Gerry Martin

Abstract We collated and analyzed information from multiple sources to assess conservation implications of the commercial trade in reptile skins from 2000 to 2020. Of > 71 million skins reported over that period, the most heavily-traded taxa were three crocodilians (Caiman crocodilus, Alligator mississippiensis, Crocodylus niloticus), three snakes (Homalopsis buccata, Cerberus rhynchops, Malayopython reticulatus) and one lizard (Varanus salvator).

Views expressed here represent those of the author and not necessarily of MassLive or The Republican. Readers are invited to share their opinions by emailing to letters@repub.com. In the 1880s, Springfield’s leaders made a choice that would shape our city for generations.

Over the last two decades more than a million Indians reported that they had been bitten by snakes on average every year. Nearly 60,000 of them died annually. The numbers seem enormous. But the toll could be significantly reduced with appropriate grassroots interventions and policy reforms. The key for framing effective policy, it is clear, is robust data and proper analysis. This helps determine what interventions are needed, where they must be made and with whom.