Fiona Macleod
Conservation officials have given controversial wildlife dealer Riccardo Ghiazza permission to export at least 66 extremely rare and endangered wild animals to China. They are expected to be part of huge shipments of wildlife on order from a Chinese safari theme park.
Ghiazza has obtained permits to export six spotted-neck otters and two Cape clawless otters. These animals are “extremely rare”, says game capture expert Keith Micklejohn. “This really worries me. I wonder where he’s getting them from, because they’re very difficult to find.”
The dealer also has permission to export four cervals – small cats listed as extremely rare in the Red Data Book on endangered species – 10 white rhinos, four caracals, 20 bonteboks and 20 lechwes.
Ghiazza has an order for about 400 wild animals from the safari park. Animal welfare groups point out that, unlike in South Africa, there are no laws in China regulating the way these animals will be treated.
They have also expressed concern about the high mortality rate among animals shipped out of the country by Ghiazza in the past.
A list of his dealings in rare and endangered species has been released to the Mail & Guardian by the Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment, after weeks of wrangling among conservation officials about whether such details should be placed in the public domain.
The department is responsible for issuing Ghiazza’s import and export permits for rare and endangered species.
Permits for more common species – which will make up the balance of his shipments to China – are issued by the Department of Conservation and Environment in the North- West province, where his business, African Game Services, is based.
Ghiazza’s lawyers sent a letter to North- West conservation officials, threatening to take them to court if they publicise details of his permits.
The list of endangered species released by the Gauteng department shows most of his dealings in the past year have been with outfits based in Portugal and other European countries.
Ghiazza exported five otters during the course of the year, as well as 40 leopard tortoises, two of the extremely rare southern white rhinos and four pumas – rare exotic cats.
He imported 10 lions from Egypt and three from Senegal. A general rule under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), which South Africa has signed, states that permits should not be issued for species which occur naturally in any country.
The list also shows 50 permits were issued for Ghiazza to import African elephants from Botswana in July 1988. These permits were for the famous Tuli elephants, which he imported from north-west Botswana and tried to train, leading to allegations of cruelty and abuse that are still the subject of court battles.
As a result of the furore, Ghiazza ended up importing 30 of the 50 Tuli elephants for which permits were granted.