Trade in Elephant Ivory and Rhino Horn
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Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement Inquiry into the trade in elephant ivory and rhinoceros horn September 2018 © Commonwealth of Australia 2018 ISBN 978-1-76010-844-1 PO Box 6100 Parliament House CANBERRA ACT 2600 Telephone: (02) 6277 3419 Email: [email protected] Internet: www.aph.gov.au/le_ctte This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License. The details of this licence are available on the Creative Commons website: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/ Printed by the Senate Printing Unit, Parliament House, Canberra. Committee membership Members Mr Craig Kelly MP LP, NSW (Chair) Senator the Hon Lisa Singh ALP, TAS (Deputy Chair) Senator the Hon Eric Abetz LP, TAS Dr Anne Aly MP ALP, WA Senator Jane Hume LP, VIC (from 10.9.18) Senator the Hon Kristina Keneally ALP, NSW Mr Llew O'Brien MP NATS, QLD Ms Clare O'Neil MP ALP, VIC Mr Jason Wood MP LP, VIC Former Members Senator the Hon Richard Colbeck LP, TAS (from 12.2.18 – 10.9.18) Secretariat Ms Sophie Dunstone, Secretary Ms Cathy Nembu, Acting Principal Research Officer Ms Nicola Knackstredt, Senior Research Officer (to 10.8.18) Ms Joy McCann, Senior Research Officer (from 10.9.18) Mr Joshua Wrest, Senior Research Officer Ms Jo-Anne Holmes, Administrative Officer iii Table of contents Committee membership ................................................................................... iii Acronyms and abbreviations ...........................................................................vii Chapter 1.............................................................................................................. 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Conduct of the inquiry ............................................................................................ 1 Report summary ..................................................................................................... 2 Structure of the report ............................................................................................. 4 Terminology ........................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 2.............................................................................................................. 7 Background ............................................................................................................... 7 The illegal wildlife trade ........................................................................................ 7 The illegal trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn ................................................. 8 International trade regulatory framework ............................................................. 14 The application of CITES in Australia ................................................................. 17 17th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties ...................................................... 22 Australia's domestic trade regulations .................................................................. 24 Chapter 3............................................................................................................ 25 International trade control framework ................................................................ 25 International efforts .............................................................................................. 25 The United Kingdom: a model of best practice? .................................................. 29 Constitutional considerations ............................................................................... 43 Chapter 4............................................................................................................ 47 Domestic trade control framework ....................................................................... 47 Elephant ivory and rhino horn: an unregulated domestic market ........................ 47 At-risk industries .................................................................................................. 55 Societal and cultural change ................................................................................. 65 Chapter 5............................................................................................................ 67 Other related matters ............................................................................................. 67 Current enforcement and border control measures .............................................. 67 Compliance, seizure and trade data ...................................................................... 76 CITES permit system and provenance documentation ........................................ 82 Education initiatives ............................................................................................. 87 Chapter 6............................................................................................................ 95 Committee views and recommendations .............................................................. 95 Exemptions ........................................................................................................... 98 Industry practice ................................................................................................. 101 Radiocarbon dating ............................................................................................. 103 Screening for elephant ivory and rhino horn ...................................................... 104 Data ..................................................................................................................... 104 Education ............................................................................................................ 104 Appendix 1 - Public submissions ................................................................... 109 Appendix 2 - Public hearings and witnesses ................................................. 113 Appendix 3 - Tabled documents, answers to questions on notice and additional information .................................................................................... 117 vi Acronyms and abbreviations AAADA Australian Antique & Arts Dealers Association AACS Australasian Association of Convenience Stores ABF Australian Border Force ACBPS Australian Customs and Border Protection Service ACC Australian Crime Commission ACIC Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission ADO Animal Defenders Office AELERT Australasian Environmental Law Enforcement and Regulators Network AFP Australian Federal Police AMA Australian Music Association ANAO Australian National Audit Office ANU Australian National University APHA Animal Plan and Health Authority AVAA Auctioneers and Valuers Association of Australia BADA British Antique Dealers' Association CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife Fauna and Flora the Census The Great Elephant Census COAG Council of Australian Governments the committee Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement CoP17 Conference of the Parties CAV Consumer Affairs Victoria DoEE Department of the Environment and Energy DEFRA Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (UK) DIBP Department of Immigration and Border Protection DTO Data Transformation Office EIA Environmental Investigation Agency EPBC Act Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 EU European Union FLOW For the Love of Wildlife FWS The US Fish and Wildlife Service Home Affairs Department of Home Affairs IFAW International Fund for Animal Welfare IUCN International Union for the Conservation of Nature UK Ivory Bill Ivory Bill 2017–19 LAPADA The Association of Art & Antiques Dealers PSHD Act Pawnbrokers and Second-hand Dealers Act 1996 SHDP Act Second-Hand Dealers and Pawnbrokers Act 1998 UK United Kingdom UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime US United States WWF World Wildlife Fund viii Recommendations Recommendation 1 6.17 The committee recommends that the Commonwealth, states and territories, through the Council of Australian Governments, develop and implement a national domestic trade ban on elephant ivory and rhinoceros horn. The domestic trade ban should be consistent with those implemented in other like-minded international jurisdictions. Recommendation 2 6.23 The committee recommends the inclusion of the following exemptions applicable to elephant ivory as part of the domestic trade ban framework: • a de minimis exemption for items content of less than 10 per cent and made prior to 1975; • musical instruments with content of less than 20 per cent and made prior to 1975; • portrait miniatures produced 100 years or more prior to the domestic trade ban coming into force; • an exemption for CITES-accredited museums and art institutions; and • an exemption for items deemed by an authorised advisory institution to be the rarest and most important items their type, and produced 100 years or more prior to the domestic trade ban coming into force. Recommendation 3 6.25 The committee recommends that the Commonwealth government gives careful consideration to the need for exemptions for items made of or containing rhinoceros horn, and includes them in a domestic trade ban if appropriate. Recommendation 4 6.28 The committee recommends that the Commonwealth government considers the applicability of the enforcement provisions under the proposed United Kingdom ivory ban to an Australian domestic trade ban, and in