Importing Solomon Island insects to US ...seeking assistance

To import into USA you need your USFWS Wildlife import license. If you hand carry specimens back you'll need to complete a form, make sure you go through a USFWS port of entry, get the package inspected, and pay a fee. If they come by mail, you have to ensure the package goes to USFWS for inspection before being forwarded (hopefully) to you.

To export from Solomon Islands you'll need to find an authorized wildlife exporter (not difficult) and subsidize them.

To import Ornithoptera into USA from Solomon Islands you'll have to get the secret law forbidding import of Ornithoptera from Solomon Islands removed. This will involve getting a politician involved who will have to introduce a bill (or rider) that passes House and Senate. Meaning, you'll probably have to grease some palms.

Not sure what help you can provide to raise Ornithoptera, other than financial. Ranching of Ornithoptera is easy, and done regularly. Michael does it in Kokombona, on the outskirts of Honiara, and they've been doing it in Malaita and Rendova for decades.

As far as the insect trade, it's as nefarious as any enterprise could be. The best specimens from Solomon Islands to go Japan and Russia, so you get the left overs. Smuggling is the norm, and the only reward for doing it legally is harassment from overzealous Swamp bureaucrats at USFWS. AFAIK, everyone here who has a USFWS license gave it up because it wasn't worth the trouble. If you think you'll make money importing Ornithoptera from Solomon Islands, do a quick calculation of costs vs. possible profit, keep in mind falling demand, and you'll see it doesn't work.

Also, if returning with Ornithoptera by air, do not transit via Australia or Fiji, because 95% chance you'll have to wait for a flight and in doing so enter the country. Australia will definitely seize Ornithoptera, they're worse than USFWS, rabid law enforcement masquerading as pseudo-ecologists who only want another notch on their belts- they really drank the Kool Aid and can't see past their enforcement jobs to realize the impact of their ecologically destructive laws.

There are MANY posts here about USFWS licenses, and importing from Solomon Islands. Read up and be wary.

Now, if you go to SI for photography you won't be disappointed. The geography, flora, fauna, and people provide incredible photo ops.

Chuck

Unfortunately, "going by the books", as did I, is no guarantee there won't be problems. On import, one USFWS would require all specimens be named down to the species, while others did not; one took only checks, another only credit card, etc. One Agent in Charge blatantly lied to me, saying that I did not call in a request for an inspection, whereas his employee later told me that indeed I had, and he knew it; said agent also told me I did "everything by the book" but despite that, one little man decided to play tough guy. USFWS was well intentioned when started, but like most organizations it's gone rogue.

I know a number of importers across numerous fields, and the only way to do business is to kowtow to unwritten laws and petty personalities, and/or with lawsuits. In most cases, if some personality at Agency X decides they're going to stick it to you, it's often best to eat it and move on. Or quit.

Since I knew everyone at Solomon Islands Natural Resources, I knew who was importing legally, and which retailers were reselling illegally imported specimens. For several years at least NONE of the material from SI that was commercially available in USA was legal, except mine. Lots of good that did me.

To hunt Ornithoptera in Solomon Islands is easy, and to raise them there as well. Note though they're back at inter-island conflict again, so be wary.

Unless Customs left a seizure notification in your luggage, it wasn't Customs. It was probably the airline baggage handlers. I use tie wraps (cable ties) to "lock" my luggage. That's also tamper evidence. The longer a bag sits with the airline baggage, the more likely it is to be pilfered from. Bangkok and Miami are high-theft airports inbound, but just about any outbound flight from a developing country provides opportunity to rummage through luggage.

Chuck

The only time I locked a piece of checked baggage, it was opened, and that was from here to Chicago, it was my collecting box with jars,
my uv light and the usual, nothing missing, who opened it, I'll never know. I thought that's what x-ray machines are supposed to do.
People get sold useless things for flying, like lead lined pouches for film, I bought one once and had to take the film out and everything
was x-rayed.

Please be sure to check the Facebook blacklist on Mick butterfly (Micheal Bosa) he has gained quite the reputation as a scammer and began posing as Miriam (which was later discovered to be his wife).

I cannot comment on Michael Bosa, as I don't know him personally.


One thing I can comment on is "scams." Solomon Islands, like many regions, does have it's scammers! The worst advertise highly desirable product that they don't have in hand, and have no intent on delivering.

That said, there are many enterprising insect suppliers in the Solomons, and they will all eventually be labelled as scammers, because ultimately there will be one or more packages they won't deliver to expectations. They face a variety of challenges: substandard specimens provided by family which culturally MUST be accepted and paid for; parcels lost, stolen, or intercepted; in-shipment damage with no reasonable recourse for compensation; US (and other) retailers who don't pay; nit picky bauble collectors who massacre them on farsebook and elsewhere.

The long and the sort of it is that in Solomons most entomology suppliers are start-up (even long-term startup) one-man operations. Cashflow is always a problem; when there's a problem with a shipment they have no means to cover the loss, reimburse or re-supply the buyer, etc. Inevitably (and this is not unique to butterflies) the stresses of real-world business operations lead them to deliver lesser product, fail to satisfy buyers, etc. Prior to the civil war, there were only a very few top tier suppliers, the difference is that they knew how to run a business. Most of the suppliers today have no idea how to run a business, and fail. Those that are successful are those that focus on the expensive and/or wholesale material, which goes to Japan and Russia. You're getting the left-overs, and from 2nd tier suppliers. If you don't like the risk, buy retail, or get all of your licenses, go there, and pick them out yourself.

Most of these SI suppliers are well intentioned. It is stupid easy to raise Ornithoptera. What's not easy is dealing with logistics, failed delivery, foreign import regulations, and buyers who scream like little girls if there's a scratch on a wing; buyers who aren't licensed importers and get all bent when the package is intercepted; and the whole buyer "Amazon" mentality. I've seen both sides, and have spent substantial time with suppliers in SI, and I know what they have to deal with. I have little compassion for North American and European buyers who are dissatisfied.

Chuck

Solomon Islands has very strict immigration, and in general it's tough to just move there. If one plans to relocate there, one had better have all the approvals done.


"graciously donated his gardens to his tribal community"

Interesting, and highly unlikely.

Land ownership in the South Pacific is primarily indiginously owned at the tribe level. On Guadalcanal, just about the only land that's privately owned is downtown Honiara. The rest is owned by what we may call "tribes." The same situation occurs throughout Polynesia, inclusive of Hawai'i, albeit with more private ownership depending upon the level of westernization.

Leases on property to other people/ groups is not uncommon. It is also rife with problems. Gold Ridge Mine has a lease that's perfectly legal by western standards, but when the local landowners feel they've been slighted they have no problem driving off the lease holder. This happens also to families, such as Malaitans around the Lunga River who got leases, and the locals decided they didn't like some aspect of the situation. The conflicts are often compounded and complicated because there may be factions within a single unit who disagree with the lease "I didn't sign it!", a situation that's blown up with the Cayuga Nation in New York as well.

But again, most land is tribal, not owned by any individual, but owned by an extended family group. Though an individual may own a home that often they built, the land remains tribal ("kastom") land. How some young guy, even with political connections (e.g., son of the chief) could possibly own substantial personal land would be a very interesting story. Gifting a garden, from western perspective, would include the land; perhaps he gifted a bunch of vegetable plants.

If Mick is Guale, he will never be PM, the Malaitan powers would never permit it. If he's Malaitan, then who's land is he truly on? Speaking of politics, I understand the butterfly dealer from Makira, Roxley Tara, is now the provincial minister. You could look him up for his perspective.

Not to be a debbie downer, I'd love to see more eco tourist and eco-businesses in SI. But one should be aware of what one is getting into, and in this case the story doesn't wash well. Not impossible, just improbable.

BTW, I'm guessing the photo of Mick was taken immediately south of the bridge over Lunga River.

Chuck