Senegal's dying reptile skin trade

By Ebrima Sillah
BBC, Dakar, Senegal

Trade in belts, shoes, and ladies bags made out of reptile skin is no longer a lucrative business in Senegal.

The international treaty banning all exports of such items has meant a serious downturn for vendors in the craft market in the capital, Dakar.

Hardly anyone now comes to the market to buy the products made out of reptiles such as snakes, crocodiles, alligators, lizards, and camel skins.

Vendors are struggling shift their products

And even the few who take the risk of buying struggle hard to smuggle the products to beat customs officials at international airports and inland border points.

Mbye Seck, who has been engaged in making leather shoes, belts, ladies bags and wallets for the past 20 years, says that the desperation is now too much.

"Most of the products that you see here have been lying here for the past three years or more because tourists who used to be our major buyers are no longer interested," he told me.

"They say the harassment they go through at international airports when they have products made out of reptile skins is not worth the trouble."

Liability

Indeed the sale of products made out of reptile skins used to be a booming business here in Senegal.

It was a business that most tourist vendors used to be involved in because goods sold fast.

International bans have hit demand for reptile skin products

The products themselves are decorated in colourful and fashionable designs.

But Mr Seck says that the shoes, belts and ladies bags are now more or less a liability.

"You see the value of the products is far less now and every morning all what we do is to look at them like statues. What we cannot do, though, is it to throw them away," said Mr Seck.

But despite the difficulty in selling the products, Mr Seck and his colleagues at the craft market in Dakar continue to make the shoes and bags from reptiles skins in the hope that one day they will be allowed to export the products to the outside world.

They are still refusing to use cow hides, because these products fetch low prices and because much of their wealth is tied up in their stock.

"We and our families are going hungry because of the international treaty banning trade in reptile skins," one of the vendors told me, openly waving his tools of trade.

But while the craft market vendors remain unprepared to diversify, their products, made out of rare reptile skins, sit unwanted in the market stalls.