# Reading group -- "Mediating ethical considerations in the conservation and sustainable biocommerce of the jewels of the rainforest"



## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

Trying something new here....

In grad school, we often had "reading groups": a friendly meeting to talk about a book or journal article for a few hours on some sort of regular schedule, in someone's home. The text was usually relevant to our academic stuff, but sometimes only tangentially. The discussion was usually lubricated by drinks (often too many) and fueled by snacks (usually low-budget; this was grad school, after all). This last part might be hard for us here, but the first part might be fun.

I'd like to offer up for discussion "Mediating ethical considerations in the conservation and sustainable biocommerce of the jewels of the rainforest", Yeager and Baquero 2020. It is a quite short piece about smuggling and sustainable conservation breeding of frogs and orchids.

Everyone is welcome to read the article and bring up any point at all for discussion. 

Free access here, either online or as a download:









(PDF) Mediating ethical considerations in the conservation and sustainable biocommerce of the jewels of the rainforest


PDF | On Mar 9, 2020, Justin Yeager and others published Mediating ethical considerations in the conservation and sustainable biocommerce of the jewels of the rainforest | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate




www.researchgate.net


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## Paluscape (Jul 25, 2021)

First of all I think these types of articles and the concept of a reading group is fantastic. Beginners and advanced keepers alike should be encouraged to read these types of studies and opinion pieces that help us to understand our role in the conservation of these animals. It shouldn't be an obligation for everyone but I'm sure that if asked a lot of us on the forum would agree with promoting sustainable hobby practices and conservation more widely.

In terms of the article itself, as someone who is rejoining the hobby after 10+ years out, it will certainly make me do more research into the lineage of the frogs I buy. I have had great conversations with many people already in the hobby during research phase and potentially buying frogs, but it seems more could be done to explicitly encourage lines from biocommerce firms. In theory, I would love the idea of a family tree of frogs or perhaps a registry in order to keep track of the offspring, like there is for pedigree cats and dogs. The difficulties I see for this is the fecundity of some species, as well as how tricky it can be to tell which frogs are breeding with which in a group. But for the obligate egg-feeders it seems like it should be trackable.

Thanks for sharing!


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

Glad you appreciate the idea! 



Paluscape said:


> I have had great conversations with many people already in the hobby during research phase and potentially buying frogs, but it seems more could be done to explicitly encourage lines from biocommerce firms.


So what is the general atmosphere in the UK about buying (for lack of a better word) 'legit' frogs vs whatever's cheap and easy to get? Seems that here the majority of keepers (of frogs, and even more so other exotics) aren't much concerned with where the founding stock of animals comes from -- this mostly among 'casual' keepers, but not restricted to them.


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## Paluscape (Jul 25, 2021)

To be honest I have little experience so am not best-placed to answer but I will give my experience so far anyhow. 

10 years ago I just bought from a website, which says for example cb/2021 now, and from hazy memory it was the same. And now I look on a craigslist type site that is mainly aimed at pets, and I can only assume everything there is captive bred. I have spoken to some of the sellers of the two species of Ranitomeya that I am interested in, and they are all both very friendly and definitely are captive breeding their frogs. I have come across maybe one website that advertised a wild caught Oophaga Pumilio (shock) alongside other captive bred dendrobatids. I think I have only ever considered captive-bred, as it only takes 1 "Top 10 beginner tips" video to understand why it's better to go that route than the cheap and easy frogs as you say. 

So overall I would say there is a strong focus on buying from breeders, partly because the country is small enough that a courier can pretty much deliver a frog anywhere (or you can drive). I haven't investigated getting anything from Europe and also haven't been to any expos yet, which I guess could also change things.


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## Chris S (Apr 12, 2016)

This is an interesting, and important article. It certainly outlines the responsibility we have as forum members to educate and push for sustainably collected frogs.

I've had some arguments in the past here about inbreeding/outbreeding, and this article touches on my points there briefly: demand for frogs will be met, one way or another. This is one of the reasons why the science behind the potential negatives of inbreeding is often outweighed, solely, on the need to ensure our frogs are sustainably collected.

It also points a few fingers, particularly towards Oophaga pumilio. I know many of you have also noticed the surge of "captive" bred Blue Jeans. There is no way these are captive bred...I would suggest many of these are farmed and/or illegally imported WC specimens. This is exactly what we don't want.


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