Posted on 18 April 2013
- Japan’s announcement that it intends to
raise the penalties for those convicted
of wildlife trafficking from one to five
years in jail came just after Russian President
Vladimir Putin submitted a law to parliament
that would make smuggling of endangered
species a criminal offence, meaning those
convicted would spend time behind bars.
“Countries increasing
the penalties for wildlife offences signals
a shift in global perception about the seriousness
with which such crimes should be treated,”
said Stephanie Pendry, TRAFFIC’s Enforcement
Programme Leader.
“We hope it indicates
a new resolve by nations across the globe
to overhaul and improve their legislation
relating to wildlife crime.”
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
NOT APPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN
In 2012, a review of
Russian wildlife legislation carried out
by TRAFFIC and WWF proposed amendments to
Russian federal law that would tighten the
penalties for illegal harvest and trafficking
of rare species and their derivatives, and
highlighted a loophole that had allowed
poachers and traffickers to get away with
insignificant fines.
While the Russian parliament
still needs to approve the president’s proposal
for jail time, on 31 March the government
increased the compensation due from anyone
convicted of killing or taking from the
wild tigers and leopards and other endangered
species, including certain birds of prey,
to RUB1.1 million (US$35,000).
Meanwhile, the environment
ministry in Japan has announced it intends
to raise the maximum penalty for individuals
convicted of trafficking wildlife from one
year in prison or a fine of JPY1 million
(US$10,400) to five years behind bars or
a fine of JPY5 million (US$52,000).
The ministry also plans
to raise the fine companies found guilty
of trafficking endangered species face by
one-hundred fold, to a maximum JPY100 million
(US$ 1.04 million).
It is the first time
penalties against wildlife trafficking have
been raised in Japan since the law on the
conservation of endangered species took
effect in 1993, though more work is still
needed to bring wildlife trade laws fully
into line with modern practices. At the
same time, the ministry also announced its
intentions to ban advertisements selling
threatened wildlife.
These announcements
come just days ahead of a United Nations
Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal
Justice (CCPCJ) meeting in Austria, where
countries will debate criminal justice responses
to wildlife trafficking, and have the opportunity
formally to request governments to make
wildlife trafficking a serious crime, a
move that would mean up to four years in
prison, or a more serious penalty, for convicted
offenders.
Last September New Zealand
announced a similar increase in punitive
measures, with penalties for those convicted
of smuggling native wildlife were increased
to up five years in jail, putting them into
the zone of serious crime.
Meanwhile, penalties
handed out for those convicted of rhino
poaching in South Africa have also risen
into the very strong deterrent range. They
include recent sentences of 29 years for
poaching offences, while a convicted Thai
national kingpin in a rhino horn poaching
racket was given a 40 year jail sentence
late last year.
“By increasing penalties
to more than four years in prison, countries
such as South Africa, New Zealand and Japan
have already shown they are taking wildlife
crime seriously; this CCPCJ meeting is a
golden opportunity for others to demonstrate
the same commitment to tackling this globally
significant and devastating crime,” said
Wendy Elliot, WWF’s Illegal Wildlife Trade
Campaign co-leader.
+ More
Urgent action needed
to halt increased trafficking of critically
endangered tortoises
Posted on 18 April 2013
- Antananarivo, Madagascar - Over a thousand
critically endangered Madagascar tortoises
have been seized during trafficking attempts
in the first three months of 2013, prompting
a coalition of NGOs to call for urgent action
from Malagasy authorities.
In one of the most recent
cases, 54 ploughshare tortoises, the rarest
and most threatened tortoise species in
the world made it as far as Thailand before
being seized.
The seizure came just
a day after the close of a global wildlife
trade conference in Thailand last month,
Thai Customs officers and their counterparts
in the CITES management authority also seized
21 radiated tortoises in the same operation.
At the beginning of
April authorities made a seizure of 463
baby radiated tortoises in Adroka, southern
Madgascar with a number of arrests made.
WWF along with six other
NGOs published an open letter calling on
the Malagasy authorities to “act as a matter
of urgency”.
The letter states, “As
flagship species for unique ecosystems,
these tortoises are an integral part of
Madagascar’s world-renowned biodiversity
and natural heritage.”
“Losing these fascinating
creatures, who have survived for millions
of years, just for the profits of a handful
of traders would be an irremediable disaster
for conservation in Madagascar and embarrassing,
even shameful for the Malagasy people as
a whole, starting with its leaders.”
“Before the current
political crisis, the total number of individuals
intercepted in one year included at most
a few hundred individuals. Now this figure
is ten times that, counting only the recorded
cases,” the letter continued.
Madagascar has a transitional
government in power since 2009 and with
the economy in a downward spiral, the trafficking
of natural resources has been increasing.
The radiated tortoise
of Madagascar was the most common species
on the Asian black market in 2010, being
sold in exotic pet markets, even though
commercial trade in the species is prohibited,
while in Madagascar they are considered
a culinary delicacy.
It is estimated there
only 400 adult Ploughshare tortoise left
in the wild and while there might still
be as many as 6.3 million radiated tortoises,
the population is declining rapidly, representing
a 47 per cent decrease in population size
from the 12 million estimated only 11 years
earlier. Both species are classified as
critically endangered, according to the
IUCN Red list and are among the 40 most
threatened species in the world.
At the recently concluded
meeting of the Conference of the Parties
of the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora (CITES), delegates from Thailand and
Madagascar discussed plans to share intelligence
and co-operate in other ways to curb the
smuggling of wildlife from Madagascar to
Thailand.
The letter was co-signed
by WWF, Alliance Voahary Gasy, Conservation
International, Durrell Wildlife Conservation
Trust, Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership,
Turtle Survival Alliance and The Wildlife
Conservation Society and can be viewed in
full here.
