Plans for a trophy hunting import ban have been strengthened to protect nearly 7,000 species, including animals that are not endangered such as African buffalo, zebras and reindeer.
Ministers have decided to go further than the Conservative manifesto commitment, which promised a ban on imports of trophies of endangered animals.
Imports will be banned of species such as Cape buffalo, which is deemed “near threatened” but is targeted by British trophy hunters as one of the so-called big five African species. There are fewer Cape buffalo than African elephants.
The ban will cover almost 6,000 species listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), including African lions, giraffes, African elephants and white and black rhinos.
Cites restricts international trade in body parts of those species but has loopholes which may allow trophy imports for personal use. The ban will cover more than 1,000 other species not listed by Cites, such as Cape buffalo, plains zebras and reindeer.
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Eduardo Gonçalves, the founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, said: “The government has listened and acted on concerns that some threatened species could be missed out. It has ruled out potentially disastrous exemptions and loopholes, and has confirmed that offenders could face time in jail.”
He said a question remained about when the legislation would be introduced.
“At present, there is no timeline for bringing the bill to parliament,” he said.
Gonçalves said that since Boris Johnson made the commitment in 2019 about 300 souvenirs from endangered species had been imported.
He said the government could adopt a private member’s bill tabled by John Spellar, the Labour MP, that would ban hunting-trophy imports. Whitehall sources have said they hope the ban will be introduced as soon as parliamentary time allows.
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Claire Bass, executive director of Humane Society International UK, said: “We urge ministers to expedite the introduction of this legislation, which will
make going on holiday to kill endangered animals and bring home their body parts as legally indefensible as it is socially unacceptable.”
