HONG KONG FAILING TO TACKLE WILDLIFE SMUGGLING EPIDEMIC: STUDY

HONG KONG – Hong Kong must do more to crack down on illegal wildlife smuggling by ending legal loopholes and lenient sentences, conservation groups said Monday, as they detailed the city's role in the lucrative trade.

Despite its comparatively small size, the bustling southern Chinese transport hub plays a "disproportionate" role in wildlife crime, researchers said, accounting for around a fifth of all global ivory seizures and nearly half of all pangolins seized in the last decade.

Yet authorities do not list wildlife trafficking offences under the city's organised crime legislation targeting drug traffickers and triad gangs and the few who are caught rarely face stiff penalties, the report's authors warn.

"Wildlife crime in Hong Kong remains under-policed and under-investigated," said Amanda Witfort, a professor at Hong Kong University's Faculty of Law and one of the report's authors.
"Wildlife smuggling is not regarded as an organised and serious crime under Hong Kong law," she added.

The study by Hong Kong Wildlife Trade Working Group, a coalition of local groups, offers one of the most detailed analyses yet on smuggling rackets in the city.
Researchers compiled and analysed 379 seizures from government departments, court cases, media reports and NGOs from January 2013 to December 2017 to assess the extent of the trade.

Researchers said the amount of parts seized in the city for three major trafficked species since 2013 could equate to the deaths of "3,000 elephants, 65,000 pangolins and 51 rhinoceros".

But they warned the actual volume being trafficked through Hong Kong could be 5-10 times the size of seizures.

Over the last decade, Hong Kong estimates the value of smuggling has grown by some 1,600% while the diversity of endangered species has increased 57%.

Hong Kong has long served as a key gateway to China's mainland where there is a huge demand for illegal and endangered wildlife parts.

The report detailed many of the ways crime gangs have snuck their quarry into the city, from so-called "ant smugglers" who arrive by commercial airplane with as much as 30 kilos of ivory sewn into their clothing, to loot hidden inside cargo ships heading to the world's fifth busiest port.

An analysis of convictions in the last five years showed sentences ranged from community service to eight months jail and fines of HK$1,500 to HK$180,000 ($191 to $22,900), far below maximum penalties. Criminals who were prosecuted tended to be low-level carriers, leaving the kingpins untouched.

"It is evident that there are numerous operations relying on Hong Kong, at the very least as a transit port, and in the worst case as a base of operations and/or money laundering," the authors wrote.

China finally banned the ivory trade a year ago while Hong Kong began phasing it out a few months later. The southern Chinese city has also recently increased the maximum penalties on smuggling to 10 years in jail and a HK$10 million fine.

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Elephant slaughter: Poaching could soon be punishable by DEATH

THE spectre of the noose will soon hang over poachers and traffickers wiping out Kenya’s precious wildlife.


Laws are being fast-tracked to make killing elephants, rhinos and other endangered creatures punishable by death.

Kenya has witnessed a horrific onslaught against its natural heritage.

Earlier this year, Sudan the last male northern white rhino died from natural causes, pushing his species to the brink of an extinction that was driven by illegal hunting over the decades.
With Kenya’s economy being bolstered by the thousands of global tourists it attracts to its famous wildlife reserves, the country has been pitched in a continuing struggle with poaching gangs targeting its iconic creatures.


Last year it lost nine rhinos and 60 elephants to poachers and now the authorities say they are ready to ratchet up the punishments to give the animals greater protection.

Currently the maximum sentence for poaching is life imprisonment, but the country’s tourism and wildlife minister is warning that the courts will be able to hand down the ultimate penalty.

Najib Balala has told the Chinese news agency, Xinhua, how new laws are being fast-tracked to conserve Kenya’s flora and fauna so that offenders of wildlife crime will face the death penalty in accordance with the laws of the land.

He explained: “We have in place the Wildlife Conservation Act that was enacted in 2013 and which fetches offenders a life sentence or a fine of $200,000 (£147,000).


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Hong Kong increases wildlife smuggling jail terms

Hong Kong increased the maximum penalty for smuggling and trading endangered species yesterday from two years’ imprisonment to 10 years, as it continues its fight against elephant poaching and illegal ivory trafficking.

“Trade in endangered species is rampant in Hong Kong," said Cheryl Lo, Senior Wildlife Crime Officer for WWF-Hong Kong. "The increased penalty, coupled with strengthened enforcement, will help deter future wildlife crime offenders from using the city as a hub for smuggling and selling."

The raised penalty covers species listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Appendix I, including ivory, rhino, the rare totoaba fish and the pangolin, which is considered the most illegally trafficked mammal in the world.

The illegal trade of species listed under Appendices II or III, including some sharks, will also be subject to a new maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment. In March, WWF-Hong Kong announced that the total volume of shark fin imported into Hong Kong had halved over the past decade, due to shipping bans and public campaigns.

Hong Kong is considered to be the largest ivory city market in the world and a major transit hub for illegal wildlife, which WWF-Hong Kong blames on low fines and sentences for traffickers and zero prosecutions of criminal kingpins.

The penalty increase is the first stage of the autonomous territory’s three-part ivory phase-out plan following China's ivory trade ban at the end of 2017.


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DRI seizes elephant tusk worth over Rs 1 crore

An elephant tusk worth over Rs 1 crore has been seized by DRI officials from Siliguri, according to an official statement issued today. Based on specific intelligence input that an elephant tusk would be carried from Assam to Siliguri on a private bus for smuggling to Nepal, officers of DRI intercepted the vehicle in the Mallaguri area in the early hours of Thursday. A rucksack was found under the driver's seat when the bus was searched.

"The rucksack was packed with old and used clothes on the top and underneath the clothes, three pieces of an elephant tusk were kept concealed in packed condition," it said. The tusk, weighing 12.4 kg, has a total length of 0.86 metre and a girth of 0.36 metre. It had been cut into three pieces for ease of packaging and transportation, the statement read. "The two drivers of the vehicle confessed to carrying the elephant tusk at the behest of one person, a resident of Kolkata, for smuggling into Nepal," it read. The elephant tusk, worth over Rs 1 crore in the international market, was seized and the drivers were arrested for smuggling of wildlife parts. Preliminary investigations revealed that the elephant was poached in the forested areas of Arunachal Pradesh or Assam 5-6 months ago, it read. "There is an urgent need to step up the fight against wildlife crimes, which has environmental, social and economic impact and a concerted effort is needed by all the law enforcement agencies in combating the same," the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) said. The DRI is committed to combating wildlife crimes, including cross-border crimes. "The DRI has been regularly making seizures of wildlife articles such as red sanders wood, a CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) listed species of timber, highly valued in the markets of China and East Asia, star tortoises and other species of turtles, deer antlers, tiger and leopard skins," it said.

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