Is the credit crunch a ‘conservation crunch’ for the crocodile?
Crocodile skin, particularly wild crocodile, is prized in the fashion world for its glossy, beautiful appearance and has transcended the often fickle styles and trends of the fashion world, epitomising ‘classic’ and ‘timeless’ fashion. Picture Kate Moss carrying the same crocodile clutch her mother carried back in the sixties. Crocodilians specimens are also traded as meat and hunting trophies.Crocodilians include all alligators, caimans, crocodiles, gavials and other members of the order Crocodylia. Crocodilians are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which is an international agreement (to which states adhere voluntarily) between governments to ‘ensure that international trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival’. The species covered by CITES are listed under three appendixes. Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction. Trade in specimens of these species is permitted only in
