22/07/2005 – WWF-UK and
Traffic International have succeeded in helping
close a loophole in British law that made
it impossible for police officers to arrest
people for selling illegal products made from
the world’s most endangered species.
The efforts of enforcement officers have
for some time been seriously hampered by inadequate
legislation, where a person could be arrested
for selling a common frog, but could not be
arrested for selling a tiger skin, rhino horn,
or elephant ivory.
WWF and TRAFFIC campaigned for a change in
the UK 's Criminal Justice Act, which came
into force in November 2003. Although the
act introduced tougher penalties for those
involved in the sale of illegal wildlife products
– items often linked to international organized
crime, murder, and corruption – the regulation
was not put in place to allow police to arrest
suspects until yesterday.
The revisions to the Control of Trade in
Endangered Species (Enforcement) Regulations
(COTES) came into force on 21 July 2005, with
the maximum jail sentence for selling endangered
species products increased from two to five
years – meaning police can now use their powers
of arrest to enforce it.
"This new regulation finally takes the
handcuffs off the police and allows them to
be placed on wildlife criminals for the first
time, protecting the world's most endangered
species," said David Cowdrey, WWF-UK's
Wildlife Trade Campaign Director.
"This regulation has been well overdue
and will be powerful tool in the fight against
wildlife crime."
The desperate need for this was made clear
in November last year when British Police
made one of the biggest ever seizures of illegal
ivory in the UK but were powerless to arrest
those responsible for it because the new regulation
had not been issued.
Poaching of endangered species is a serious
crime and has at times been responsible for
the deaths of conservationists, park rangers,
and poachers alike in gun battles. The closure
of this loophole sends a clear message that
this serious and organized criminal activity,
threatening the world’s most endangered species
across the world, will no longer be tolerated.
"We hope this new regulation will help
close down the illegal wildlife markets in
the UK," said Steven Broad, Executive
Director of TRAFFIC International.
"We look forward to working with the
authorities in providing support to ensure
that the UK’s legislation allows for no loopholes
for criminal activities endangering the world’s
biodiversity and raising awareness to ensure
that penalties given reflect the serious nature
of these crimes."
WWF and TRAFFIC hope that judges and prosecutors
will now deal with these criminals and give
appropriate sentences.
"We hope the courts and the Crown Prosecution
Service will consider the recent changes in
the law and the serious consequences of ivory
smuggling and organized criminal gangs operating
overseas when dealing with similar cases in
the future," added Cowdrey.
"These are not petty crimes."
END NOTES:
• TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring
network – a joint programme of WWF and IUCN–The
World Conservation Union – works to ensure
that trade in wild plants and animals is not
a threat to the conservation of nature.
