Endangered Species (Illegal Trade) (Hansard, 22 January 2002)

§ Mr. David Amess (Southend, West)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to increase penalties for offences under the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act 1976.

Just in case unkind Members have it at the back of their minds that the Bill is about hereditary peers or Conservative Members of Parliament, let me make it clear that it is nothing of the kind.

In common with other hon. Members, I am an animal lover. Indeed, when I return to my home the only thing that I can guarantee is that all my animals will be pleased to see me, pleased to be taken for a walk and pleased to be fed. The only sight more inspiring than my good wife bringing me a cup of tea in bed, which may or may not be laced with arsenic, is seeing wild animals in their natural habitat, and unless the House, the mother of Parliaments, takes endangered species seriously, we will no longer be able to enjoy seeing them in that habitat.

I wonder how many hon. Members realise that it is possible to be arrested for poaching a pheasant in the United Kingdom, but not for selling a tiger, and that it is possible to be arrested for poaching deer or even salmon, but not for trading in ivory or rhino horn, which are derivatives of some of the most endangered species on the planet. Under current UK legislation, trading in endangered species is not an arrestable offence, and that is what the Bill attempts to amend.

Globally, the illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be worth more than £5 billion a year, second only to illegal trafficking in drugs. It is estimated that in excess of 520 million animals and plants are traded each year, and about a quarter of the wildlife trade is thought to comprise illegal items.

The United Kingdom, to our shame, is a major consumer of endangered species. For example, in a police operation involving a series of raids across the United Kingdom on premises selling traditional east Asian medicine, more than 20,000 medicinal products containing derivatives of rare and endangered species were seized. A survey by the wildlife trade monitoring programme, TRAFFIC, of Chinese medicine shops in the UK in 2000 found that 64 per cent. sold products that contained protected animal and plant species, including leopard, bear, musk deer and costas root.

The impact of that trade on endangered species is huge. For example, the decline in the black rhino population is an appalling case study in the demise of an endangered species. In the early 1970s, the population was in excess of 65,000, but it has now fallen to just 2,500. The decline is partly due to poaching to fulfil the demand for rhino horn, primarily for traditional east Asian medicine. In 1998, a man was found to be in possession of 127 rhino horns, worth £2.8 million. Although he was found guilty of conspiracy to sell the rhino horns, they were returned to him on appeal. In 1998, the Metropolitan police raided a shop in Islington which was selling stuffed tiger cubs less than one week old; they were stuffed and mounted on a branch, and my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) and I saw them earlier today.

In April 2000, UK police seized more than 130 shahtoosh shawls, which are made from the wool of a rare and endangered species of Tibetan antelope—the 751 biggest ever seizure of such items in the world. That haul alone is thought to be worth more than £350,000; the shawls are estimated to represent just 2 per cent. of the world population of the species. The growing demand for shahtoosh has left a trail of blood from the Tibetan plateaux to the celebrities who unfortunately choose to wear them. Up to five Tibetan antelope are killed to make just one of those wretched shawls.

In another case reported last week in the Daily Mail— I know that many hon. Members have talked about this—rare birds of prey were wedged into six-inch diameter plastic tubes in a bid to import them illegally from Asia. Twenty-three birds, all with their feet bound and with no access to food and water, had endured a 14-hour trip when they were discovered in two suitcases by customs officers.

The trade in exotic pets, especially reptiles and amphibians, is flourishing. Every year, millions of wild animals are trapped for use in the exotic pet trade; most die before reaching the pet shops. The World Wild Fund for Nature—to which, along with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, I am indebted—believes that that behaviour threatens the survival of many endangered species and damages their fragile ecosystems and habitats. Killing those animals denies local communities in their native countries the right to a sustainable livelihood. The aim of the convention on international trade in endangered species of wild flora and fauna is to restore the balance between humans and nature to ensure that people's use of wildlife is managed carefully so that it does not threaten either wildlife or the people who rely on it. The trade in endangered species seriously jeopardises that balance.

Bringing those animals into the UK puts the public at risk. RSPCA inspectors helped police to uncover a collection of eight deadly snakes in a raid on a Sheffield flat last February. Unbelievably, a four-foot alligator currently in the Heathrow animal reception centre was abandoned in a telephone box, only to be found by a member of the general public. As the Minister knows, it is also possible that many of these animals could bring in diseases infectious to humans, crops or farm animals. A variety of birds and reptiles can spread very dangerous diseases.

752 Yet the penalties for these crimes do not reflect their gravity. The company selling the shahtoosh worth more than £350,000 was fined only £1,500. The tiger cub trader was sentenced to only three months for selling a species that numbers only 5,000 in the wild. The maximum sentence for buying or selling an endangered species in this country is only two years—and the maximum sentence has never been awarded. Most criminals who are prosecuted for their crimes receive a fine that the World Wide Fund for Nature believes to be no deterrent whatever. Since these crimes are not arrestable offences, the police, who are responsible for enforcing international legislation protecting endangered species, cannot arrest these criminals. Bizarrely, they can only invite them down to the police station for questioning. Furthermore, as the offences are not arrestable, the police do not even record the statistics on these shocking crimes.

In conclusion, I believe that the House can address this anomaly by increasing from two to five years the maximum sentences for offences concerning illegal trade in endangered species. That would make the offences arrestable. An arrestable offence carries with it not only powers of arrest, but other powers under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, which would provide the police with powers of entry without a warrant, powers of search and seizure and the ability to charge and bail people to court with conditions where appropriate. All hon. Members enjoy watching films about dinosaurs, but it would be a disgrace if the House were to do absolutely nothing and add to the number of dinosaurs. I commend the Bill to the House.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. David Amess, Norman Baker, Mr. Ian Cawsey, Mrs. Helen Clark, Jane Griffiths, Mr. Mike Hancock, John Mann, Linda Perham, Mr. John Randall, Angela Watkinson, Miss Ann Widdecombe and Mr. Bill Wiggin.