See, but can panamanians ( campesinos, locals, pickers) whatever were supposed to call them....along with govt officials affort to loose dollars for 10-15 years? Our money is beyond valuable to them but most importantly critical....so by cutting themselves from all export funds, wouldnt that force them to pick up agriculture/ farming and use up even more land therefore damaging more of the species? Bottom line is...." money talks" and Im sure they know that either way were helping maintain many of the species through c.b . And I just dont see them making a move like that.
That has been the pattern for more than 30 years...
The campesino's don't have a lot of say in the process so we can take them right out of this equation.
As for the politicos, keep in mind that the only ones that are likely earning significant amounts of money are going to be the one's who oversee the export permits. If there is a change in goverment then those people are likely to be replaced and given that the price has bottomed out on most of the exports, not likely to see much profit.
The exporters, tend to also export fish as well as the other animals, with fish being the consistent money makers. Once the price drops to a certain point, the profit margin may insufficient to continue with the harvest, shipping and holding of the frogs.
If you graphed pumilio prices from when Panama first opened up, you saw limited imports (controlling supply and demand) with retail prices running as high as 400 dollars per frog. Now the supply isn't controlled and prices are down to around 40-80 for most of the pumilio depending on who you purchase them from and number taken. During the original exports, the exporters were also able to force the importers to take auratus if they wanted pumilio, which is no longer the case. Most of the profit has been forced from the exports so if they want to maximize profit they have to either send send them to a new market or close exports or close exports to the saturated market (which is what may occur as frogs are being laundered into Aisa by shipping them to Lebanon then to Kazakhstan and then to Thailand. They are dispersed into other Asian countries from Thailand.
People should also keep in mind that the US (or other countries) can also refuse to allow imports if they believe that the exporting country is violating CITES.
Ed
