BACKGROUND
CONFIDENTIAL ·
1. The State Department have told the Embassy in Washington that
Secretary Baker will wish to raise with the Secretary of State US
concern at the entering of a Reservation on behalf of Hong Kong
against the listing of the African elephant on Appendix I
(effectively a ban on international commercial trade in ivory) of
the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora (CITES).
2.
The UK entered a Reservation on 17 January (the day
before the new listing came into force) to allow Hong Kong
traders to dispose of their ivory in an orderly fashion and to
enable the carvers and workers (some 3,000 in total) to find
alternative employment. The Reservation was the best way
of fulfilling our responsibilities to a Dependent Territory without compromising our support for measures to secure the future of the
African elephant. We have made it clear that the Reservation
applies only to Hong Kong, and not to the UK or any other British
Dependent Territory, and that it will be withdrawn after six months,
by which time legislation to implement the CITES ban will be in
force. We have denied any contradiction with our support for
Appendix I listing at the CITES conference in Lausanne in October
1989, pointing out that we abstained on behalf of Hong Kong on the
separate vote on trade in existing stocks.
3. Opponents of the Reservation are arguing that by allowing continued trade in ivory from Hong Kong we are creating a loophole for the entry of illegal ivory onto the market and thereby encourage more poaching. They also claim that 80% of the ivory in Hong Kong
came from poached elephants. Wildlife NGOs in the US, which are far
more influential and vociferous than those in the UK, will have
pressed these arguments forcefully with the State Department. We do not believe that the Reservation will lead to more poaching. Given
the difficulties in disposing of the legal stock of ivory already in Hong Kong, it would make no sense to attempt to import new ivory, illegally, into the Territory. And the measures taken by the Hong Kong authorities since June 1989, eg import, export, and possession
CONFIDENTIAL