it in your country and illegally. Moreover, you found that this man is pretending to be a conservationist.

What would be your reaction if you find this kind of people and what can you do in response?

This is not an artificial issue, so please contribute to discuss it from your own perspective.

Thank you very much,

 

[lashinala]

To me, it doesn't really matter very much whether they are a foreigner or not. Your biological heritage is often irreplacable and not for sale...(no exceptions?). If it's illegal, say so. Remember, corruption may be as much a culprit here as theft.
'Pretending to be a conservationist' is hard to interpret here, so you would need to be more specific. Is she or he receiving personal gain from the collections? Are they back by an institution?

 

[Azamour]

Hello,

Thank you for your reply and questions. I agree with you about the point that "it does not matter very much whether he is a foreigner or a national as long as he does something illegal". But I mentioned that he is a foreigner only to stress the fact he is a guest and he didn’t respect the law as the majority of the nationals do (of course that’s not imply that all Moroccan respect the law in this matter). This man goes out to the field and capturing birds and collecting blood and feather samples (and God’s know what-else he do while out in nature) for others without getting any permit from the competent authorities in this matter. Is this not a big disrespect to the country he is living in ? I just want an honest answer.

By the conservationist, I mean that he runs what he considers a ‘conservation organisation’. Of course, I don’t blame his organisation, as it contains a lot of people that are not involved in this. But as a "conservationist" he should show the example. That’s my point. Please any other ideas ?

Many thanks,

 

[Jon Turner]

Is this the same person that has been mentioned in another thread fairly recently on this forum? He was noted not following proper ringing procedures.

 

[PYRTLE]

Laws are in place for a reason, though I'm sure they are occassionally flouted by authorities as "favours". If you suspect that his actions are not within the realms of scientific or conservation study and the correct permissions not evident them you should consider taking the matter further. Good luck and tread carefully.

 

[Azamour]

Hello all,

Thank you all for your contribution. I requested from the man in question to provide the relevant permissions (if he had any), otherwise he should apologies to the authoroties who issue such permissions (the Forestry Administration). In fact I encouraged him to do so and I am waiting his reply. Probably if in Europe, you would go farther than asking him to apology, I do not know.

sincerly,