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.

United Nations Office in Drugs and Crime Endorses HKU's KE Species Victim Impact Statement Fund Initiative (Amanda Whitfort)

Associate Professor Amanda Whitfort's KE work on the Species Victim Impact Statement Initiative (a collaboration between the HKU Law Faculty and the School of Biological Sciences' Conservation Forensics Lab) has been endorsed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Amanda's team prepares species victim impact statements for the most highly endangered animals in illegal trade. These have been used by prosecutors to inform the courts in Hong Kong of the impact of wildlife crime and have led to a 2000% increase in sentences since they were first adopted in 2016.

https://www.svis.law.hku.hk/

     Working with the international charity, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Amanda adapted the victim statements for African pangolin species and elephants for use by prosecutors in Nigerian courts in Africa. The UNODC has now published the species victim impact statements for these species as a recommended tool for effective prosecutions in Nigeria. The victim impact statements appear in the Nigerian Rapid Reference Guide for Prosecutors and Investigators of Wildlife Crime, which was launched by the Nigerian Minister of the Environment on World Wildlife Day, 3 March 2023. 

       The development of the Rapid Reference Guide for prosecutors and investigators is one of the key deliverables of the National Strategy to Combat Wildlife and Forest Crime in Nigeria 2022- 2026. This National Strategy is the first of its kind, with a five year plan to lay the foundation for sustained efforts towards achieving wildlife conservation in Nigeria.

     The HKU SVIS Initiative is proud to be impacting justice responses to wildlife crime globally. Amanda is now working with judges, prosecutors and law enforcement in ten countries ensuring this HKU funded Knowledge Exchange initiative continues to support the protection of endangered species around the world.

      Amanda has spoken about the project in a guest blog for the EIA published on their website this week.

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 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 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.

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 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. 

Wildlife Victim Impact Statement Assists Prosecution in Hong Kong Rhinoceros Horns Case (Sing Tao Daily)

"About 1.7 million yuan of rhinoceros horns: Mainland male pleaded guilty" (translated into English)

Sing Tao Daily

19 October 2018

A Chinese man working in South Africa who smuggled 3.11 kg of rhinoceros horns into Hong Kong from Mozambique in June this year was today sentenced in the District Court to 12 months imprisonment, reduced to 8 months on a guilty plea.

     The defendant, Wei Bin, claimed to work in Mozambique. He flew to Hong Kong on June 17 this year intending to transfer to the mainland to visit relatives. During his period of entry, he was found by the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department to be carrying rhinoceros horn (Rhinaceae species). As a highly endangered animal and an Appendix 1 listed species, possession of rhinoceros horn is prohibited under CITES (The Convention on Trade in Endangered Species). The defendant told the court that his boss knew that he would return home to visit relatives and promised to pay his ticket cost on the condition he carry rhinoceros horn to Fujian, China, where someone would be waiting to receive it. The defendant also stated that he knew that the goods were rhino horns belonging to the category of Appendix I CITES. The defendant was arrested by the Customs and Excise Department after he was found to have a rhinoceros horn in his baggage and could not produce a certificate of exemption for possession.The prosecutor told the court the estimated market value of the horns was between 830,000 to 1.7 million Hong Kong dollars. ​

     Since August 1, 2018, under the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance (Cap 586), anyone who possesses a specimen of Appendix I species is liable on conviction to a fine of 10 million and 10 years' imprisonment. Committed to raising public awareness of wildlife crimes, Amanda Whitfort, a professor at the University of Hong Kong Law School who participated in the amendments to the Ordinance, said that in the past, if the case did not involve a commercial transaction, the court could only sentence the defendant to a maximum fine of HK$100,000 and imprisonment for 1 year. Professor Whitfort lamented past cases in which sentencers had failed to pay due regard to the impact of wildlife crime on the increasing extinction of species globally. Together with staff at the Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, Professor Whitfort prepared a victim impact statement for rhinoceros which was used by prosecutors in Wei Bin's case to advise the judge on the impact of the crime. The sentence delivered today is the highest ever passed in Hong Kong for the smuggling of rhino horn. 

     Whitfort's research shows that the rising value of Hong Kong seizures in trafficked animals is now comparable with seizures in dangerous drugs. Given their lucrative black market value, and the finality of extinction, she has argued wildlife trafficking cases should be taken by the courts at least as seriously as drug trafficking offences.

RGC Awards $4 Million in Research Grant Funding to HKU Faculty of Law

The Research Grants Council awarded more than $4 million in funding to seven of the Faculty of Law's General Research Fund projects 2016-2017.  The projects cover a wide range of topics: director and shareholder accountability, competition law, cyberbullying and privacy, med-arb in China, trusts for mentally incapacitated persons, personal injury compensation reform, and regulation of trade in endangered wild animals.  Congratulations to the following colleagues:

• Ernest Lim, Rethinking Directorial and Shareholder Accountability, $352,500.
• Kelvin Kwok (with Thomas Cheng as Co-I), Buyer Power under Competition Law: A Theoretical Examination and a Case Study of Hong Kong, $508,496.
• Anne Cheung, Tackling Cyberbullying by Enhancing Privacy Protection: A Comparative and an Interdisciplinary Study, $1,072,190.
• Gu Weixia (with Anselmo Reyes as Co-I), When Local Meets International: The Delicate Art of Med-Arb in China and Its Prospective Reform in a Comparative Context in Asia, $460,000.
• Rebecca Lee (with Lusina Ho as Co-I), Special Needs Trusts for Mentally Incapacitated Persons in Hong Kong: A Proposed Framework, $825,800.
• Felix Chan, Further Reforms in Hong Kong’s Personal Injury Compensation: An Inquisitive Perspective, $590,500. 
• Amanda Whitfort,  A Comparative Evaluation of Hong Kong's Legislative Powers to Regulate Trade in Endangered Wild Animals, $370,500.

Amanda Whitfort: Hong Kong Not Doing Enough to Stop Illegal Ivory Trade

Local legislators are correct in their claim that the Hong Kong government is not doing enough to stop the flow of illegal ivory through our borders (“Eyes on HK to step up ivory fight”, South China Morning Post, 5 April 2015). Hong Kong’s lax attitude to ivory sales has played a significant role in bringing the African elephant population to the lowest numbers in history. China’s recent ban on the import of ivory passes the buck firmly back to Hong Kong to develop effective controls on the trade. In Hong Kong, authorities have long turned a blind eye to the local unethical and unsustainable trade in so-called “legal” ivory. Local licences permit Hong Kong traders to sell ivory from their stockpiles of “legal” ivory obtained before the CITES ban of 1989. Annual records provided by the traders themselves claim their pre-1989 stockpiles are not diminishing, despite the popularity of ivory with mainland visitors and its increasing value as a commodity. While elephant populations dwindle, it is not surprising to find that ivory stocks remain stable in local shops. Effective action needs to be taken to stop the sale of all ivory in Hong Kong (no matter when it is claimed to have been harvested) and significant gaol terms imposed by the judiciary to deter smugglers of endangered species and their derivatives. Written by Amanda Whitfort.