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An Investigation Into the Trade in Tortoises in Great Britain

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An Investigation Into the Trade in Tortoises in Great Britain ““SSeelllliinngg lliikkee HHoott CCaakkeess”” AAnn IInnvveessttiiggaattiioonn iinnttoo tthhee TTrraaddee iinn TToorrttooiisseess iinn GGrreeaatt BBrriittaaiinn A study in 2002 for Defra By TRAFFIC International Selling like hot cakes CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................3 BACKGROUND .............................................................................................................3 Laws and treaties................................................................................................3 TORTOISE SPECIES IN TRADE................................................................................4 THE INVESTIGATION...................................................................................................6 Legal trade, 1996-2001.......................................................................................7 Illegal trade .........................................................................................................11 MARKET DYNAMICS .................................................................................................16 Tortoise prices in Britain ................................................................................18 CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................18 SOLUTIONS .................................................................................................................19 Informing tortoise buyers, traders and breeders.....................................19 Helping law enforcement................................................................................20 An EU-wide approach......................................................................................20 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................21 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..........................................................................................21 The views of the authors expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect those of TRAFFIC International or Defra. The designation of geographical entities in this report and the presentation of the material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the authors, TRAFFIC International or Defra concerning the legal status of any country, territory or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. TRAFFIC / Defra 2 Selling like hot cakes INTRODUCTION For many years in Britain there has been a growing interest in reptile keeping, and the keeping of tortoises as pets in particular. There has also been evidence of smuggling and illegal trade in tortoises to meet the demand. To date, no studies on the situation nationally have been undertaken. The UK Government department responsible for the trade in tortoises, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – Defra, commissioned this study to investigate the trade, both legal and illegal, and to make suggestions on how to improve any problems found. TRAFFIC has researched the trade for Defra and the summary of the findings is included here. BACKGROUND The keeping of tortoises in Britain has been popular over several decades and demand has escalated with the increasing trend for keeping reptiles as pets. This has influenced the trade, encouraging breeding and importation, as well as illegal trafficking. Even with a responsible, largely law-abiding pet trade in Britain, a significant amount of illegal trade in tortoises still occurs and consumers are unwittingly supporting this detrimental and criminal trade. It is very difficult to estimate the true levels of tortoise imports into Britain, both legal and illegal. The removal of internal European Union (EU) trade borders has meant that consignments of tortoises that formerly required permits to be traded between EU countries can now move legally between them without the need for these. It is known that such consignments have come from mainland Europe to Britain since the removal of internal borders in the EU. This places more emphasis on the need to enforce the law at points of sale within Britain and at the same time makes this task more difficult. Tortoises are sold in Britain not only in pet shops, but also at garden centres, DIY stores and through classified advertisements in specialist magazines and local newspapers. Tortoises are also sold through an informal sales network of breeders and their contacts, interest groups and trade fairs. Specialist tortoise keepers play a significant role in the tortoise trade, by driving demand for rarer species and new blood lines, but also by supplying captive-bred stock to meet demand that normally would require taking animals from the wild. The number of tortoise breeders is increasing, but these breeders are unable to meet the demand for captive-bred tortoises in Britain. This low level of legal supply creates a market opportunity for unscrupulous dealers to trade in illegal wild-caught tortoises. The scarcity of fertile females to broaden gene pools has been a particular incentive for breeders to collect tortoises illegally from the wild and smuggle them from their country of origin. Most tortoises that are kept as pets come from the family LAWS AND TREATIES Testudinidae, which includes 44 tortoise species. The whole family is covered by an international treaty on trade in wildlife, called the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The Testudinidae family is listed in Appendix II of CITES, which means that commercial international trade in ‘Appendix II species’ is allowed, if accompanied by the correct permits. A number of rarer species (listed in Appendix I) receive a higher level of protection under CITES. Commercial trade in these ‘Appendix I species’ is allowed only for captive-bred specimens or specimens imported prior to the species being listed in Appendix I. The EU applies the CITES treaty through its own wildlife trade regulations. The EU regulations list protected species in four annexes (A, B, C and D), with Annex A species being the most protected. Requirements under these EU regulations are sometimes stricter TRAFFIC / Defra 3 Selling like hot cakes than those of CITES. Some Mediterranean tortoises, for example, can be traded according to CITES, but are banned from commercial trade by EU regulations. A European import ban on wild-caught Mediterranean tortoises came into force in 1984, with only captive bred or pre ban tortoises being allowed to be traded. This ban caused an increase in trade of African and Eurasian tortoise species into Europe instead. With this shifting of pressure to new species in trade came the need for protection of a wider range of tortoises. As a result, in February 1999, wild-caught specimens of a further 18 tortoise species were banned from import into the EU. Only captive-bred tortoises or those imported before the ban of these 18 species are now allowed in commercial trade. It is illegal to trade wild caught species listed on Annex A. Only captive bred individuals are allowed in commercial trade, and only if an EU sales exemption certificate accompanies them (called an “Article 10 Certificate”). An Article 10 Certificate is valid for one transaction only and a further certificate is needed for any subsequent trade, unless a specimen can be “uniquely marked” (i.e. with a microchip implant in the case of tortoises). The majority of tortoises on sale in Britain requiring Article 10 Certificates are of a size smaller than is recommended for the insertion of a microchip (i.e. have a shell length of under 10 cm) and, therefore, a new certificate is needed for each sales transaction. As all species popular in the tortoise trade are banned from import to Britain if wild-caught, only captive-bred or tortoises imported before the bans should be found in trade in Britain. TORTOISE SPECIES IN TRADE Trends in keeping a particular species of tortoise appear to be more affected by availability dependent on legislation than by the popularity of any given species. In 1998 more Horsfield’s Tortoises were sold in Britain than any other species of tortoise. But since wild- caught Horsfield’s Tortoises were banned from trade in 1999, there has been a resurgence of trade in captive-bred Spur-thighed and Hermann’s Tortoises, to fill the gap in the market brought about by this ban. Hermann’s Tortoises are the most commonly purchased tortoise in Britain today and are kept as pets and by specialist keepers. At one time hundreds of thousands of these tortoises were removed from their habitat in south- east Europe every year and exported to Britain and north- west Europe for the bulk pet trade. Since the ban on their collection from the wild in 1984, wild populations have been recovering. They inhabit Mediterranean countries including France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Romania. Wholesale prices can be as low as £50 and retail prices as high as £250 per tortoise. From 1969 to 1972 a total of 480,000 Spur-thighed Tortoises were imported into Britain. Between 1972 and the 1984 ban on imports of wild Mediterranean tortoises, thousands of Spur-thighed Tortoises were brought from the wild into Britain each year. The population of the species in the wild is estimated to be three million. Spur-thighed Tortoises are distributed in Mediterranean countries, parts of the Russian Federation, Iran and Iraq. Wholesale prices
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