- Amid economic, political and humanitarian crises, Venezuela has become a free-for-all for wildlife trafficking, experts warn.
- The country is one of the world’s most biodiverse, yet environmental concerns and wildlife preservation have largely gone neglected.
- Long-running international sanctions and a newly passed “anti-NGO law” have also made it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, for conservation organizations to operate in the country.
- While there are real efforts to protect wildlife in Venezuela, the work of some zoos and breeding centers, masked as conservation efforts, are part of Venezuela’ trafficking problem, reports have shown.
CANAIMA, Venezuela – Along Venezuelan roads, you come across a variety of wildlife, from parrots and parakeets to sloths and monkeys. The trade in threatened species has become so normalized that many locals don’t even realize that their roadside business may constitute illegal wildlife trafficking, often right under the noses of authorities who turn a blind eye.
“People sell wildlife on the streets, right next to the police,” says a Venezuelan source speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals. They recall being invited to dinner somewhere in the country’s south, where they were shocked by what was served: a puma cub. The hosts kept the skins and bones in a freezer, ready for sale. Despite reporting the incident to the authorities, nothing changed: “They ignore this,” the source says, disappointment evident in their voice.
Amid the worst economic collapse outside of wartime in nearly half a century, an ongoing political crisis, and a humanitarian crisis that has contributed to about one-fourth of the population fleeing the country, environmental concerns and wildlife preservation are often overlooked in Venezuela. In southern Venezuela, a troubling combination of gold mining, logging, agriculture, luxury tourism, and the consumption and trafficking of wildlife has intensified over the past decade, threatening one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. Exploitation occurs with minimal oversight and few repercussions. Locals who scramble to cover basic needs vie with criminal transnational groups to reap profits from an already ravaged ecosystem. Illegal hunting and trafficking of rare birds, reptiles and mammals are among the drivers of this destruction.
Venezuela is considered one of the world’s 17 “megadiverse” countries, boasting approximately 21,000 plant species, about 38% of which are found nowhere else, alongside 8,000 endemic animal species and more than 1,400 bird species. These are peppered across ecosystems ranging from sandy Caribbean beaches to Andean ice-capped mountains, and dense jungles and savannas in the south.
Venezuela also ranks among the countries with the highest number of endangered animal species (193 as of last year) on the IUCN Red List in Latin America and the Caribbean. A 2022 report by the Venezuelan Observatory of Environmental Human Rights (OVDHA) and Clima21, a Venezuelan environmental and human rights organization, warned about an increase in wildlife trafficking within the country, estimated to be worth around $300 million annually.
Widespread trafficking goes unpunished
“People pay a fortune for wildlife,” says Joao Leite de Souza, vice president of Deforsa, a forestry company engaged in conservation projects in Venezuela.
With more than half the population living in poverty, and one in three Venezuelans facing food insecurity, wildlife trafficking and poaching have become for some a way to make a living with little risk of getting caught or punished. According to a report by the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, wildlife trafficking and bushmeat consumption pose a severe threat to white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), manatees (Trichechus manatus) and collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu) for foreigners’ consumption. The report says locals are also targeting birds such as red siskins (Spinus cucullatus) and scarlet macaws (Ara macao) for the wildlife trade, and hunting dolphins, flamingos and sea turtles for their meat. Birds are among the most commonly trafficked animals in Venezuela, Leite de Souza says, while jaguars (Panthera onca) are targeted for their skins, fangs and bones. China is by far the biggest consumer market for illegal wildlife parts from Latin America.
The Venezuelan government has made it increasingly difficult for environmental organizations to protect the country’s wildlife and environment. In August, the national parliament passed the Law for the Control, Regularization, Operations and Financing of Non-Governmental and Related Organizations, better known as the anti-NGO law. It establishes a national registry that subjects NGOs to government approval and requires them to explain where their funding comes from and how it’s used. The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned against this and other laws that it says “undermine civic and democratic space in the country.” Civil society leaders face intimidation, repression and imprisonment as the already wildly unpopular government tries to limit criticism. Furthermore, environmental and scientific data have been largely missing from public records since 2011.
“There is no notion of protection. The government doesn’t allow for the creation of NGOs, and resources from the outside are lacking. It is concerning,” Leite de Souza says.
Overall, support for and prioritization of environmental initiatives are minimal amid the decade-long crisis in Venezuela.
The international community has also largely overlooked Venezuela, despite its importance for biodiversity conservation. Economic sanctions often hinder international donors and conservation organizations from engaging with Venezuela.
Part of a larger environmental disaster
According to Alexis Bermúdez, a biologist from the University of the Andes in the city of Mérida, “the biggest danger to Venezuelan wildlife is the destruction of their habitats … because it doesn’t just destroy one species, it destroys a lot, a whole chain.”
Over the past two decades, Venezuela lost more than 600,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of primary humid forest, an area larger than a million football fields. But the hunting and trafficking of species pose another, very direct, threat to Venezuelan wildlife, experts warn.
Hunting of exotic species is part of a long-standing tradition in local, particularly Indigenous, communities in Venezuela, according to an Indigenous guide from Canaima, a tourist haven in southern Venezuela. Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government repression, he says that what’s happening now is “very different” from Indigenous people’s traditional hunting practices. He blames gold mining for a surge in both legal and illegal hunting, as entire mining towns require sustenance.
The current crisis has also exacerbated communities’ basic needs. “There is so much hunger, the hunting has become a serious problem,” Leite de Souza says.
Jon Paul Rodriguez, president of Provita, a Venezuelan environmental organization, says documentation of wildlife trafficking in Venezuela is very scarce and limited to activities on a small scale and in an informal manner.
However, evidence suggests that trafficking extends beyond informal hunting for personal consumption. Helena Carpio, a Venezuelan environmental journalist, agrees criminal groups are diversifying their criminal activities to include animal trafficking, which she describes as “seriously lucrative.”
This is part of a global trend in which wildlife trafficking has become an increasingly profitable venture for criminal groups seeking to diversify their income. It’s now the fourth-largest illegal trade worldwide, after narcotics, human trafficking and counterfeit products, generating an estimated $7.8 billion to $10 billion annually, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Efforts to safeguard wildlife — or not?
Despite the challenges of running projects in crisis-ridden, authoritarian Venezuela, there are ongoing efforts to protect and conserve the nation’s wildlife. One of them is led by Álvaro Velasco, president of Venezuela’s Crocodile Specialists Group. In 2023, he transported seven Orinoco crocodiles (Crocodylus intermedius), a critically endangered species, to Denmark’s Crocodile Zoo, where they spawned more than 170 offspring that were returned to Venezuela to help restore the dwindling native population. The Orinoco crocodile, found only in the Orinoco River Basin in Venezuela and Colombia, was decimated for its skin in the first half of the 20th century until the 1960s, making it one of the most endangered crocodile species in the world. A 2011 census found that the Orinoco crocodile population had declined by 63% over a decade.
But Velasco says it wasn’t easy to make this happen. He spent nearly a decade preparing and securing the necessary authorizations to transfer the crocodiles.
The crocodile project also involved collaboration with local communities in the state of Apure in southwestern Venezuela. Velasco says a key threat to the Orinoco crocodile is the local practice of collecting and consuming their eggs. This long-standing cultural tradition has intensified as communities face the escalating hardships of the country’s crisis and hunger.
As a creative response, Velasco and his team urged locals to leave the eggs to hatch and then catch the young crocodiles instead, offering cash in exchange for the hatchlings. However, in remote communities, the money often proved insufficient to cover the cost of food imported from afar. To address this, Velasco’s team began providing food directly instead of cash.
As a result, more crocodile eggs have been left untouched. Local communities also benefit from tourism generated by the annual releases of the crocodiles raised in captivity. “The crocodile population is now doing better,” Velasco says, adding that “this is a long-term effort of educating the community.”
Sometimes, the private sector steps up to take responsibility as well. Deforsa, a forestry company, not only produces wood for pulp and paper but also collaborates with local communities to protect jaguars, pumas (Puma concolor) and anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) in the state of Cojedes. The company even motivated the local government to establish a legal framework to safeguard the jaguar. As a result, Cojedes has gained a reputation as a jaguar haven in Venezuela, a country where the animal otherwise faces constant threats.
However, some projects purport to be conservation efforts but could be part of the trafficking problem, reports have indicated. While zoos and breeding centers can play a vital role in conservation, in Venezuela, they can also be complicit in wildlife trafficking.
Investigative journalism group Armando.info has revealed how companies, zoos and breeding centers such as Orinoco Reptiles C.A., Inversiones Alazán GAC C.A. and San Antonio Abad have been used to traffic tortoises, macaws, king vultures, anteaters, toucans and other significant species.
Provita’s Rodriguez says “the existence of zoos and breeding centers is not illegal, their activity is regulated and permitted.”
Official documents from Venezuela’s Ministry of Popular Power for Ecosocialism (MINEC) highlight wildlife trafficking as a serious issue that “requires greater knowledge, awareness, sensitivity, and participation from the population.” President Nicolás Maduro has declared his support for conservation programs, including in his own live television program, Con Maduro +, where he welcomed the president of the Alazán breeding center to discuss the benefits of a conservation program for the Orinoco crocodile, established in collaboration with MINEC. Yet the government hasn’t commented on the accusations from the Armando.info investigations.
Lisseth Boon, the lead journalist on these investigations, says wildlife trafficking in Venezuela often appears as “legal” because the government grants authorizations to zoos and breeding centers and determines which species are considered extinct or not. Boon has found evidence of direct government involvement in wildlife trafficking.
“What’s the recipe for trafficking animals in Venezuela? Find yourself a zoo or breeding center,” Boon says.
Pathways to progress
Environmental leaders and activists agree that improving the situation for Venezuelan wildlife requires a fundamental shift in the government’s modus operandi. The government must cut ties with wildlife traffickers and actively prosecute cases of trafficking.
Cristina Burelli, founder of conservation NGO SOS Orinoco, says a lack of institutions and rule of law create favorable conditions for wildlife trafficking in Venezuela. “The only way to combat wildlife trafficking is by strengthening institutions, but that’s not going to happen under the Maduro regime. So unfortunately, until there’s a change of government, I don’t think there’s going to be any change [for wildlife],” she says.
“It has created a situation in Venezuela where nobody really cares,” she adds.
According to Bermúdez, NGOs play a crucial role in conservation efforts and need to be able to operate freely, supported by the government and the international community, which is essential for funding conservation initiatives.
“Get out of the dictatorship,” Carpio says when asked about solutions to wildlife trafficking.
As the environment has dropped on Venezuelans’ priority list, education and awareness are paramount, Leite de Souza says: “Education is the way out.” He cites how some of his students have successfully convinced their parents and grandparents not to poach wildlife.
While most efforts to combat wildlife trafficking focus on the supply side — by prohibiting trade and targeting traffickers — addressing the growing demand for wildlife is equally important. As long as there’s demand, supply will persist. Velasco suggests that creating a legal, regulated market for non-threatened wildlife could help control these flows.
“The only way to recover species is to give them an economic value,” Velasco says.
However, in southern Venezuela, such initiatives seem distant — and the region’s unique wildlife are paying the price.
“What’s happening in the south of Venezuela is a deplorable situation,” Leite de Souza says, “and it will be difficult to recover.”
Banner image: Roraima, Venezuela. Image by Mie Hoejris Dahl.
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