Africa

Africa, World, Our Burning Planet

How Uganda became the world’s top market for trafficked Galápagos iguanas

Rare iguanas survive for a while, but generally, they don’t live long in captivity. (Photo: Ulrike Mai / Pixabay)

15 Apr 2025

Researchers have uncovered a system that links a landlocked country in central Africa to the global trafficking of protected iguanas from the Pacific Ocean Galápagos Islands.

The Galápagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean are often seen as a living museum of evolution. Home to unique wildlife found nowhere else on Earth, the islands have long drawn scientists, conservationists and curious tourists. When Charles Darwin landed there in 1835 he was astonished at the biodiversity.

But this natural paradise also has a darker story – one of global wildlife crime, legal loopholes and an illegal trade that threatens some of the most iconic reptile species on the planet.

The targets? The Galápagos land iguana (Conolophus subcristatus), pink land iguana (C. marthae), Barrington land iguana (C. pallidus) and marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) that graze on underwater algae. All four are endemic to the Galápagos and strictly protected under Ecuadorian law.

Yet, despite decades of local and international safeguards, these animals are landing up in the hands of exotic collectors around the world bearing forged paperwork and bred-in-captivity claims, victims of an elaborate smuggling network.

Iguanas The targeted species of iguana. (Photo: Galápagos Conservancy)

Legal gaps

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was established to regulate and, when necessary, ban the international movement of threatened wildlife. Species are listed under different appendices, with Appendix I offering the strongest protection. All four Galápagos iguanas are listed under Appendix II, which permits trade if captive-bred with proof of legal acquisition.

The problem? The system is being gamed.

According to a report authored by a global team of 20 conservation scientists, the strategy used by traffickers is laundering wild-caught iguanas as captive-§bred in a global shell game where the creatures are shuffled from country to country to evade restrictions.

Wild-caught animals are exported to a transit country – often with weak enforcement – where they’re falsely declared as captive-bred. Once this label is attached, the animals can be legally traded under CITES, allowing smugglers to sell them to high-paying clients in Asia, Europe and North America.

Mali, Switzerland and Uganda have emerged as key nodes in this network. In 2010, two pink land iguanas and two land iguanas were exported from Mali to Switzerland under CITES permits.

All four animals were listed as captive-bred, despite there being no records of legal imports to Mali or any evidence of breeding facilities. Switzerland, in turn, issued CITES export permits for the animals to Uganda in 2014, completing the paper trail that would make their trade appear legitimate.

iguanas Iguanas are landing up in the hands of exotic collectors around the world bearing forged paperwork and bred-in-captivity claims, victims of an elaborate smuggling network. (Photo: David Clode / Pixabay)

Trafficking hub

In this way, according to the report, Uganda has become the world’s primary exporter of “captive-bred” Galápagos land iguanas, sending dozens of animals to countries like Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea.

Needless to say, Uganda has no native iguanas, no historical breeding programme and no legal imports of founder stock. So how did the country become a legal supplier of some of the rarest reptiles on Earth?

At the heart of the trade is the Ugandan Conservation Through Commercialization (CTC) Center, a private facility in Lusaka. Its director, Swiss national Thomas Price, is reported to have a prior conviction in New Zealand for reptile smuggling. Daily Maverick approached the centre two weeks ago for comment but they had not responded by the time of publication.

The facility claims to breed Galápagos iguanas, but no verifiable data has been made public and the animals’ origins remain opaque. The only known legally held iguanas outside Ecuador are at the Charles Darwin Research Station and Galápagos National Park, for conservation, not commerce.

Even more troubling, a 2019 shipment from Sudan to China, which declared Uganda as the origin, was never reported by Uganda – highlighting discrepancies and potential deliberate underreporting in CITES records.

Iguanas Rare iguanas survive for a while, but generally, they don’t live long in captivity. (Photo: Ulrike Mai / Pixabay)

Smuggler snapshots

While paperwork can be manipulated, social media posts offer more candid windows into this illicit world.

In 2012, a Swiss man posted a Facebook photo of marine iguanas in his personal collection – animals that should never have been in private hands. A year later, he posted a land iguana. In 2014, Switzerland issued a CITES permit for these animals to be exported to Uganda, completing their “legal” transformation.

Elsewhere, a Thai citizen posted in 2022 about iguana “offspring being ready” on the Galápagos Islands, inviting buyers to contact him. Weeks later, he appeared in photos in Uganda, posing with the director of the CTC Center and a known German wildlife trader. These social connections underscore the complex, multinational nature of the smuggling network.

On YouTube, a reptile trader in Indonesia shared an “unboxing” video of four juvenile Galápagos land iguanas shipped from Uganda – likely part of the 64 iguanas officially exported by the country since 2017.

Cover story

CITES Resolution 18.7 requires that exporting countries verify the legal acquisition of founder stock before issuing permits for captive-bred animals. But in reality, many authorities don’t follow through, or worse, knowingly approve permits without due diligence.

This creates a dangerous loophole: smugglers can poach rare wildlife, launder it through a compliant or corrupt middle country, and then declare its offspring as legally bred. Once these animals are in the trade system with paperwork in hand, even conscientious importing countries may struggle to reject or trace them.

Ecuador, the only country with wild populations of Galápagos iguanas, has never issued commercial CITES export permits for the species. Yet animals are appearing in trade – legally.

Cracks in the system

Several enforcement actions and CITES decisions disclose growing concern. In 2020, the European Union’s Scientific Review Group issued a Negative Opinion, barring imports of Galápagos iguanas from any country. In 2022, Ecuador submitted a document to the CITES Standing Committee, denouncing the ongoing illegal trade and the fraudulent use of captive-breeding claims.

Yet the trade continues.

In June 2022, Ecuadorian authorities intercepted a shipment of five land iguanas and 84 giant tortoises. In prior years, arrests were made on the islands involving German and Mexican traffickers. All pointed to Uganda as the animals’ destination. Yet no enforcement action has been taken against Uganda or Switzerland for their role in facilitating the trade. Nor has CITES moved to reclassify the species under Appendix I, which would prohibit all commercial trade. DM

What needs to happen

The report’s authors call for several urgent actions:

Immediate halt to all international trade in Galápagos iguanas until legal acquisition can be proven;

Transfer of all four iguana species to CITES Appendix I, reflecting their threatened status and Ecuador’s strict export policy;

Invalidation of existing export permits issued by Mali, Switzerland and Uganda and confiscation of animals without proof of legal origin; and

Creation of a genetic database to help law enforcement trace the origins of seized animals.

This reporter wishes to point out that this case is not just about the Galápagos. It reflects a broader problem across the wildlife trade: legal frameworks that are easily manipulated, enforcement that is inconsistent and a global appetite for rare species that shows no sign of slowing.

As long as animals like the Galápagos iguanas can be turned into living trophies for private collectors, traffickers will find ways to fill that demand.

For now, in private facilities far from their island home, rare iguanas survive for a while. But generally, they don’t live long in captivity. Their journey is paved with deception, profit and the failure of a system meant to protect them.

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