The Gulf state has an important history and culture of turtle and crocodile hunting. The meat of both animals has long been consumed by local communities, who also believe that some of their by-products have curative properties. Crocodile fat, for example, is believed to be good for asthma when cooked with garlic and orange, placed in a freezer, and then heated up again later to eat. One bottle costs around 800 pesos (about 40 dollars).
Hundreds of thousands of crocodiles were commercialized regularly in decades past, but only some 80.000 adult crocodiles roam the wild across Mexico today, according to Marco Antonio López-Luna, a professor who specializes in crocodiles at the Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco (UJAT). The government farming system, prohibition and cultural shifts, including a declining demand for crocodile skin products, have all contributed to the break away from the illegal hunting of these animals as a way of life.
Eloy Ramírez, who runs Mexico’s first ever UMA in Buenavista nestled alongside the lush Pantanos de Centla biosphere reserve, said that these units have significantly brought down illegal hunting in the region.
“The crocodile skins we cultivate here are of the best quality”, says Ramírez showing off the wallets he produces, as well as a thick, cured skin of a six-foot crocodile. “They’re free of parasites and the process is much quicker [than on the black market]”.
The UMAs have created standards and rules in a once-illegal industry, according to Ramírez, where regulated skins and meat reach higher prices and standards than what’s available on the black market.
Carlos Villar, the director of Pantanos de Centla at Mexico’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), says the UMAs have been instrumental in conserving endangered species and protecting populations.
“The UMAs here in Mexico are very good, they require the same documentation as those in the United States”, Villar says. “Crocodile hunting today isn’t organized crime. It’s largely nothing more than locals selling to other locals”.
But the number of illegal crocodile and turtle products seized in Tabasco over the last few years suggests that animals could also be leaking from the legal farms into the black market. It’s hard to account for the thousands of products and animals seized over the years through illicit hunting alone. Although hunting continues, interviews and field research suggest that it is at a very low level compared to years past.
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