Collection permits in El Ecuador

[W. BERENDSOHN]

I am supervising a diploma thesis (vegetation study in a developing
nature reserve) involving taxonomic identification of trees in El Ecuador.
The student (Maike Potthast) is currently there and I received a
message from her stating  that starting from Jan 1 1995, permanent
export of herbarium specimens from the Andean states is not
permitted any more ("Regimen de los 5 paises
Andinos, Venezuela, Colombia, El Ecuador, El Peru y Bolivia").   It
is only possible to send specimens on loan for identification for a
defined period of time. Is this true? Maike has
collected 6 duplicates, 4 of which are to be deposited in the
country. I would appreciate any suggestions what to do. Useful
contacts in El Ecuador would also be highly welcome.
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   Dr. Walter G. Berendsohn, Freie Universitaet Berlin,
   Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem,
   Koenigin-Luise-Str. 6-8, 14191 Berlin, Germany
   Tel: +49 30 83006-143, Fax: +49 30 83006-186
   Email: wgb at fub46.zedat.fu-berlin.de
   WWW: http://fub46.zedat.fu-berlin.de:8080/~wgb/
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