CITES

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced the trade in ivory from hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, killer whale and sperm whale will be protected under an extension to the Ivory Act in the UK.

Permits and licences for CITES will soon be moving to an online service.

A lawyer acting for a group challenging the Ivory Act has said the Conservatives’ win of a House of Commons majority in last week’s general election will have no bearing on the outcome of a Court of Appeal hearing in the New Year.

The government does not have to “show a causal connection” between the UK’s trade in antique ivory and the poaching of modern ivory, a barrister representing DEFRA said in court today.

“No reputable dealer wants to see elephants dead” was among the opening remarks by the QC acting for a group of dealers and collectors challenging the Ivory Act 2018, at the High Court today.

Defra has added Dover and the Eurotunnel to the list of ports that will accept the import and export of CITES-listed natural history specimens.

A proposal to class the long-extinct woolly mammoth as ‘endangered’ in order to regulate trade in its ivory was withdrawn at the global CITES summit, pending further research.

The mammoth, a trunked animal species that last roamed the Earth 4000 years ago, may soon be classed as ‘threatened’ in order to regulate trade in the extinct mammal’s ivory.

Defra has issued a fresh warning for the antiques trade on the import and export of CITES-listed natural history specimens ahead of Brexit.

US antiques dealers have been granted permission by a court judge to go forward with a lawsuit challenging New York's complete ban on the trade of elephant ivory and rhinoceros horn, regardless of age, within state lines.

Edinburgh auction house Lyon & Turnbull will no longer sell antique items made from rhino horn.

CITES-listed natural history specimens will no longer be able to pass through Dover or the Eurotunnel in the event of a No deal Brexit, the government has warned.