WILDLIFE SALES CONTROLS REVIEW (Hansard, 20 July 1994)

§ The Earl of Arran

We announced the outcome of the first stage of the review on 25 April 1994. This focused mainly on changes in the bird registration system. The rest of the review covered a range of issues concerning secondary controls on native and exotic wildlife, and enforcement.

We plan to make some changes which should take effect from 1 October. These will simplify paper controls and improve enforcement. There are seven main elements:

(i) The Registered Sellers of Dead Birds (RSDB) scheme allows people (mainly taxidermists) registered with the Department of the Environment to sell dead birds. In return for a triennial fee, registered sellers do not have to submit individual sales applications to the department. However they are required to fix a marker to specimens and to keep records which are returned to the department every six months. The scheme was intended to discourage the taking of birds from the wild for taxidermy and to allow people already legitimately trading in birds to continue to do so without the need to apply for individual sales licences. We believe WA 38 that these objectives can be achieved more effectively by issuing a general licence allowing the sale of captive-bred and legally-taken dead birds. The wording of the licence will make it clear that sellers must be able to demonstrate conclusively that the legal requirements have been met. We shall be issuing a formal consultation letter shortly.
(ii) The Department of the Environment issues about 2,500 individual sales licences each year to allow the sale of live or dead wildlife specimens, or parts thereof, for example where they have been bred in captivity or artificially propagated, or are needed for research. This means that substantial resources are being devoted to authorising legitimate activities which have little or no apparent effect on the conservation of the species concerned. We shall therefore be moving to a control system based on wider use of general sales licences which will enable us to operate more effective checks on specimens for which individual licences will continue to be required. The new system will rely on the increased use of DNA tests to check claims that specimens have been bred in captivity.
(iii) The Department of the Environment has financed research on the use of DNA testing to identify the parentage of birds, and copies of the results will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses as soon as they are available. DNA tests have already been used in four recent and successful prosecutions, and further cases are in the pipeline. We shall be looking into the feasibility of extending the use of DNA testing where appropriate to help enforce controls on other endangered species.
(iv) Four amphibian species are subject to sales controls (but not a prohibition on the killing, injuring or taking of wild specimens) under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981—the common toad, common frog, smooth newt and palmate newt. At present these species can be sold only if an individual licence has been issued or if the vendor has obtained a "trader" licence. The reported level of trade in these species, which is in the low thousands, is unlikely to have a discernible effect on populations in the wild, which run into millions. We shall therefore be issuing a general licence for these four species, subject to conditions agreed with our scientific advisers, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, restricting the times and locations when they can be collected. We shall also be asking the JNCC to look carefully at the effectiveness of sale-only controls in its next Quinquennial Review of Schedules 5 and 8 of the Act.
(v) In the past, some species have been subject to sales controls under the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act 1976. In many instances, these controls have been superseded by the EC CITES Regulation or duplicated by WA 39 the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. These controls have taken precedence and the sale of most of the small number of species remaining has been permitted under an open sales licence for some time. In December 1992, the then Minister for the Environment my noble friend Lord Strathclyde announced that 200 additional species would be made subject to sales controls following the establishment of the single market. On further investigation we are not convinced that sale controls are an effective means of controlling trade in these species and we do not now propose to introduce these measures. Furthermore, we do not propose to add any new species to the Act for the purposes of sales controls unless our scientific advisers judge that an undesirable level of trade in any wild specimens of particular species is taking place.
(vi) We believe that there is room for improving controls on the import of CITES species. In particular, the Department of the Environment will give greater emphasis to its powers to impose conditions on import permits and to ensure that conditions which have been imposed are complied with. Where an import of a CITES Appendix I (or EC Regulation Annex C1) specimen is allowed only because of the purpose for which it will be used, for example for specific research or breeding projects, a condition will be imposed requiring prior authorisation from the Department of the Environment before it is used for any other purpose. We will continue to make use of the provision to restrict the movement of a specimen from the address specified on the import permit. The environment department's wildlife inspectors will carry out more inspections to ensure that specimens are used and kept as proposed.
(vii) The Department of the Environment already monitors advertisements offering endangered species for sale in a range of specialist journals. More journals will be scrutinised and advertisements followed up, to guard against possible sale offences.

We also propose to make a number of changes which will take longer to implement. First, we will review our publicity on both primary and secondary controls, with a view to issuing additional material by March 1995. Secondly, we shall consider whether there is any scope for the conservation agencies assuming responsibility for some of the licensing controls currently operated by the Department of the Environment. Thirdly, we will begin work to consider amending the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to exclude captive-bred birds and remove duplication with the EC CITES Regulation.

These changes as a whole will reduce bureaucracy, and release resources to improve enforcement of the import and sales controls which protect genuinely endangered species. The additional enforcement measures that have been described—more inspections, DNA tests, stricter import conditions and monitoring of 40WA advertisements,—will be introduced by October this year.

We also recognise the scope for further improvements in enforcement and in the links between enforcement agencies. These need to be considered in detail with other interested groups, including the voluntary bodies. We therefore propose to establish an official level working group on enforcement involving relevant enforcement agencies and non-governmental organisations. Its composition and detailed terms of reference will be announced shortly.

We have placed a paper giving more about these proposals and the background to them in the Libraries of both Houses in accordance with our commitment to open government.