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 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.