Moz may export crocodile products

Source: iafrica

Date: 10 December 2007

Author: Anon

A recent count of crocodiles carried out in the central provinces of Mozambique could determine the country's potential for exporting the reptiles' products from the Zambezi River basin, state media reported.

Marcelino Foloma of the Department of Wildlife and Forestry, told the daily Noticias on Monday that his department was processing research carried out in September.

The research was carried out to determine the size of the crocodile population and to evaluate the potential of exporting products derived from the reptiles — such as the skin and the meat.

Currently several companies were breeding crocodiles and exporting them to SA and Zimbabwe — where more than 44 000 were exported in 2006, he said.

No detailed figures on the population of the reptiles in the Zambezi basin were available in Mozambique.

The last comprehensive crocodile census was done in 1989 and the recent demand in the number of companies needing crocodile�s products had increased over the years.

Foloma also told the paper that sustainable use of the crocodiles would not only result in economic gains, but reduce animal-human conflict.

Last month authorities said — in one of the worst cases of animal-human conflict — that more than 14 people were killed by crocodiles in the first 15 days of November along the Zambezi River.