The four iguana species have also been listed on CITES Appendix II since 1975, meaning their international trade is regulated and must have export permits issued by the exporting country. However, recent media reports indicate that illegal wildlife trade is a growing concern, as authorities have arrested suspected reptile traffickers in the archipelago.<\/p>\n
The study authors searched the CITES database, which records all legal international trade in wildlife, and found that 47 Gal\u00e1pagos iguanas were officially traded between 1975 and 2023. Of these, only seven transactions occurred prior to 2010, and just one of them was for commercial purposes. Most of the export permits were issued after 2010, mainly from Mali, Switzerland and Uganda \u2013 countries where these iguanas are not native. All trade since 2010 has been for commercial purposes.<\/p>\n
Prior to 1975, some marine iguanas had been kept in zoos in other parts of the world. For instance, in 1962 New York\u2019s Bronx Zoo received marine iguanas and giant tortoises from a Gal\u00e1pagos expedition. In the 1960s, there were reports of Frankfurt Zoo and Chicago\u2019s Brookfield Zoo keeping these reptiles.<\/p>\n
Ecuador, however, has never issued any permits for the export of these iguanas since 1975, according to the CITES database, a fact confirmed by Ecuador\u2019s CITES management authority to Mongabay. \u201cNational regulations prohibit the extraction of these species in the Gal\u00e1pagos,\u201d a spokesperson at the authority said.<\/p>\n
So, how did these iguanas end up in trade in countries thousands of miles away from the Gal\u00e1pagos with legal permits issued for their trade? Altherr and her colleagues wondered.<\/p>\n
\u201cGal\u00e1pagos, more so than probably any other location where iguanas can be found, has some of the most stringent regulations,\u201d said Chuck Knapp, the co-chair of the IUCN Iguana Specialist Group and a co-author of the study. \u201cIf a country like the Gal\u00e1pagos has no export permits for these animals, then that should tell you that these animals were not exported legally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Legalizing illegal trafficking<\/h2>\n
Based on CITES data, the researchers say that suspicious international commercial trade in Gal\u00e1pagos iguanas began in 2010, with two Gal\u00e1pagos land iguanas and two pink land iguanas exported from Mali to Switzerland. However, Switzerland reported the import of only two Gal\u00e1pagos land iguanas. In 2012, Switzerland reported the import of three marine iguanas from Mali \u2014 a transaction that Mali hasn\u2019t reported to the CITES Secretariat.<\/p>\n
All seven individuals were labeled as \u201ccaptive bred\u201d in the export permits, although there are no recorded legal imports of founder stocks \u2014 or the parents \u2014 to be bred in captivity.<\/p>\n The researchers suggest that the parents may have been smuggled out of Gal\u00e1pagos to Mali at some time and then obtained their CITES export permit from Mali before being sent to Switzerland. Between 2012 and 2013, the researchers discovered social media posts by a Swiss resident featuring photos of marine iguanas and Gal\u00e1pagos land iguanas from his private collection.<\/p>\n In 2014, Switzerland issued an export permit for four live Gal\u00e1pagos land iguanas and two marine iguanas to be sent to Uganda, both labeled \u201ccaptive bred.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe exporting countries should verify whether the founder stock was legally acquired,\u201d Altherr said. \u201cThis paper shows the central problem that in cases where the countries are issuing permits without being critical, without investigations \u2026 they help to launder illegally sourced animals.\u201d<\/p>\n While some of the iguanas may have actually been bred in captivity, the founder stock was acquired illegally, she added, since Ecuador didn\u2019t issue any legal export permits.<\/p>\n The researchers state that, to their knowledge, there is no captive breeding facility outside the Gal\u00e1pagos that breeds legally acquired Gal\u00e1pagos iguanas.<\/p>\n Data from Zootierliste, an online inventory of vertebrates in zoos around the world, show that a private zoo, called CTC Conservation Center in Uganda, houses live Gal\u00e1pagos land iguanas, along with a zoo in Japan and South Korea. The CTC Conservation Center is the only facility in the world that has marine iguanas, and its founder was convicted in 2010 in a reptile trafficking case in New Zealand.<\/p>\n Wildlife trade researcher Chris Shepherd, senior conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, told Mongabay by email that the study was \u201ca useful and timely piece of work,\u201d as it highlights thriving reptile trafficking. \u201cBy issuing permits without verifying the origin of animals, CITES Parties are rewarding traffickers and undermining the very framework meant to protect threatened wildlife.\u201d Shepherd was not involved in the study.<\/p>\n Since 2017, Uganda has held a monopoly on exporting Gal\u00e1pagos land iguanas, all of which are labeled as \u201ccaptive bred,\u201d according to CITES data. From 2017-23, the country has reported the export of 64 Gal\u00e1pagos land iguanas, mainly to Southeast and East Asian countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan. Social media posts and videos posted by reptile traders in these countries show Gal\u00e1pagos land iguanas for sale.<\/p>\n \u201cThese animals are almost exclusively traded by Uganda,\u201d Altherr said. \u201cThis is the epicenter of this trade.\u201d<\/p>\n George Owoyesigire, acting commissioner for wildlife conservation at the Department of Wildlife Conservation in the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, Uganda\u2019s CITES management authority, rejected the accusations made in the study. In an email to Mongabay, he said it was \u201cpublished without any context or consultation with Uganda, hence highly biased, distorted and misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe founder stock of Gal\u00e1pagos was legally imported from Switzerland with all required legal documents issued by the [Swiss] CITES management authority,\u201d Owoyesigire said.<\/p>\n Although worldwide legal trade in \u201ccaptive bred\u201d Gal\u00e1pagos iguanas has surged since 2010, according to CITES data, reports of traffickers nabbed on the archipelago possessing protected iguanas have also risen. In 2015, a man was caught with nine hatchlings of marine iguanas and two juvenile Gal\u00e1pagos land iguanas, supposedly to be sent to Uganda. In 2022, traffickers possessing Gal\u00e1pagos land iguanas were sentenced to prison in Ecuador.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are bold actors that are willing to break the law and really take risks in order to fuel [the illegal trade],\u201d Knapp said, adding that the Gal\u00e1pagos pink iguanas, for example, are found on a remote volcano that can only be accessed by a helicopter. \u201cSo, for someone to be able to go up there and smuggle these animals down, to me, tells a whole larger story about how intricate and persistent this illicit wildlife trade can be.\u201d<\/p>\n Altherr said traffickers often catch gestating females, so they can declare the offspring as \u201ccaptive bred\u201d animals shortly after. Or they smuggle juveniles and hatchlings that are easy to transport, can evade detection and adapt better to captivity than adults.<\/p>\n When asked how Uganda ascertained that iguanas exported as \u201ccaptive bred\u201d from Uganda were indeed captive bred, Owoyesigire said the CTC Conservation Center, which is the only entity in Uganda that seems to have Gal\u00e1pagos iguanas according to the data from Zootierliste, \u201cLEGALLY imported the animals\u201d and that it is \u201cinspected routinely or regularly by the Wildlife Management Agency and CITES Management Authority to ascertain the welfare conditions and population management prior to any licensing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUganda\u2019s Wildlife Management Agency and CITES [Management] Authority often follow all international protocols to monitor and prevent any potential laundering and illegal trade,\u201d Owoyesigire said, without elaborating what those protocols were.<\/p>\n The study also identified some discrepancies in CITES data. While Uganda has officially declared exporting 64 individuals, importing countries have reported only 47. This mismatch, researchers say, could be administrative errors or indicate trafficking or permitting irregularities. There are also discrepancies in the purpose codes, which indicate the purpose of import\/export, used on permits. Some countries, such as Sudan and Uganda, have not reported exports of some iguanas to CITES.<\/p>\n In 2022, Ecuador\u2019s Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition, which is also the CITES management authority, outlined these discrepancies and flagged the suspicious international trade in a report at the CITES Standing Committee meeting about illegal trade in Gal\u00e1pagos iguanas.<\/p>\n \u201cThe laundering of Gal\u00e1pagos iguanas is illustrative of a global pattern affecting many high-value reptile species, where weak enforcement and poor permit scrutiny allow traffickers to disguise illegal wild-caught animals as legal exports, falsely declared as being captive bred,\u201d Shepherd said. \u201cTheir value on the exotic pet market and endemic nature make them prime targets for exploitation, and time is running out.\u201d<\/p>\n The study uses the example of the Gal\u00e1pagos iguanas to shed light on the broader problem of CITES permits issued by countries that fail to verify the origins of traded animals. The researchers say that CITES member countries must honor the legal acquisition findings resolution that recommends verifying that the founder stock of traded animals is legally obtained. They also urge countries to revoke valid export permits issued for \u201ccaptive bred\u201d Gal\u00e1pagos iguanas and consult with Ecuador before issuing any future permits.<\/p>\n \u201cCITES should request all parties involved in this trade to confiscate the animals which are outside Ecuador and bring them back to the country of origin,\u201d Altherr said. \u201cThe other step is that we definitely need to have higher penalties against these criminal activities. \u2026 Often, wildlife crime is seen as something harmless or tolerable.\u201d<\/p>\n In an email to Mongabay, Ecuador\u2019s CITES management authority said it is seeking to take steps under the CITES framework to stop the captive breeding of iguanas obtained illegally and is submitting a proposal to transfer all Gal\u00e1pagos land and marine iguana species from Appendix II to Appendix I, which would prohibit all commercial international trade. This proposal would be discussed during the upcoming CITES Conference of Parties slated for the end of the year, the spokesperson told Mongabay in an email.<\/p>\n \u201cIn addition, the Gal\u00e1pagos National Park Directorate (DPNG), with the support of the Environmental Police Unit (UPMA) and the National Judicial Police Investigation Unit (UNIDCAN), implements strict controls at ports and airports, with permanent personnel at sites vulnerable to species trafficking,\u201d the spokesperson said, referring to steps Ecuador is taking to combat iguana trafficking. \u201cThe DPNG implements monitoring systems with camera traps in nesting areas or habitats of the species most sought after for trafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n With Gal\u00e1pagos iguanas already threatened, Altherr said the growing concerns with illegal trafficking can be detrimental to their wild populations. \u201cBut it\u2019s more than just the conservation aspect,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s the question [of] whether we accept illegal activities.\u201d<\/p>\n Knapp said he\u2019s looking forward to discussions on fixing loopholes in the CITES permitting system so such trade does not happen with other endemic and threatened iguana species. \u201cThere are conversations now in CITES to address this,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping that some good will come out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n While countries work it out, people have a role to play, too, Knapp added.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether or not it\u2019s iguanas or wildlife, people need to take a second and just think about their actions and how they affect wildlife and habitat,\u201d Knapp said. \u201cI think it would go a long way to protecting the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n Auliya, M., Nijman, V., Altherr, S., Aguilera, W. T., Ariano-Sanch\u00e9z, D., Cantu, J. C., . . . Weissgold, B. (2025). Trafficking of Gal\u00e1pagos iguanas as an example of a global problem: CITES permits, laundering and the role of transit countries in Europe and Africa. Biological Conservation, 305, 111104. doi:10.1016\/j.biocon.2025.111104<\/p>\nUganda, the epicenter of Gal\u00e1pagos iguana trade<\/h2>\n
Bring back the iguanas<\/h2>\n
Citations:<\/h2>\n