The ayahuasca tourism boom: An undervalued demand driver for jaguar body parts?

Abstract

The jaguar Panthera onca is threatened across much of its range, due to habitat loss, retaliatory killings, and poaching. Consequently, it is listed as near threatened on the IUCN Red List. There is evidence of a growing trade in jaguar body parts across Latin America, particularly in Brazil, Bolivia, Suriname, Costa Rica, and Peru. With Latin America's current ayahuasca and shamanic tourist boom there are additional demands for jaguar products, which is our focus. Each year, thousands of ayahuasca tourists travel to Peru, generating significant revenue for retreat centers that administer the brew. We present findings from investigations into the jaguar parts trade in local markets in Peru, considered a top tourist and ayahuasca tourism destination. We postulate that commercialised ayahuasca tourism may be an undervalued contributor to the trade.

Full text

EVIDENCE
The ayahuasca tourism boom: An undervalued demand driver
for jaguar body parts?
Alexander Braczkowski
1,2,3
| Andrés Ruzo
4
| Fatima Sanchez
5,6
| Romi Castagnino
2
|
Chip Brown
7
| Sharon Guynup
8,9
| Steve Winter
7,9
| Devlin Gandy
10
|
Christopher O'Bryan
1,2
1
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
2
Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
3
School of Natural Resource Management, Department of Nature Conservation, Nelson Mandela University, George, South Africa
4
Boiling River Project –Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
5
School of Biological Sciences, National University of the Peruvian Amazon, Iquitos, Peru
6
Volunteer Park Ranger, Pucacuro National Reserve of the National Service of Natural Protected Areas, Iquitos, Peru
7
National Geographic Magazine, Washington, District of Columbia
8
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Environmental Change and Security Program, Washington, District of Columbia
9
National Geographic, Washington, District of Columbia
10
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Correspondence
Alexander Braczkowski, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia.
Email: alexander.braczkowski@gmail.com
Funding information
National Geographic Society
The jaguar Panthera onca is threatened across much of its
range, due to habitat loss, retaliatory killings, and poaching.
Consequently, it is listed as near threatened on the IUCN
Red List (Quigley et al., 2017). There is evidence of a grow-
ing trade in jaguar body parts across Latin America, particu-
larly in Brazil, Bolivia, Suriname, Costa Rica, and Peru
(Berton, 2018). For example, on February 23, 2018, two
Chinese citizens were apprehended in Santa Cruz de la
Sierra, Bolivia for possession of 185 jaguar teeth and three
skins (Berton, 2018). Similarly, in Brazil at least 30 seizures
of jaguar parts have occurred in the past 5 years
(Berton, 2018).
In Southeast Asia, jaguar claws and teeth are worn as
jewellery; their skins are bought for home decor; and a glue
paste (made from boiled jaguar parts) is consumed to heal
various ailments. Most organized trafficking appears to be
by contractors working for foreign companies hired to hunt
cats to export body part (Berton, 2018). With Latin Ame-
rica's current ayahuasca and shamanic tourist boom there are
additional demands for jaguar products, which is our focus.
Each year, thousands of ayahuasca tourists travel to Peru,
generating significant revenue for retreat centers that admin-
ister the brew (Fotiou, 2016). For example, a 2015 study
found that in Iquitos, Peru's largest Amazonian city, 10 of
the 40 largest retreats generated over USD 6.5 million annu-
ally (

Alvarez, 2015). Ayahuasca is a traditional Amazonian
medicine that has become a global phenomenon. It is a psy-
choactive brew made from the ayahuasca vine Banisteriopsis
caapi and chakruna leaves Psychotria viridis. It is tradition-
ally administered in ritualized shamanic ceremonies for both
spiritual and physical healing; however, recreational users
now ingest it for entheogenic experiences. It is the subject of
extensive scientific research, global conferences, tourism,
and even religious movements.
Received: 28 June 2019 Revised: 13 September 2019 Accepted: 16 September 2019
DOI: 10.1111/csp2.126
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original
work is properly cited.
© 2019 The Authors. Conservation Science and Practice published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology
Conservation Science and Practice. 2019;1:e126. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/csp2 1of4
https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.126

FIGURE 1 The three Peruvian cities where markets sold jaguar parts (8 locations total). Images 1 (an ayahuasca tourist with a newly-
purchased jaguar tooth), 2 (jaguar teeth held by a local trader) and 4 (a jaguar skin held by a trader) were taken in the Passage Paquito section of
Belen market, Iquitos; Image 3 (a village elder holds 3 jaguar paws) was shot in the Barrio Florido community, Punchana district, outskirts of
Iquitos. Images 5 (teeth and a jaguar skull for sale in a craft market) and 7 (jaguar tooth pendants) were taken in Yarinacocha Market, Pucallpa.
Image 6 (jaguar skin with shotgun pellet holes) was taken at thClock Plaza of Pucallpa. Image 8 was shot in Lima, and shows jaguar, sea lion and
caiman teeth in a small exhibit box. We also took images of two skins at the edge of the Momon River, Iquitos (Punchana district; Supplementary
Information 1). Images by Steve Winter (2, 4 and 6), Alex Braczkowski (1, 3,5 and 7) and Devlin Gandy (8). Total sample sizes for discussions with
vendors, shamans and individuals engaged in the tourism industry are as follows: One trip in August 2019 by the second author, one trip by the third
author in April 2019; and an earlier trip in August 2017 by the first, second, third, fifth and sixth authors to a) Pucallpa –9 shamans (Mestizo,
Ahaninka, and Shipibo-Conibo), 3 airport secuirty guards tasked with searches of wildlife products, 3 local mediators, 1 veterinarian (San Juan Beer
Company), five street-side shops (7 sellers), b) Lima –2 small shops, c) Iquitos - approximately 14 sellers: 7 at Passage Paquito section of Belen
market (one of them with 3 family members), 2 at Arteanal San Juan, 1 Barrio Florido community, 4 at the Boulevard. In addition there were 4
intermediaries who assisted in connecting the third author to vendors, 5 shamans, and 4 tourists interested in sessions with ayahuasca
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We present findings from investigations into the jaguar
parts trade in local markets in Peru, considered a top tourist
and ayahuasca tourism destination. We postulate that
commercialized ayahuasca tourism may be an undervalued
contributor to the trade.
1|FINDINGS
Investigations were conducted between August 2016 and
August 2019 in the cities of Lima, Iquitos, and Pucallpa
(Figure 1). This information was collected while working on
a story for National Geographic Magazine. Sales of items
incorporating jaguar body parts to tourists were most preva-
lent in the Amazonian cities of Iquitos and Pucallpa. In
Lima, a few jaguar fangs were found as “specialty items”at
a curio a shop and at an open-air tourist market.
In Iquitos, jaguar skins ranged in price from S/.
150 (Peruvian soles) to S/. 500 (USD 49–152); a single paw
could be purchased for S/. 30 (USD 9). Jaguar skin purses
were sold for S/. 20 (USD 6); a stuffed jaguar head was
priced at S/. 100 to S/. 300 (USD 30–91). Jaguar canines
cost anywhere from S/. 200 to S/. 400 each (USD 61–122);
two street vendors and a local trader In Pullcapa sold jaguar
canine pendants for S/. 250 to S/. 330 each (USD 76–100).
Prices for jaguar skins in Pucallpa and Iquitos were similar,
selling at USD 80–200. Sellers were also willing to transport
the skins internationally, using airport and customs agent
contacts. We were approached repeatedly by local vendors
to purchase jaguar body parts in touristic locations. In con-
trast, our team had to inquire specifically for jaguar body
parts in less touristic areas, but still found them. We note
that there are also decoys: South American sea lion Otaria
flavescens, and caiman Melanosuchus niger teeth were being
sold as jaguar fangs in both Lima and Iquitos.
Discussion with street-side vendors, shamans, and indi-
viduals working in the tourism industry (sample sizes are in
Figure 1) revealed that jaguar canine pendants, jaguar skin
bracelets, and other items are being sold to “enhance the
ayahuasca experience”(Figure 1). This appears to be a case
of rebranding, specifically using “ayahuasca marketing”for
sellers to charge a premium on jaguar parts. Local indige-
nous shamans and healers from the Pucallpa area (Shipibo,
Conibo, and Ashaninka ethnicities) denied the notion that
jaguar parts enhance the ayahuasca experience for visiting
tourists, and suggested that this practice is being marketed
by “charlatan shamans”seeking financial gain from the
ayahuasca boom.
East Asian demand for jaguar parts remains the main
market (Berton, 2018; Plotkin, 2018) however, we suggest
that the ayahuasca tourism industry is quickly becoming an
important additional driver of poaching. We argue that the
drivers behind all demand for these products in Peru and
other ayahuasca tourism hubs must be investigated further,
and recommend future research to identify the main buyers
(Chinese nationals or tourists, and their countries of origin),
and their motivation (memorabilia, ayahuasca ceremony or
traditional Chinese medicine).
2|SOLUTIONS
1. Government regulations—Peru has implemented a
national anti-wildlife trafficking policy, which includes
jaguar trafficking (Supreme Decret N011-2017-MINA
GRI) that punishes wildlife traffickers with a prison sen-
tence of 3–5 years (SERFOR 2017), as established in
article 308 of the 2016 Peruvian penal code.
2. Education of tourists—a formal media campaign to edu-
cate ayahuasca tourists on the plight of wild jaguars, and
discouraging them from buying jaguar parts is urgently
needed.
3. Regulate and sensitize shamanic tourism operations—we
suggest that a concerted effort to formalize ayahuasca
tourism and educate both tourists and tour operators
could play an important role in discouraging the trade in
this niche market. The shamans we encountered in Iqui-
tos and Pucallpa stressed the importance of the jaguar to
the Amazon ecosystem and as a powerful totem in the
spiritual world. The leadership of ayahuasca retreats
could be important champions for jaguar conservation in
Peru, Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil, and other regions
where ayahuasca is used, and they could discourage
tourists from using jaguar parts.
4. Bettered enforcement—enforcement by local police is
limited and sellers in Peru, and traffickers are finding
ways to hide the products in warehouses, in the back of
their stalls and other locations (Supplementary informa-
tion 1). Bettered support and more resources are needed
for anti-trafficking police in Peru.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors thank the National Geographic Society for
supporting this work through their storytelling and science
grant program.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors do not have any conflict of interest to declare.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
A.B. conceived the manuscript and wrote the first draft with
C.O.B. A.R. and F.S. contributed price data from markets.
A.R., F.S., R.C., C.B., S.G., S.W. and D.G. helped write and
BRACZKOWSKI ET AL.3of4

edit the second and third revisions of the manuscript.
S.G. wrote the captions, and S.W. and A.B. took the photo-
graphs in the markets.
ETHICS STATEMENT
As our manuscript presents price data from openly accessi-
ble public markets in Peru it does not require ethical review.
We also did not report on human or animal data. All formal
permissions for this work were secured from the Boiling
River Project, a Peruvian NGO working in the Pucallpa
region, and formed part of a National Geographic Magazine
Story (December 2017).
ORCID
Alexander Braczkowski https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0099-
7803
REFERENCES
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SUPPORTING INFORMATION
Additional supporting information may be found online in
the Supporting Information section at the end of this article.
How to cite this article: Braczkowski A, Ruzo A,
Sanchez F, et al. The ayahuasca tourism boom: An
undervalued demand driver for jaguar body parts?
Conservation Science and Practice. 2019;1:e126.
https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.126
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