Hong Kong risks being China's backdoor for illegal animal goods

ucanews.com reporter, Hong Kong

Hong Kong TV actress Sharon Kwok taking part in the global day of International March for Elephants in front of a Chinese Art and Craft shop — a Chinese state owned business — displaying ivory items on Oct.4, 2013. The Chinese government announced on Dec. 29 last year that it would stop all sales of ivory and its products on the mainland by the end of 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Conservationists have welcomed China's recent action against the ivory and shark fin trade but are worried different rules in Hong Kong will allow the trade to continue there.

China's State Council announced on Dec. 29 that China will stop all sales of ivory and its products by the end of 2017. The ban will be carried out in phases to end the trade, commercial processing and sale of ivory. Legal ivory products with high cultural value will be auctioned under strict supervision after obtaining administrative permission.

A week later, on Jan. 6, China Air Cargo announced a no shark fin policy. They are the first airline in mainland China to ban shark fin cargo. The corporate action is a commitment to sustainable development and to raise awareness of the unsustainability of the global shark trade, the company said.

The new law helps to raise public awareness about wildlife conservation. The law gives priority to conservation rather than utilization, said Zhou Fei, head of TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring network.

The Chinese government realized the ivory trade is tarnishing China's international reputation, Zhou said, adding that enforcement would be crucial to ensure the ban is effective even if there is clear political commitment.

Time gap may boost Hong Kong's black market

Cheryl Lo, senior Wildlife Crime Officer of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Hong Kong, said that the Hong Kong government has set a five-year moratorium on domestic ivory trade whereas China will implement the ban within a year. This swift action proves Beijing's determination, she said.

Lo added that she was worried that criminals will take advantage of the four-year window left in Hong Kong and the black market there will swell.

The endangered animal and plant trade amounts to U.S.$19 billion annually, in Hong Kong the punishment is only two year's imprisonment and a fine of HK$5 million (about U.S. $640,000). This is a low-risk, high-profit business, Lo said.

At the beginning of the 20th century there were around 3-4 million elephants in Africa, says WWF. Now there are only 415,000 and their numbers continue to decrease at a rate of 20,000 each year.

An international convention banned ivory trade between countries in 1990. A WWF survey in 2015 found that most of the current buyers came from China.

The Chinese government has demanded all telecommunication operators in China to send text messages reminding citizens that travel to Africa that importing ivory to China is illegal.

Cargo ban insufficient to protect sharks

In comparison to the ivory trade, some conservationists say dealing with the shark fin industry faces greater challenges.

For a start, there are not as many regulations on the international trade of shark fin, said Prentice Koo, project coordinator of Hong Kong Shark Foundation.

It is difficult to accurately estimate the numbers of sea animals and there are numerous species of sharks which makes it difficult to formulate a policy, Koo told ucanews.com.

The political aspects are problematic since there are many stakeholders involved in the shark fin trade, such as importers, distributors and restaurants, he said.

Though Koo lauded the first step taken by Air China Cargo as a way to reduce trade volume, he thinks it is far from enough to solve the problem. Several carriers in Hong Kong have also introduced a similar policy. Yet, the import amount remains high here. It needs a trade restriction, he said.

Shark fin off the menu

After the Chinese authorities' anti-corruption campaign and banning shark fin at official banquets, consumption of shark fin in China has dropped 70 percent.

How many Chinese people continue to bring shark fin back home from Hong Kong is difficult to estimate. It is important to establish a clear and open database in this regard, Koo said.

According to WWF Hong Kong's latest figures, they import 5,000 tons of shark fin each year and re-export 2,000 tons to mainland China, Vietnam and other countries. In Hong Kong, more than 300,000 tables from 11,783 wedding banquets serve shark fin annually.

Koo said his group found from a survey that only five percent of people in Hong Kong like to eat shark fin and 20 percent dislike it but many more are neutral. This shows the decision to eat shark fin rests not on consumers but on the menus provided by restaurants.

If the restaurants could remove shark fin from their menus, I believe it could significantly reduce the atmosphere of shark fin consumption because many people eat it because they don't want to waste food or disrespect their host, he said.