Media

Hong Kong is one of the world’s largest trading economies, and a primary hub for the wildlife trade. 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.

Over the last decade the estimated value of endangered species seized in Hong Kong has increased by 1,600%. Hong Kong’s illegal wildlife trade is contributing to a global extinction crisis. Over the past 5 years, seizures of illegal ivory, pangolin scales and rhino horn, likely contributing the deaths of at least 3,000 elephants, 97,000 pangolins and 51 rhinoceros, have been made by Hong Kong authorities.

While seizures are high, wildlife crime in Hong Kong remains under-policed and under-investigated. Wildlife smuggling is not regarded as organised and serious crime, under the law. Failure to include wildlife smuggling as a crime under the Organised and Serious Crimes 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. There is an urgent need for the government to enhance its current enforcement strategy against wildlife smuggling.

Members of the Hong Kong Wildlife Trade Working Group 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. As two founding members of the HK Wildlife Trade Working Group, Associate Professor Amanda Whitfort and Professor Yvonne Sadovy contributed to the study. The findings of the study have been documented in the 200 page report: Trading in Extinction: The Dark Side of Hong Kong’s Wildlife Trade.

You and your photographer are cordially invited to join us for the release of the key findings of this important study.

Details are as follows:
Date: January 21, 2019 (Monday)
Time:
14:30 Media Briefing
14:45 Research Finding: Highlights & Discussions
14:50 Media Q&A
Venue: Room 3N-01, 3/F, Kadoorie Biological Sciences Building, the University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. (map)
Speakers:

• Rosana Ng, ADM Capital Foundation
• Sam Inglis, ADM Capital Foundation
• Amanda Whitfort, Associate Professor of Law, the University of Hong Kong
• Gary Ades, Head of Fauna Conservation Department, Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden
• Fiona Woodhouse, Deputy Director (Welfare) Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
• Justin Gosling Independent Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Specialist

*Presentation and discussion in English and Cantonese

Kindly RSVP
Communiqué: (852) 2850 5990
Liberty McCarthy | Liberty@communiquehk.com | (852) 5300 0624
Jo Chan | jo@communiquehk.com | (852) 6112 9337

Hong Kong Wildlife Trade Working Group (HKWTWG)
Established in 2015, the Hong Kong Wildlife Trade Working Group is a loose coalition of Non-Government Organisations, academics, legal professionals and experts in Hong Kong, with specific interests in the wildlife trade. The report Trading in Extinction is a collaborative effort of some of its members including: ADM Capital Foundation (ADMCF), Animals Asia, Bloom Association (HK) Civic Exchange, Hong Kong Shark Foundation (HKSF), University of Hong Kong (HKU), Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG), The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), Teng Hoi Conservation Organisation, University of St. Andrews, WildAid and WWF-Hong Kong.

The report is published by the ADM Capital Foundation.