THIS is a bizarre story about a highly unusual smuggling operation, one that I believe readers will want to hear about. It doesn’t involve the usual everyday trafficking in artefacts, people, illegal drugs, gold, or even rare gems. Officials in Africa refer to it as ‘biopiracy’ and describe it as a type of scientific colonialism.

Enforcement agencies tasked with preventing biopiracy are seeing a spike in organised syndicates in advanced countries using human mules to exploit genetic resources or naturally occurring biochemicals from farms and indigenous communities.

Earlier this month, the Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) and members of Kenya’s armed forces conducted a poaching bust, which got some media coverage in Europe and North America. However, the story caught my attention, and I believe we should be aware and alert because Guyana, renowned for its rich biodiversity, with thousands of plant species, fish, amphibians, birds, reptiles, and mammals, is already fertile ground for biopiracy.

Two Belgian teenagers were arrested in the Kenyan bust, and last week they pleaded guilty to biopiracy. Kenyan prosecutors say that the two 19-year-olds were about to smuggle over five thousand caged animals that turned out to be giant queen African harvester ants stuffed in a mixture of test tubes and syringes containing cotton wool – environments that were designed to keep the insects alive for weeks.

The local Kenyan market value was a paltry 1.2 million Kenyan shillings or US$9,300. However, in Europe, depending on the number and variety of each species in the cache, it could be worth as much as 1 million Euros, far exceeding the street value for cocaine.

Although many of the insects would have died before they could be sold to one of many thriving exotic pet retailers in Europe, experts say that the average cost of a single giant queen African harvester ant retails in Britain for around US$233. The number of queens in that single Kenyan bust was estimated to be roughly 5,440. Do the math and you’ll hear a cash register go off in your head.

While ants are difficult to detect, they fetch a hefty profit; not surprisingly, the global ant trade has been booming. If the shift in the trafficking trend – from larger exotic mammals to the creepy crawly insects – is baffling, you’re missing the bigger picture.

In the underworld of trafficking, giant queen ants are referred to as “ecologically critical species,” and collecting them, experts say, is a hobby that has been booming over the past decade. Some species of red African harvester ants can grow to about 20-24mm long, and on websites like “Ants R Us”, they are referred to as a “dream species” and sell for well over US$100 per colony.

Those who buy them, and sales volumes have been climbing every year, do so for their unique behaviours and complex colony-building skills. In exotic pet circles, online forums and chat groups, ant-keeping shows are frequently advertised. At these shows, ant enthusiasts meet to compare colonies and discuss details that they consider to be a form of therapy from the hustle and bustle of their techno-driven world.

As children growing up in Guyana, we might recall how fascinating ants were until we got bitten. In a 2023 research paper tracking the ant trade across China, scientists worry about what might happen when ants are released into a different ecosystem from their native ones. The fear is that they could potentially become invasive, with dire environmental and economic consequences.

Two years ago, the Guyana Wildlife Conservation and Management Commission (GWCMC) caught and fined several individuals who were attempting to smuggle song birds out of Guyana in contravention of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act (2016). In all, six individuals were fined a total of several million dollars for trying to smuggle over 50 song birds from Guyana to Canada and the United States. The commission said the birds were concealed in a cruel manner that could have resulted in a very high mortality rate.

Biopiracy often inflicts profound and sometimes irreversible harm on ecosystems, disrupting delicate natural balances. Consider the role of a large harvester ant colony: each year, these ants gather several kilograms of seeds from various grass species, simultaneously dispersing them across grasslands and enriching the soil.

In doing so, they not only facilitate germination but also sustain countless other species that rely on this cycle. It is worth noting that when farmers resort to pesticides to boost yields and protect crops, they may unintentionally degrade soil health and trigger cascading damage throughout the entire ecosystem.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.