International Trade in Wildlife

Tim Inskipp, Sue Wells

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367408732
• eBook ISBN: 9781000753561
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Originally published in 1979 International Trade in Wildlife is a product of the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora conference, containing the full text of the CITIES convention. The volume outlines the animals and plants controlled by CITIES, and describes the protective policies put in place to protect endangered plants and animals. It gives a detailed background to the international traffic in monkey's, spotted cats, whales, ivory, parrots, tortoises, marine turtles, crocodiles, butterflies, sponges and rare orchids at the time of publication and acts as a comprehensive document on the conservation policies enacted through CITIES, as well as facts surrounding the decline of endangered species. Although published over 40 years ago, the document still offers a comprehensive and useful guide to conservation and will be an important historical document for environmental policy makers and conservationists alike.

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

– Of approximately 13,200 mammal and bird species estimated to be living in 1600, over 130 have already become extinct. About 240 more are today in danger of extinction.

– Large numbers of reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrates are also endangered, and there are an estimated 20,000–25,000 endangered plants.

– Three quarters of these species have become extinct or endangered as a direct result of man’s activities – especially hunting and habitat destruction.

– There is a long list of animals extinct as a result of direct exploitation, including:

•the quagga

•Steller’s sea cow

•the West Indian monk seal

•the great auk (a flightless penguin-like bird from the subarctic)

•the Falkland wolf

•the sea mink

•the Carolina parakeet

•the passenger pigeon

•several Galapagos and Indian Ocean giant tortoises

– The passenger pigeon is a good example. In the early 1800s it ranged so abundantly throughout the USA that it was hunted by the million for the commercial meat market. By the 1850s it was noticeably less common, but the hunting continued. In one 40-day period in 1869 nearly 12 million pigeons were sent to market from Hartford, Michigan, alone. The last wild passenger pigeon was shot in 1908. The last captive one died in a zoo in 1914.

– During the 20th century there has been a slow realisation that hunting and exploitation of wildlife would have to be controlled. Wildlife is a finite resource, which has to be managed if a contin- uous supply is required.

– This realisation had been appreciated by earlier civilisations. The Incas of Peru (13th–16th centuries) had very effective management techniques to ensure the conservation of the vicuña, a deer-like animal related to the llama, which was an important natural resource for meat, skins and wool. The vicuña was sacred, and killing it without permission a state offence. The government regulated its hunting, which took place at intervals, in restricted areas and at limited seasons. Animals from which the wool was sheared were released back into the wild. With the fall of the Inca Empire after the Spanish Conquest, this management plan was abandoned, and vicuñas were killed indiscriminately.

Early legislation

– Some of the earliest recent wildlife management legislation also relates to the vicuñas. In 1825 the liberator Simon Bolivar issued a decree prohibiting the killing of the vicuña in Peru. Unfortu- nately, the market for vicuña products ensured that the killing continued, and it was not until a protection agreement between Bolivia and Peru in 1969 that the decline was halted. As a result of strict protection, numbers have recovered.

– In the USA in the 1890s it became clear that commercial hunting and the consequent trade in wild meats and wildlife products had to be controlled. In 1900 the Lacey Act was passed, which outlawed interstate traffic in birds and mammals that had been taken illegally in their state of origin. In 1913 the Wilson Tariff Act ended imports into the USA of wild bird plumes for women’s hats.

– The Lacey Act was later amended to prohibit the import of all wildlife killed, captured or exported illegally from its country of origin. This was the first instance of one nation’s laws supplementing the wildlife protection of others.

– In other countries early wildlife legislation was concerned with welfare (eg the UK Cruelty to Animals Act 1876), the control of agricultural pests (eg the UK Destructive Imported Animals Act 1932), the control of hunting and the taking of trophies (eg the Wild Animals and Birds Protection Enactment 1925 of the Federated Malay States, the Ugandan Game Ordinance 1926 and the Kenyan Game Ordinance 1937) and the setting up of national parks and game reserves (eg the Kenya National Parks Ordinance 1945 and the 1926 act founding the Kruger National Park in South Africa); the early legislation concerning national parks did little except ensure that European colonists could get their hunting trophies.

First wildlife conventions

– One of the earliest international wildlife agreements was the 1911 Fur Seal Convention between Russia, Japan, the UK (on behalf of Canada) and the USA.

– Indiscriminate hunting had reduced the fur seals of the Pribilof Islands (west of Alaska) from two million to just over 100,000. Under the convention, only the USA was allowed to hunt the seals. The other countries received compensation, calculated as a percentage of the annual revenue from the seals.

– Other international conventions and treaties followed: the London Convention for the Protection of African Fauna and Flora in 1933, and the convention between the USA and other American republics on Nature Protection and Wildlife Preservation in the Western Hemisphere in 1942.

– In 1946 the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling was concluded. It is hard to consider this a conservation treaty since it has allowed gross overhunting and presided over the steady decline of whale numbers.

– In spite of national and international legislation, the pressure on wildlife from man has continued to increase – perhaps not surprisingly, when the population of many tropical countries is doubling in less than 25 years.

The international trade

– Commercial trade in wildlife centres primarily on its products: meat, fur, feathers, hides and scales. But live animals have been increasingly exploited. In 1925 there were about 125 zoos in the world, mainly in Europe and North America. Since the 1950s there has been a dramatic increase in numbers. In 1976 there were 981 zoos and aquaria listed in the International Zoo Yearbook. In the UK the number of zoos has increased from 14 in 1945 to over 80 in 1976. The countries with most zoos are the US, UK, China, Japan, East and West Germany and the USSR.

– The developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America are net producers of wildlife. The wealthy, industrialised nations of Europe, North America, Japan and elsewhere are wildlife consumers.

– Producer countries can make large amounts of money out of their wildlife. As it becomes rare, the market value increases. Thailand for example, was an important producer of wildlife from the 1950s until the mid 1970s; exports reached a peak in 1970. In 1974 there were 200 animal dealers in Thailand, 20 of whom were specifically licensed to export wildlife.

– During 1967 and 1968, 547,000 birds, 31,000 mammals, and 42,000 reptiles and amphibians were traded in Thailand for a value of $1.9 million. Exports equalled 38% of the volume of this trade and 87% of the value, so the trade continued even when it was illegal. The majority of Thai wildlife exports went to Europe and Japan. Often, species were transhipped to cover their origin, or smuggled together with animals which were not protected.

– The use of wildlife in international trade may conflict with better uses of it in its country of origin. Wildlife may provide food, attract tourists, support local industries. As more Third World countries wish to turn to the rational, sustained exploitation of their wildlife, some control over exports is becoming essential.

•Thailand’s wildlife was regulated by the Reservation and Protection Act of 1960 but it was not until it was amended in 1974 to impose new restrictions on the export of animals, that the volume of t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 What Does the Washington Convention Say?
• Chapter 3 The Secretariat
• Chapter 4 How is Cites Enforced – and How Evaded?
• Chapter 5 The Wildlife Trade
• Chapter 6 Second Cites Conference: Costa Rica, 1979
• Annex 1 The Text of the Convention
• Annex 2 Appendices I, II and III