Selling the family slither

It is not too much of a problem for New Zealanders to buy an elephant or two to put in a zoo. But perish the thought we might buy or sell a tuatara, a weka, a jewelled gecko or any other native species. Mark Price talks to some of those who say we are too precious about our native species and believe commercial trading would do them more good than harm.

• Words of caution on selling native species 

Geckos are Paul Thomson's "bread and butter". Sure, snakes fetch more money. But over 30 years it has been the steady trade in geckos that has kept his reptile shop in Sheffield, England, afloat.

He sells brightly coloured tangerine albino geckos from Africa for $80 and giant day geckos from Madagascar for $99.

A calico tokay gecko crossed with a blue-headed green gecko will cost you $1200; a "normal" gecko just $40.

He also sells skinks and frogs and tarantulas and scorpions and monitor lizards. His is one of at least 100 such shops in Britain.

But one thing Mr Thomson and all those other shops do not sell is jewelled geckos from New Zealand.

"Pretty hard to get them out of New Zealand ... aren't they?"

Six European gecko smugglers have found it "pretty hard" these last two years, doing jail time for trying.

But some jewelled gecko have made it on to the black market in Europe so it seems not all smugglers found it impossible.

Trading in any New Zealand gecko - buying one, selling one, even giving one away as a present - is prohibited under the 1953 Wildlife Act.

Section 63 1(b) says "No person may, without lawful authority, buy, sell, or otherwise dispose of ... protected wildlife."

The Act gives the ownership of all native species to the Crown.

But some New Zealanders think the Act is out of date.

They think it is time for New Zealand to carefully lift one corner of the blanket ban on trading and consider whether some species - maybe the jewelled gecko - might benefit from being legally bought and sold.

Dr Brendan Moyle is a wildlife economist at Massey University's Auckland campus who is "sympathetic to the idea" of commercialising some native species.

He believes New Zealand has an opportunity to open up a trade in captive-bred native species to kill off the smuggling trade and ultimately benefit wild populations.

"It's worth thinking about. That doesn't mean we should do it but we should at least have a debate about it."

He believes smuggling can be dealt with in three ways.

Firstly, increase the penalties for taking animals from the wild.

Secondly, improve monitoring of at-risk populations.

Thirdly, create a legal trade alongside other conservation measures "... because that finishes the poachers off".

"They are discouraged from poaching because the penalties are high ... and the legal guys are undercutting their market.

"It's a triple whammy that makes it hard for them to cope with."

Dr Moyle believes Australian policies on commercial crocodile trading point the way forward.

"It's actually quite a fascinating example."

Dr Moyle is a member of the World Conservation Union's Crocodile Specialist Group, which aims to conserve the world's 23 species of crocodile.