Domestic Ivory Market

Anne Main Excerpts

Monday 6th February 2017 Westminster Hall

[Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con)]

I apologise for not being able to attend the debate from the beginning, Mrs Main. I entirely endorse all that the hon. Lady says about the need to clamp down on the criminals who are now killing a precious species, but what she is saying is fundamentally wrong. The value in the ivory products that came from the tomb of Tutankhamun or the royal graves at Ur, or exquisite pieces of Louis XVI furniture, is not in the ivory but in the workmanship and historic context in which they were produced. Given what she says, why, by the same token, does she not call for a ban in the trade in jewels produced from blood diamond activity—the result of the deaths of thousands of human beings, and not just elephants? How is it that we would save a single elephant by not having the 1947 cut-off?

[Mrs Anne Main (in the Chair)]

Order. Can hon. Members keep interventions brief? We are nearing the end of the debate.

[Rachael Maskell]

I absolutely agree. Blood stones— the fact that we have put our ideas of worth above the natural value of our fellow human beings and animals: that is wrong. The hon. Gentleman missed that very point, about the value we put on antiques versus the value of animals that will not be with us much longer, being made earlier in the debate. That is why it is vital to move on. We will mourn, on the day when elephants no longer roam the savannahs of Africa. We are now at the point when we cannot say that our values—our greed and the fact that we want those objects—are more important than saving elephants. It is important to move on and pick up the pace, rather than delaying and dragging our feet. We must put something in place now—including introducing tougher sentencing, as mentioned earlier. That is an important part of a wider package, as is getting on top of the cyber trade, and making sure that there is infrastructure for policing the elephants’ habitat.

We are dealing with organised criminality and we need to do so with the severity it deserves. Therefore let us move on. The Minister has an opportunity not to drag us forward slowly, following other countries, but to take leadership on the issue again and issue a total ban on ivory. That will make ivory pieces worthless—in the sense that the worth of the elephant will come first. I do not think that she will hear a cry from across the country if we do that. It is an opportunity to lead and I trust that the Minister will do so.

[Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran) (SNP)]

I am delighted to be taking part in the debate. I extend my thanks to the hon. Member for Thornbury and Yate (Luke Hall) and congratulate him on obtaining it.

Like many hon. Members in the Chamber and many people throughout the world, I am deeply concerned about the decline in the population of elephants. The UK Government have committed to a ban on post-1947 ivory, but, as has been pointed out, action has so far been thin on the ground. Today’s debate is the result of a petition with more than 107,000 signatures, calling for a shutdown on the domestic ivory market in the UK. That petition is indicative of the strength of feeling about the barbaric practices that the ivory trade fuels.

Many warm words have been spoken about reducing the trade. In 2015, the US and Chinese Presidents pledged to enact near-complete bans on the import and export of ivory. I sincerely hope that the progress made in the US will not be reversed under the new regime. China has also committed to gradually stopping the processing and sale of ivory for commercial purposes by the end of 2017. That is believed to be extremely significant, since according to experts China buys 70% of the world’s ivory products.

The slaughter, however, continues in horrifying numbers, and it is hard to see, when such barbarity is going on, how the beautiful creatures that are being destroyed can sustain themselves as a species. Ivory dealers employ armed poachers who in turn target entire herds of elephants, shooting them with automatic weapons and hacking off their tusks with axes and chainsaws. The tusks are fed into the illegal international ivory trade, which is controlled by highly organised criminal syndicates. That trade feeds demand for ivory products in Asia, Europe, the USA and elsewhere. It continues to bankroll the destruction of elephants.

The history of the ivory trade is too long and too bloody. Investigations by National Geographic uncovered the fact that elephant ivory is now a key source of funding for armed groups in central Africa such as the Lord’s Resistance Army. National Geographic commissioned the creation of artificial tusks with hidden GPS trackers, which were planted in the smuggling supply chain, starting in the Central African Republic. They averaged 16 miles a day, crossing the border into South Sudan. The price of ivory can rise tenfold as it moves through the supply chain. For a pound of ivory, middlemen in the bush pay poachers anything from $66 to $397. As tusks reach Asian markets their value skyrockets and they are used for carving in art and jewellery.

The savannah elephant has declined by 30% between 2007 and 2014, largely owing to poaching: 144,000 elephants have been lost—about 96 a day. Even in protected areas, such as parks, a huge number of carcases is reported. Embattled park rangers are often the only defence for wildlife and villagers. Increasingly, park rangers speak of being there to protect not just the land and animals but the people who live around the park. Worryingly, studies have shown that more than 90% of ivory in large shipments seized between 2002 and 2014 came from elephants that died less than three years before. That demonstrates that it is not taking long at all for illegal ivory to make it to the marketplace, which testifies to the fact that there are large networks for moving ivory across Africa and out of the continent.

What we need, to stop that horrific practice, is international co-operation. We need it as soon as possible if elephants are to survive as a species. That is how urgent the matter has become. All countries around the world need to introduce a complete ban on the international and domestic ivory trade. As has been said, there was a pledge to do that in the Conservative party’s manifesto, but so far the Government have not acted.

I want to take issue with some things that have been said in the debate, which I and I am sure others listening to it found bewildering, if not chilling. To suggest that a ban on ivory puts us on the same page as the religious fundamentalists who destroyed Palmyra is not only absurd but a little hysterical. The hon. Member for South Antrim (Danny Kinahan) said that that was so. I found it quite distressing when he talked about antiques—trinkets with pretty gold tops. Religious fundamentalists destroyed Palmyra deliberately, but a ban on ivory will not destroy trinkets or important historical pieces. Banning trade in ivory does not mean we lose our history; it means we remove the conditions in which the ivory trade thrives and continues.

The hon. Member for Kensington (Victoria Borwick), to whom I pay tribute for attending and speaking so well while suffering from a malady, spoke about the beautiful historic ivory objects in churches and museums, but I am not convinced that banning the trade in ivory threatens their beauty or intrinsic historical value. It seems from the answer she gave me that if historic artefacts cannot be valued in pounds, shillings and pence, they have no value at all in the eyes of the world. I find that extremely depressing.

I believe passionately that as long as there is an ivory trade of any kind, the illegal ivory trade will continue. We have already heard about the difficulty and the prohibitive cost involved in trying to date an ivory product.

[Mrs Anne Main (in the Chair)]

Order. May I ask the hon. Lady to bring her remarks to a close, as I want to call the Front-Bench speakers at 7.

[Patricia Gibson]

Perhaps I may just address my remarks to the hon. Member for Wolverhampton South West (Rob Marris), who spent most of the debate trying to get an answer to a specific question about the relationship between a total ban on ivory trading and poaching. If we can get a total international ban, it will make ivory much more difficult to sell. The more difficult it is to sell, the fewer buyers there will be. That will reduce the price of ivory, because there is no one to sell it to.

We need to push for a total ban. Time is running out. The United Kingdom could do something good here. It could lead in this battle and use its international influence. I urge the Minister to tell us what plans she has in that direction.

--- Later in debate ---

[John Mann]

We want to know when—

[Mrs Anne Main (in the Chair)]

Order.

[Dr Coffey]

It is still shortly, and I really hope it will be as soon as possible.

With regard to the reference to CITES and appendices 1 and 2, I think that I answered this in the December debate. CITES relies on scientific evidence. There is a differentiation between appendices I and II, in terms of the extinction rating in the relevant countries. There was reliable intelligence that if what was proposed went through, reservations would be applied by certain countries, thus destroying the ban by CITES.

Laws are only as effective as our action to enforce them, and the House should be proud of its record and global leadership. Enforcement at the UK border is led by Border Force, which makes ivory one of its top priorities. That is reflected by ivory seizures accounting for 40% of seized wildlife products between 2009 and 2014. One seizure alone in 2015—this was referred to—equated to more ivory than was found in the previous 10 years put together. It was more than 100 kg of tusks, beads and bangles that was en route from Angola to Germany and it was detected here in the UK. Enforcement within the UK is supported by the specialist national wildlife crime unit, which provides intelligence, analysis and specialist assistance to individual police forces and other law enforcement agencies. DEFRA has recently provided additional funding to the unit to help it to crack down on illegal trade via the internet—a growing concern.

The UK also shares its wealth of wildlife crime expertise internationally, including in a recent project providing training to customs, police, corruption specialists and parks authorities in Malawi. That has resulted in increased arrests, convictions and custodial sentences for wildlife offences. Initiatives such as those provide a real deterrent to the perpetrators of wildlife smuggling.