French Guyana anyone?

[Seb3dge]

Hello everyone!

Lately I've been thinking a lot about French Guyana. Since it's technically part of the European Union (actually, a tiny part of the Amazon rainforest is in the EU... what a paradox ) it should be quite easy to both get there, be safe (relatively, at least), and collect fish. At least, if there're no restrictions...
Since I'm planning to expand my hobby and make it my job in the near future, fish collecting will become part of my work. And somehow, I think French Guyana is a nice place to start.

Anyone got any info on their regulations regarding all aspects of fish collecting? Any first-hand experiences?

Thanks a lot!

Seb

[Bas Pels]

As French guyana is officially france, I'd say try the French forums. I know Uwe Werner - German - has also been there, he might be able to tell you more too. Werner teaches French

[MatsP]

I have a feeling that exporting fish from French Guiana may be harder than just about any other part of South America - it would surprise me quite a bit if there aren't very strict restrictions on export there - simply because it is part of France/Europe, and thus has "higher standards" when it comes to protecting the natural habitats and fauna.

In fact, google found this:
http://www.2docstock.com/Suriname/Repor ... uiana.html

International commerce in endangered species is covered by the law of 1986 and the amended law of 1 March 1993 and applies only to French Guiana. This decree, for all intents and purposes, forbids the capture, killing, holding, export, transit, import, sale or resale of all wild vertebrate fauna and wild flora occurring in French Guiana, including their parts and derivatives. Further, sympatric species (CITES or non-CITES) that also occur in Guyana and/or Suriname, or indeed any Guyanese species held in captivity in any other country, would not be allowed into France even with an export permit from its country of origin or re-export. Therefore, theoretically, there is no legal wildlife export trade of any kind from French Guiana (with a few exceptions for preserved Arachnids and Morpho butterflies exported in small quantities for personal use). There is no legal internal pet trade of any kind either
(1982 regulations and 1983 amendments.)

So, it appears that you will need to have permission from the French government to export fish (or other vertebrate) animals from French Guiana.

--
Mats

[kruseman]

Uwe Werner told me it was fairly easy to export fish from French-Guyana. He visited the country a few years ago and said it was a nice place to catch fish with a good infrastructure. Not like neighbour Surinam with hardly any roads; a country the Netherlands should never have given up ....

You need a permit, he said, and then you can bring home the fishalthough you won't find a lot of new species: The fishfauna there has been studied beter than in other SA countries.
But he, for example, collected Guianacara owroewefi "Grand Laussat" the ones I later bought from him. Nice cichlids imo


this might also be interesting :

http://home.planet.nl/~gumamaus/