When there are so many real issues to be concerned about, why pick on an industry which does much more good than harm?

The crocodilian industry continues to face the challenge caused by the disinformation campaigns used by animal rights groups to influence brands and organisations in the fashion industry. They are consistently targeting the fashion industry to gain publicity and raise their social media profile to gain more donations.  

Some brands and fashion show organisers choose to avoid the risk of disruptions/negative publicity threatened by animal rights activist to their runway shows (see  https://www.voguebusiness.com/story/fashion/london-fashion-week-bans-exotic-skins). To show compliance and co-operation, the brands or fashion show organisers resort to “banning” the use/showing of exotic leather on their runways, under the guise of “animal welfare” and “sustainability” concerns. Using the motivation of “sustainability” has been questioned (see article ILM  
https://internationalleathermaker.com/london-fashion-weeks-decision-to-ban-reptile-skin-is-not-sustainability/).

London Fashion Week’s election to ban exotic leather from the fashion show, seems to be irrational for an industry that needs to be concerned with the environmental impact of monoculture plant production, mineral extraction and bulk industrialisation of manufacturing processes, consuming large quantity of energy and water, and causing extensive damage to the environment. Some of these concerns are sometimes comfortably ignored by fast fashion industries when it comes to their requirements of instant availability of raw materials at favourable pricing to showcase their latest trends in fashion.

The UIN experts has recognised that crocodilian farming had positive impacts on the following areas:
Crocodilian conservation: farming programmes have enabled the recovery of previously endangered wild crocodilians populations. True in Louisiana, Australia, Papua-New Guinea, Zimbabwe, Kenya, etc.

Wetlands protection and recovery: by protecting and restoring crocodilians’ habitat, farming contributes to wetlands’ key environmental functions, including CO2 sequestration and biodiversity enhancement.

Communities’ economic and social development: not only with revenues, but also with economic cooperation promoting local agriculture, farms contribute to the betterment of communities in precarious economic situations.

Beside the external benefits of the farming economic model, International Crocodilian Farmers Association (ICFA) member farms are required to comply with the most demanding farming standards, reaching the best possible results in animal welfare, environment, social working conditions. The contribution that sustainable utilisation (and crocodilian farming) made towards the conservation of crocodilian species is well recognised and brought some of the crocodilian populations back from being highly endangered to a point where the populations have reached saturation point in protected areas. Some populations must now be controlled through regulated hunting/culling to contain the population growth.

ICFA recently published a sustainability report (published on the ICFA website see https://internationalcrocodilian.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/icfa-ra2023-english-light.pdf ) to inform the public of the progress that the ICFA farming members has made in achieving animal welfare standards and the critical role that sustainable utilization and crocodilian farming has played in the protection of wetlands, the conservation of crocodilians and the role that crocodilians play in maintaining the biodiversity in wetland ecosystems.  

You can also view ICFA LinkedIn account for more information: