Potential benefits of impending Moroccan wildlife trade laws, a case study in carnivore skins
Approximately 25 % of the world’s carnivores are considered threatened with extinction (IUCN 2015). Most carnivores face challenges from habitat loss and fragmentation as well as hunting for food, medicinal products and trophies (Karanth and Chellam 2009). Morocco has experienced the extirpation of the lion Panthera leo (Black et al. 2013) and very nearly the leopard Panthera pardus (Cuzin 2003; Agencia EFE 2010) due to overhunting, and reports of illegal trade in carnivores in Morocco surface irregularly (Shipp 2002; Cuyten 2011; Bergin and Nijman 2014). However, new laws currently being brought in hold promise for Moroccan carnivores; here we report on the persistence of the trade in carnivores (alive, parts, skins) throughout Morocco, thereby hoping to encourage the Moroccan authorities to devote sufficient resources to the proper implementation of the new legislation. Surveys conducted between April 2013 and December 2014 (20 cities, 49 surveys) reveal that carnivores and their parts are traded openly in significant numbers throughout Morocco, despite existing legislation and international regulations to restrict this (Table 1). Carnivores represent a disproportionately large number of species imported into Morocco with 33 % of specimens originating outside the country compared to 6 % of all mammal and reptile specimens. Eighty per cent of the skins observed are nationally protected and/or illegal to import without the accompanying permits. Despite this, vendors freely admitted to importing skins from Sub-Saharan Africa and could produce no permits when asked. The presence of carnivore skins in all three surveys at varying times of the year as well as in previous market surveys (Shipp 2002; Cuyten 2011) indicates that market presence is constant.