I noticed in this thread, a link to an English translation of a Datz article called What's happening in Brazil? In addition, via another thread I found a link to an email exchange between a hobbyist and Dr. Ning Labbish Chao about the export of Zebra plecos. The article included this important quote:
It seems to me that perhaps this forum could serve as a nonprofit institution for the captive breeding of these fish. I don't know what the process of applying would be, but it might be worth looking into.On 28th May 2004 the MMA published a list of Brazilian invertebrates and fishes threatened by extinction. This list consists of 156 fish species that are forbidden from being caught, traded or even bred in captivity (the only exception is for scientific studies) from the 1st July 2004.
Obviously there are problems with this idea. Just off the top of my head I can think of several possible objections to this idea:
This is not the intent of the forum owner and moderators
May require establishing some sort of legal structure acceptable to the government of Brasil to do so
This forum is not a scientific institution
Potential restrictions on selling captive bred offspring
Determining who would be allowed to import Zebras
People who are currently selling Zebras for a massive profit may object
However, with all of that said, it does seem that it might be worth looking into seeing if hobbyists could formally participate in the conservation of possibly endangered species. I'm probably not the first to think of this, but I don't see any posts similar to this idea here.