Call for registration: Giving a voice to the unheard victims of environmental crime (22 May 2024)

Illegal wildlife trade is the fourth most lucrative black market for transnational crime. Smuggling of endangered species is a low risk, high-profit crime, made all the more attractive to criminals in the absence of deterrent sentencing and effective enforcement.

To help legal professionals counter wildlife crime, Professor Amanda Whitfort of the Law Faculty has developed an international tool to help judges and prosecutors better understand the harms caused by illegal wildlife trade.  Bringing together law and science, her Species Victim Impact Statements initiative sets out the impacts of wildife crime for over 150 species, providing a voice for animals, plants and ecosystems in the criminal justice system. The SVIS initiative has been endorsed as an effective tool to combat wildlife crime by the United National Office on Drugs and Crime and has been included in the Nigerian Rapid Reference Guide for Prosecutors published in 2023. Professor Whitfort will talk about her approach to educating law enforcement officers in a seminar with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime this Wednesday 22 May at 4pm. Registration is free and please click here for registration online.

Giving a voice to the unheard victims of environmental crime

A Talk By Amanda Whitfort , Prof Ray Jansen , Alastair MacBeath , Diana Chilambwe , Edward Banda (ACAZ, LLB, Cert) And Ashleigh Dore

22 May 2024

4:00 PM - 5:30 PM HKT

About This Talk

Animals and other species are often voiceless victims of environmental crimes. Such crimes were often marginalized in the legal sphere, treated as minor infractions with little regard for the impact on species and ecosystems. However, a new legal approach is reshaping how these offences are prosecuted and perceived. Species victim impact statements articulate the harm caused by environmental crimes from an animal rights perspective, the detrimental effects on species populations, the broader ecological damage as well as the associated impact on human populations.

This in an innovative approach that introduces eco-centric concerns into anthropocentric legal systems. It has grown into an effective body of practice, leading to increased sentences for environmental crimes in countries where academics and civil society organizations promoting this tactic are operating. The GI-TOC recently published a guide on the experience of those who have successfully developed and used species victim impact statements in Hong Kong, South Africa and Zambia.

This event brings together these experts to discuss why species victim impact statements are necessary, the particular challenges for their respective jurisdictions while offering guidance to assist those looking to develop these statements for use in court.

New Report on Exotic Pet Trade in Hong Kong: Wild, Threatened, Farmed: Hong Kong's Invisible Pets

A report released this week by local NGO ADM Capital Foundation, co-authored by Assoc Prof Amanda Whitfort focuses on the exotic pet trade in Hong Kong. The report highlights the lack of transparency in the trade, the need for updated regulations to better control smuggling of live endangered species for rare animal collectors, the unsuitability of many exotic species to be kept as pets and the negative effects on conservation and animal welfare when exotic pets are intentionally or accidentally released into local ecosystems.

     “Hong Kong's lack of a positive list of acceptable exotic pets and failure to look behind imports of large numbers of animals from suspicious source countries, which should set off alarms for law enforcement agencies, encourages the importation of smuggled animals for the pet trade and is sending species that are at serious risk of extinction more quickly towards that fate” said Whitfort. “Our current policies and laws undermine the objectives of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity” she added. 

     Whitfort called on government to

• improve oversight of wild animal trading licences, removing opportunities for laundering of smuggled animals
• impose possession licence requirements on all private owners of endangered species
• introduce a positive list of acceptable pets that can be imported into and possessed in Hong Kong
• prohibit mercy release of animals and the businesses that support the practice within the Territory
• improve regulation of the pet ttrade to protect animal and public health.

The press report had input from the SPCA (Hong Kong), the Kadoorie Farm and Botanical Garden, WWF (HK), local academics working on wild animal trade and private vets working with exotic pets.

           Amanda Whitfort and ADM Capital Foundation Team and Dr Woodhouse from the SPCA (HK)

Amanda Whitfort Meets Malaysian Prosecutors and Judges to Explain Species Victim Impact Statement (SVIS) Initiative

On 11 March 2022, Ms Amanda Whitfort gave a 1 hour presentation on the Species Victim Impact Statement (SVIS) initiative and how to sentence wildlife crime effectively to Malaysian prosecutors and judges in a training workshop organised by Panthera (USA NGO) and Justice for Wildlife Malaysia (NGO). For more information on the SVIS Initiative, you can access the website at https://www.svis.law.hku.hk. 

Nijman & Shepherd (2015)

Amanda Whitfort's KE work achieves OSCO amendment

Today the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance Cap 455 was amended to define smuggling of wildlife as organised and serious crime. This amendment will allow authorities to enforce the criminal law more effectively against the syndicates and kingpins behind the international trade in endangered species. Over the past 2 years over 900 tonnes of of wildlife was seized in Hong Kong. These seizures continue a decade-long upward trend that has seen the decimation of rhino, elephant and pangolin populations, globally, while the criminals funding the slaughter grow rich. The enhanced investigative and punitive powers that will now be accessible to law enforcement authorities tasked with combatting wildlife crime are a potential game changer, not just for Hong Kong, but regionally. If applied proactively, the OSCO amendment will result in critical deterrence of criminals seeking to exploit Hong Kong's porous borders to smuggle endangered species.

      Associate Professor Amanda Whitfort has worked for over 7 years to bring about this amendment. She has assisted the Wildlife Trade Working Group (a group of academics and NGOS convened by ADM Capital Foundation)in their advocacy, provided research on illegal trade to government and authored the White Paper on Enhanced Enforcement Strategies to protect Endangered Species that led Elizabeth Quat to propose the OSCO amendment as a private members bill in 2020.

      The HKU Law Faculty is also host to Whitfort's species victim impact statement initiative https://www.svis.law.hku.hk/ which aims to ensure prosecutors and judges understand the serious effects of wildlife crime on biodiversity and ecosystems globally. This project has resulted in a 2000% increase in sentences for wildlife crime since its inception in 2017.

Amanda Whitfort on New Bill Seeks to End Hong Kong’s Days as an Illegal Wildlife Trade Hub (Mongabay)

"New bill seeks to end Hong Kong’s days as an illegal wildlife trade hub"
Mongabay 
Published on 26 May 2021

In 2019, Hong Kong customs authorities inspected a cargo ship bound for Vietnam. Hidden beneath slabs of frozen meat were 8.3 metric tons of illegal scales from about 13,800 pangolins, and more than 2.1 metric tons of tusks from about 200 elephants, with a combined value of about $8 million.

     This was one of the largest wildlife seizures in Hong Kong history, but far from an isolated incident. In 2018 and 2019, Hong Kong authorities confiscated more than 649 metric tons of illegal wildlife and wildlife products across 1,404 seizures, according to a new report by Hong Kong’s ADM Capital Foundation (ADMCF). Wildlife crime is so rampant in Hong Kong ... “We’ve come to the view that this must be because we’re targeting the wrong people,” Amanda Whitfort, a barrister and law professor at the University of Hong Kong who drafted the new bill, told Mongabay in an interview. “We’re targeting the mules, the people that are replaceable, the people who’ve got 50 kilos … of rhino horn or scales of pangolins in their luggage. But we’re not getting the criminal syndicates that are behind this very lucrative transnational crime.” ... Click here to read the full text. 

Amanda Whitfort on Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance (OSCO) amendments & Species Victim Impact Statement (SVIS)

An important step towards the acceptance of wildlife crime as organised and serious crime has been achieved with the CE providing her consent, under Article 74 of the Basic Law, to a private member's Bill to amend OSCO being presented in LegCo.

The Bill co-drafted by Amanda Whitfort and introduced to LegCo by lawmaker Elizabeth Quat in March 2021 requests the amendment to OSCO, which provides for a combination of enhanced enforcement and deterrent methods to investigate and prosecute serious wildlife crimes.

Unlike serious offences under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance or the Theft Ordinance, offences under the Protection of Endangered Species Ordinance, Cap 586, have not been classified as ‘specified offences’ in Schedule 1 of OSCO. This has been a significant omission, given the organised nature of the transnational trade in endangered species. Despite the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Interpol endorsing a ‘follow the money’ approach, focusing on the syndicates behind wildlife smuggling, enforcement in Hong Kong has traditionally focused on the mules in the supply chain, when offenders are caught red-handed trying to smuggle in the species. Failure to include Cap 586 offences in Schedule 1 of OSCO has also meant Hong Kong courts are not empowered, under the Ordinance, to confiscate the proceeds of organised crime’s wildlife trafficking.

The Hong Kong government increased the maximum penalties for wildlife crime in 2018. Unfortunately record-breaking seizures of smuggled wildlife have continued unabated. The OSCO amendment would go further to allow Hong Kong to effectively deter the criminal networks funding the extinction of endangered species.

Here is the link to the White Paper which convinced EQ to take up the Bill:

https://www.admcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Protection-of-Endangered-Species-White-Paper.pdf

There is an SCMP story on it last week: 

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3130438/hong-kongs-leading-role-global-extinction-crisis-hub-illegal-wildlife

Amanda Whitfort will be giving a talk on the OSCO amendments and my SVIS (species victim impact statement) project on 7 May on Zoom at HKU.   Details are as follows:

Speaker: Ms Amanda Whitfort

Title: New Law Reform Initiatives to Improve the Protection of Endangered Species in Hong Kong

Zoom details:

Topic: E&B Seminar Series

Time: May 7, 2021 04:00 PM Hong Kong SAR

Join Zoom Meeting: https://hku.zoom.com.cn/j/91675926608?pwd=d2ZoaElKS2pnWlVQS1lvaittSWtDdz09

Meeting ID：916 7592 6608

Password：329737

Amanda Whitfort on Hong Kong’s Leading Role in the Global Extinction Crisis, as Hub of Illegal Wildlife Trade, and the Legal Amendment that could Change that (SCMP)

"Hong Kong’s leading role in the global extinction crisis, as hub of illegal wildlife trade, and the legal amendment that could change that"

SCMP Lifestyle

23 April 2021

• The scales and carcasses of tens of thousands of pangolins are shipped illegally through Hong Kong every year
• Existing laws do little to stem this trade, but a proposed law change to treat wildlife smuggling as organised crime could make a big difference

Pangolins have clever defence mechanisms. When threatened they curl up into a tight ball – the name pangolin is derived from the Malay word pengguling, meaning “one who rolls up” – the hard scales covering their bodies overlap to create an “armour”. Like skunks, pangolins can spray a noxious fluid from glands near their anuses to keep predators at bay.

      Sadly these protective tools can’t deter humans, who have poached the anteater-like creatures to near-extinction, the trade fuelled by false claims in traditional Chinese medicine that pangolin scales relieve ailments from asthma to poor kidney function, and can improve lactation. On top of that, in China and Vietnam pangolin meat is considered a delicacy. 

...

     The legislative reform, says Amanda Whitfort, associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, would facilitate the use of powers by enforcement authorities to tackle wildlife crime that are currently reserved for serious crimes such as drug and arms trafficking.

      It would allow the investigation of persons or materials with connections to organised crime as well as the confiscation of proceeds of crimes, she says, and could serve as a powerful disincentive to wildlife criminals, preventing the reinvestment of profits to fund further criminal activities.

... Click here to read the full text. 

Amanda Whitfort on the Links between Wildlife Trade, Animal Health and Human Health at the Sustainability Summit

Amanda Whitfort is in the second position from the right

Amanda Whitfort spoke in mid-January 2021 on the links between wildlife trade, animal health and human health in a sustainability summit jointly organised by the Institute of International Sustainable Development, the Hong Kong Chinese Manufacturers' Association, the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and the Consulate General of Finland. Her newest research on the links between poor animal health and welfare, wildlife trade and COVID-19 was published this week in the Journal of Environmental Law. In her article, COVID-19 and Wildlife Farming in China: Legislating to Protect Wild Animal Health and Welfare in the Wake of a Global Pandemic​ she argues that the current legal framework to protect wild animal health, and consequently human health, is not working. In a significant part, this is because there is no international agreement to protect animal welfare. The sole international reference organisation for animal health and disease control, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), recognises that animal health and welfare are inextricably linked yet international law relating to wild animals has historically focused on the conservation or the health of the animals, and, in a few instances on both, but rarely on their links with animal welfare. In the wake of COVID-19, this omission must now be rectified. Going forward decisions about animal welfare law and policy require a global vision. 

Amanda Whitfort on COVID-19 and Wildlife Farming in China (Journal of Environmental Law)

"COVID-19 and Wildlife Farming in China: Legislating to Protect Wild Animal Health and Welfare in the Wake of a Global Pandemic"

Amanda Whitfort

Journal of Environmental Law

Published on 12 January 2021

Abstract: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has exposed serious deficiencies in the current legal framework to protect wild animal health, and consequently human health. As noted by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), animal health and welfare are inextricably linked. However, there is no international agreement to promote animal welfare and neither the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora nor the Convention on Biological Diversity, adequately address the welfare of the species they seek to conserve. While the OIE provides guidance on animal health and welfare standards for common agricultural species, it has provided limited guidance for the farming of wild species. China’s wildlife farming industry has been linked with the spread of COVID-19 but, to date, China has introduced few national welfare controls to protect the health of wild animals bred for human consumption. In the wake of COVID-19, these omissions must be remedied to provide appropriate safeguards to ensure animal health and welfare and protect public health.

Amanda Whitfort Featured in "How the Illegal Trade in Endangered Wild Animals could be Curbed by a Law Change in Hong Kong" (SCMP)

"How the illegal trade in endangered wild animals could be curbed by a law change in Hong Kong"
SCMP

13 November 2020

Seizures of smuggled wild animals are so big in Hong Kong that they are measured in the tens of tonnes. In 2019 alone, according to government figures, 30 tonnes of endangered species – live birds, insects, reptiles, fish and mammals – were seized. The figures exclude animal parts such as ivory and pangolin scales, and the wood of endangered trees.

      Despite the huge volumes involved, law professor Amanda Whitfort says the situation is “the elephant in the room that nobody wants to see”.

     “Wildlife crime in Hong Kong has been severely under-punished,” says the barrister and environmental law expert at the University of Hong Kong.

     “Ridiculously low sentences have been handed out; they do not act as deterrents. And we have never, ever had a prosecution in Hong Kong that goes beyond the mule. We only get the guy who got paid a few hundred dollars, along with his ticket to Hong Kong. He is immediately replaced with someone else.

...

Whitfort says that when a suspected wildlife trafficker is apprehended in Hong Kong, the trail usually goes cold.

      “The suspect has the right to remain silent, and so he refuses to answer questions and provide information about who hired him to move the contraband into and through Hong Kong,” she says. “Investigators do not routinely pursue the financial investigations necessary to find out who is behind the shipment. The trail of investigation stops, the result is a light sentence – focused on the mule.”

      Treating wildlife crime as an organised and serious crime under the law would change that, says Whitfort, because coercive powers of investigation currently reserved for serious crimes such as drugs and weapons trafficking could be used.

     Investigators could use court orders to compel suspected wildlife smugglers to answer questions and force them to produce material, such as business records kept in Hong Kong or elsewhere, which could help establish the chain of people involved. Police would also have options if the trail led abroad.

     “Hong Kong has agreements for co-investigation with over 30 other governments, so the transnational nature of the crime can be combated through international cooperation in the tracing of assets and sharing of seized proceeds,” says Whitfort.  Click here to read the full text.

New HKU Law Report on Wildlife Trade in Hong Kong (HKU Press Release)

"HKU law professor releases report on wildlife trade in Hong Kong and recommendations on legislative changes to combat illegal activities"

23 Oct 2020

HKU Press Release

Unsustainable and illegal trade in wildlife threatens endangered and vulnerable species. The legislation and policies adopted by the Hong Kong government on both legal and illegal trade have significant impact on endangered species globally.

     Hong Kong is a wildlife trading hub. In 2018, Hong Kong SAR reported in the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Trade Database the import of over 350 CITES listed species from 36 territories, in over 40 different forms, ranging from live animals to whole skins and finished carvings.

     Half of rhino horn and tiger bone smuggling cases in China came through Hong Kong

In addition, reported wildlife smuggling cases prosecuted in Mainland China between 2014 and 2018 show that, in 50% of cases involving the smuggling of rhino horn and tiger bone, the contraband entered the Mainland via Hong Kong.

Wildlife offences need to be recognised as serious and organised under HK law

In order to effectively deter increasing levels of wildlife smuggling through Hong Kong, wildlife offences should be recognised as serious criminal offences under the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance, Cap 455. In addition, greater efforts should be made to combat the laundering of illegally caught animals through Hong Kong’s legal trade and improved traceability measures should be adopted to monitor the movement of live-traded animals.

     Commencing in 2017, Associate Professor Amanda Whitfort of the Faculty of Law and Dr Fiona Woodhouse, Deputy Director (Welfare) of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (HK), with the support of GRF Grant (No 17655316) provided by the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong, undertook a two year study of the effectiveness of Hong Kong’s laws and policies controlling trade in endangered and threatened species of animals. During the course of the study, 12 stakeholders representing government, academia, NGOs and the trade were interviewed about the effectiveness of the current framework. All agreed that the increasing volume of both legal trade and illegal smuggling of wildlife has made the current legislation difficult to enforce.

     The reviewers compared Hong Kong’s current legislation and policy on importing and possessing wildlife with the best practice in the EU, USA and Australia and made 38 recommendations to improve the enforcement and impact of Hong Kong’s laws and policies to control legal and illegal trade in endangered and vulnerable species. These include amending the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance to include wildlife crimes, identifying trades that are particularly vulnerable to the laundering of endangered species, developing specific action plans to combat offending and imposing strict identification controls to ensure the traceability through the supply chain of all live-traded animals.

Amendment of Cap. 586 was important but not sufficiently deterrent

In mid-2018, the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance was amended to permit wildlife crimes to be prosecuted as indictable offences. However, wildlife crimes have yet to be regarded as serious crimes under the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance, despite multi-million-dollar (USD) wildlife smuggling seizures being recorded in the Territory.

     Between 2013 and 2019, seizures made by the Customs and Excise Department represented over HK$767 million in trafficked wildlife, including 22 metric tonnes of ivory, 70 metric tonnes of pangolin (the scales and carcasses of which are estimated to have involved the killing of over 138,000 pangolins) and 66 metric tonnes of other endangered species (mainly reptiles).

Despite increase in seizure volumes and values over the past decade, there has been no prosecution of wildlife smuggling networks in Hong Kong

Smuggling is a transnational activity, often involving well-resourced groups. However, despite the high value and volume of seizures, there is no specialised investigative team nor sufficiently robust legislation to investigate and prosecute such networks. The detection of seizures, though important, can be regarded as an indicator of the volume of illegal trade passing through Hong Kong, rather than a measure of success at limiting the trade.

     Despite Hong Kong’s increasingly large-scale seizures, particularly from shipping containers, no wildlife traffickers have ever been prosecuted for money laundering related offences and no syndicates indicted for wildlife smuggling. This is the direct result of the Hong Kong government’s continuing failure to recognise wildlife crimes as specified offences under the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance. Recognising wildlife crimes as serious crimes, like other trafficking offences, under the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance, would unleash the full force of investigative powers necessary to effectively combat Hong Kong’s increasingly serious wildlife trafficking problem. The study’s primary recommendation is therefore to amend the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance, Cap 455, to include serious wildlife crimes as specified offences.

Identifying trades at high risk for laundering

The study revealed significant concern that Hong Kong’s legal trade is being used for illegal activity. This has resulted from extremely limited traceability in the supply chain for most endangered species. Highly endangered species enter Hong Kong illegally in two ways: smuggling or laundering.

Smuggling

Hong Kong is a well-known smuggling hub for highly endangered and costly reptile pet species. Species without permits for entry are frequently discovered secreted inside luggage on airplanes, in the back of cross border trucks and in the holds of boats entering Hong Kong waters. Along with the obvious and serious animal welfare concerns associated with the smuggling of live animals, evasion of quarantine controls puts Hong Kong people and animals at risk of zoonotic disease outbreaks.

Laundering

Where the imports of animals are declared, endangered and illegally smuggled species are often mixed together with legal species to evade identification by law enforcement authorities.

     Hong Kong imports up to a million reptiles annually for food and the pet trade, but the volume and current system make it impossible to determine how many of these animals are sold, consumed, abandoned or die in the trade. Once species have entered Hong Kong, loopholes in the current control regimes allow for easy laundering of animals through licensed traders. These loopholes result from the loosening of government requirements for possession licences in 2006 which have resulted in the numbers of applications for import licenses and possession licenses dropping by almost 90%, in 15 years. With import permits for controlled species now based on individual consignments, or keeping premises, import permits are no longer required for individual animals and the laundering of smuggled species has become much easier for criminals.

Improving traceability of live traded species

In the absence of individual possession licences which would help to identify individual animals, unscrupulous traders can claim wild-caught reptiles, birds and fish are the result of captive breeding or replace legally imported animals with those procured illegally, in breach of Hong Kong’s efforts to enforce the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

    The AFCD has previously done extensive studies to evaluate traceability in the dog trade and the ivory trade, subsequently closing loopholes that had enabled widespread laundering in both trades.

    The reviewers suggest that traceability in the endangered species trade be similarly studied, so that all sales of controlled animals in Hong Kong can be traced back to a verifiable legal source for public health, conservation and welfare protection. In 2016, AFCD’s Animal Management Division rectified similar problems in the dog trade by amending Cap 139B Public Health (Animals and Birds) (Trading and Breeding) to require the origin and transfer of all imports, breeding and sales to be documented by traders. Similar controls should be put on the sale of live endangered species.

For the full report, please click here.  For related press coverage, see RTHK (2 Nov 2020).

For media enquiries, please contact:

Amanda Whitfort, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, HKU (Email: whitfort@hku.hk)

Melanie Wan, Senior Manager (Media), Communications and Public Affairs Office, HKU (Tel: 2859 2600 / Email: melwkwan@hku.hk)

Amanda Whitfort to Speak at Round Table 'Countering the Wildlife Trade Crisis in Hong Kong' on 13 October 2020 (American Chamber of Commerce)

Amanda Whitfort's research has identified Hong Kong as a hub for the illegal trade in endangered species. Between 2013 and 2020, customs officers in Hong Kong seized over HK$767 million in trafficked wildlife. These included over 22 metric tonnes of ivory, 70 metric tonnes of pangolin (scales and carcasses), 1,946 metric tonnes of illegal wood and 66 metric tonnes of other endangered species (mainly reptiles). Those quantities are conservatively estimated to equate to the deaths of over 3,000 elephants, 67 rhinos and 188,000 pangolins. Trafficked animals have been found to be laundered through Hong Kong’s traditional Chinese medicine industry, used as decorative arts, consumed as food and sold as pets.

     The trafficking and laundering of endangered species are serious crimes with dire global consequences. Their commission requires the full weight of legislative response from the Hong Kong government. To better deter offenders, Ms Whitfort has advocated the re-classification of wildlife crimes as organised and serious crimes under HK's Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance. She will discuss her research on wildlife offending and recommendations for law reform at a roundtable event organised by the American Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday Oct 13th 2020.

Amanda Whitfort on Giving Wildlife a Voice in Hong Kong’s Courts (China Dialogue)

"Giving wildlife a voice in Hong Kong’s courts: Law professor Amanda Whitfort has introduced ‘victim impact statements’ for trafficked species to push for tougher prosecution of wildlife crimes"

China Dialogue
Pavel Toropov

17 July 2020

Hong Kong is an international hub for the illegal trade in wild species, which is estimated to be worth up to US$23 billion a year globally. It is also a major buyer of these species, which include protected animals and plants, as well as their parts and products...

     Amanda Whitfort, associate professor in the Faculty of Law at Hong Kong University and a specialist in criminal and environmental law, is working on bridging this knowledge gap to enable the Hong Kong judiciary to make better sentencing decisions. Whitfort is also a barrister and prosecutes for Hong Kong’s Department of Justice.

     Working together with scientists and experts from Hong Kong University and the Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, one of the things Whitfort has done is introduce to Hong Kong courts victim impact statements for trafficked species.

     A victim impact statement gives the victim of a crime the chance to make a judge aware of how they’ve been affected. Animals and plants are obviously unable to speak in court, and wildlife crime is often seen by legal professionals as “victimless”.

      Whitfort’s victim statements seek to change this by speaking on behalf of the trafficked species. They explain not only the suffering an animal endures when caught and shipped, but also the impact on the species as a whole, detailing for example the significance of a particular seizure in relation to the total population of a species left in the wild. 

      These statements are already improving the quality of sentencing in Hong Kong, and Whitfort is now working on extending the practice elsewhere in Asia... Click here to read the full interview with Amanda Whitfort.

Amanda Whitfort et al on Wildlife Forensic Science in Hong Kong (Wires Forensic Science)

"Wildlife forensic science in Hong Kong"

Chloe E. R. Hatten, Amanda Whitfort , David M. Baker , 

Caroline Dingle

Wires Forensic Science 

Published in June 2020

Abstract: In the past decade, Hong Kong has seen an increase in volume and diversity of endangered wildlife imported through its borders. Recent amendments to legislation concerning wildlife crimes in Hong Kong allow for increased sentencing and prosecution of the crimes. This calls for an increased forensic capacity to aid enforcement efforts. Wildlife forensic science in Hong Kong is generally performed ad hoc via a confidential tender‐application process. Additionally, minimal communication between forensic scientists, the prosecution and the judiciary on the use and production of wildlife forensic analyses has compounded the problem of wildlife crimes not being addressed as “serious” crimes. Improving communication and collaboration between relevant stakeholders, including the development of a wildlife forensic reference database, shared forensic practices, and shared information concerning expertise and analyses available within Hong Kong, would provide benefits to wildlife crime investigations. This article addresses some of these concerns in more detail and provides suggestions for improvements to the overall wildlife forensic capacity in Hong Kong. Increasing Hong Kong's capacity for wildlife forensic science will not only facilitate law enforcement efforts but also help to change Hong Kong's status as a regional hub for wildlife trade to one for excellence in wildlife crime deterrence.

Amanda Whitfort on China and CITES: Strange Bedfellows or Willing Partners (forthcoming journal article)

"China and CITES: Strange Bedfellows or Willing Partners?"
Amanda Whitfort
Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy, forthcoming

Abstract: Using the lens of international norm dynamics, this paper explores increasing contestation around the global norm to protect endangered species from over exploitation. Focusing on China’s recent announcement that it may lift its 25 year moratorium on the use of rhino horn and tiger bone use in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and calls from some African states for increased international trade in rhino, this paper explores current threats to the norm. As international discourse around the norm moves from debates about its applicability, to fundamental challenges to its validity, the norm is weakening. To protect the norm, it has become necessary for the adoption of less traditional approaches to the interpretation of the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) by members states. Going forward, CITES debates about how best to protect endangered species should emphasise both conservation and animal welfare concerns.​  This is an output from GRF Grant No 17655316. Please contact the author (whitfort@hku.hk) to obtain the full text.

Amanda Whitfort on Wildlife Crime and Animal Victims: Improving Access to Environmental Justice in Hong Kong (forthcoming journal article)

"Wildlife Crime and Animal Victims: Improving Access to Environmental Justice in Hong Kong"

Amanda Whitfort

Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy, forthcoming 2020

Abstract: Wildlife crimes are often argued to be victimless, due to the anthropocentric view of crime which dominates policy and policing discourse. Falling outside the normative criminal justice lens, wildlife crimes are not frequently brought to court and lack of expertise in policing and prosecuting cases impairs their recognition as serious crimes. When wildlife offences are prosecuted, the tendency to try cases in the magistrates’ courts compounds problems with lack of judicial exposure to this specialised form of crime and limits development of judicial expertise in the field. The traditional punishments utilised for wildlife crimes have also tended to follow the trajectory for mainstream offences, focussing exclusively on the liability of the defendant (through considerations of deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation) or on the remedying of harms to the environment (via restoration and compensation). Lacking legal standing in the court process, harms caused to endangered animals (as individuals or species) have been marginalised from consideration in sentencing decisions. Recognised only as legal property, they may be forfeited or returned to their lawful owners, in accordance with the court’s findings. Focusing on recent developments in Scotland and Hong Kong, this paper argues that a more effective justice response to wildlife crime permits recognition of the interests of animals, as victims, in wildlife offences. While victim impact statements for pollution offences are received by the courts in many jurisdictions, with the notable exception of Scotland, they have not been formally recognised for animals in wildlife offences. In Scotland, prosecutors and the judiciary are now provided with expert evidence as to the range of social, economic and species harms caused by wildlife offending. Armed with knowledge of the role of animals as individual and species victims of crime, sentences may be passed which take appropriate regard of wild animal suffering, their monetary and conservation value, and the impact of their loss on biodiversity. In Hong Kong, the nature of wild animals as victims of crime has also begun to be recognised in the use of victim impact statements for wildlife offences. Victim impact statements for 33 of the most commonly smuggled animals traded into and through Hong Kong are now utilised by prosecutors in their presentation of wildlife cases at court. The use of these statements is allowing for better informed sentencing decisions in individual cases and improved environmental justice in the region.  This is output from GRF Grant No 17655316. Please contact the author (whitfort@hku.hk) to obtain the full text.

Amanda Whitfort on Rethinking Criminal Justice Responses in Hong Kong to Wildlife Trafficking (HKL)

"Rethinking Criminal Justice Responses in Hong Kong to Wildlife Trafficking"

Amanda Whitfort
Hong Kong Lawyer
June 2019

In recent years, there has been a dramatic surge in wildlife trafficking around the world. Record numbers of rhino, elephant and tiger have been poached in Africa and India. Around 300 pangolin are poached every day for their meat and scales (used in Traditional Chinese Medicine), making them the most trafficked mammal in the world. All eight species of pangolin were listed in Appendix I of the International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) in 2016, despite many people still not knowing what a pangolin looks like. The low risk of detection and high profit to be made from wildlife trafficking has made it attractive not only to opportunistic poachers but to transnational criminal syndicates who oversee supply to growing markets in Asia. Wildlife trafficking is now regarded as the fourth most lucrative black market in the world, after the trafficking of drugs, people and arms. A recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report estimated the annual value of the illegal wildlife trade at US$23 billion. Gram for gram, rhino horn is now more valuable than platinum... Click here to read the full article.

Amanda Whitfort Interviewed on Pangolins: The World’s Most Trafficked Mammals Slipping Into Extinction (Earth.Org)

"Pangolins: The World’s Most Trafficked Mammals Slipping Into Extinction"

Samantha Topp
Earth.Org

25 Feb 2019

For most of us the thought of wildlife crime brings to mind ivory and rhino horns, yet in reality the most trafficked mammal in the world remains relatively unknown. An animal ranging from the size of a common house cat to a medium sized dog, but covered in hundreds of scales and found only in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa: the pangolin ...

     Associate Professor at Hong Kong University (HKU) Amanda Whitfort explains that all eight species of pangolin are in high demand for traditional Chinese medicine in China. “Hong Kong is the fifth busiest container port in the world and only about 1% of our containers are inspected. Given the low risk of detection it is not surprising that we are used by traffickers seeking an easy gateway to China.”

      Currently, wildlife trafficking offences are listed under legislation aimed to protect endangered species of animals and plants in Hong Kong: Cap.586. However, many have pushed for it to be now listed as under the Organised and Serious Crime Ordinance (OSCO). Whitfort says that this legislation change would allow investigators to use more coercive powers when investigating wildlife crime operations.

     Alexandra Andersson, founder of the conservation group Hong Kong for Pangolins, also stresses the importance of listing wildlife offences under OSCO, saying that the Hong Kong government needs to “increase associated penalties, close various loopholes in the law, and work with forensic scientists to develop tools to detect laundering.”

     In traditional Chinese medicine, some practitioners prescribe pangolin scales to cure ailments from rheumatism, soreness and itchiness to cancer and impotence. However, activists like Andersson argue that scales are proven to be made of keratin, the substance of human fingernails.

     In 2008 a global NGO focused on illegal wildlife trade, TRAFFIC, found that pangolin scale alternatives include Wang Bu Lui Xing (Vaccaraie semen) and dried seeds of cowherb (Vaccaria segetalis). Within the study it was found that the medicinal effects of both alternatives were classed as being equally as effective as pangolin scales.

     Whitfort says that many traditional Chinese medicine practitioners publicly support the use of alternatives to endangered species, though it is evident that pangolin products are still in high demand both for its scales and its meat. “No species should go extinct for traditional Chinese medicine,” says Whitfort. ...“Eventually we will have the correct laws,” Whitfort says. “Unfortunately, for some species, those laws will come too late.”  Click here to read the full text. 

Amanda Whitfort Discusses Wildlife Trafficking on Backchat (RTHK Radio 3)

"Wildlife Trafficking"
Backchat 

RTHK Radio 3
4 Feb 2019
Description: On Monday's Backchat, wildlife trafficking. Hong Kong Customs recently seized more than $60 million worth of elephant tusks and pangolin scales that arrived in a shipment from Africa, and over the years there have been seizures of illegal ivory and rhino horn by the authorities, that are believed to be for use in Chinese medicine or sculptures. After a record seizure in 2017 there were no prosecutions - authorities say there was insufficient evidence to support a reasonable prospect of conviction. Is Hong Kong becoming a wildlife trafficking hub, despite laws here? Should Hong Kong take it more seriously? What other measures could be done to combat wildlife trafficking?

     Amanda Whitfort: Hong Kong is not doing well in legislation framework to combat smuggling ... United Nations came to Hong Kong to evaluate but the government refused to do so ... Chinese medicine practices on rhino-horns .... education is needed... Click here to listen to the full programme.

New Study Sheds Light on Illegal Wildlife Trade in Hong Kong (Amanda Whitfort, HKU Press Release)

"New study sheds light on illegal wildlife trade in Hong Kong – A high volume and lucrative black market business"

HKU Press Release

21 January 2019

Hong Kong's illegal wildlife trade is contributing to a global extinction crisis. Every year millions of live animals, plants and their derivatives are illegally trafficked into and through Hong Kong, by transnational companies and organised crime syndicates.

     There is an urgent need for the government to enhance its current enforcement strategy against wildlife smuggling. Over the last decade, the diversity of endangered species imported into Hong Kong has increased by 57%. At the same time, the estimated value of the trade has increased by 1,600%. Since 2013, seizures of illegal ivory, pangolin scales and rhino horn have been made by Hong Kong authorities, potentially equating to the deaths of 3,000 elephants, 96,000 pangolins and 51 rhinoceros.

   Hong Kong's illegal wildlife trade is increasing in volume, underestimated in value and contributing to the global extinction crisis.

     Some members of the Hong Kong Wildlife Trade Working Group (HKWTWG) have joined forces to publish a study focusing on the type and volume of seizures relating to illegal wildlife trade in Hong Kong over the last 5 years. The findings documented in the 200 page report: Trading in Extinction: The Dark Side of Hong Kong's Wildlife Trade, illustrate the city's central role in global wildlife trafficking and the extent and nature of the associated criminality. It identifies clearly, how future policy and enforcement could be improved to provide the urgently required long-term sustainability.

   Associate Professor Amanda Whitfort of the Faculty of Law, one of the authors of the report said: "Wildlife crime in Hong Kong remains under-policed and under-investigated. Wildlife smuggling is not regarded as organised and serious crime, under Hong Kong law. Failure to include wildlife smuggling as a crime under the Organised and Serious Crime ordinance, Cap 455, hampers authorities' powers to effectively prosecute those behind the networks and syndicates that take advantage of Hong Kong's position as a major trading port."
   "Our research indicates Hong Kong has become a hub for organised wildlife smugglers, with consequences for the international reputation of our city as well as international biodiversity," said Lisa Genasci, CEO of ADMCF, adding that "Extinction of elephants, rhino, pangolin and many other species in our lifetime is on the horizon, unless the illegal trade is stopped."  To download the report, click here.  For local media reports, see SCMP, HKEJ, Ming Pao, Oriental Daily.  The report was recently cited in an article by Daniel Cross in Sustainabiltiy Times (15 March 2019).