Call for Evidence on the scale and impacts of the import and export of hunting trophies

Overview

Climate change and global biodiversity decline are interlinked threats for wildlife and people. Biodiversity is declining at a dangerous and unprecedented speed, and species extinction rates are accelerating, with up to 1 million species threatened. Overexploitation is one of the drivers of species extinction and additional pressures on vulnerable species can result from unsustainable or inappropriately managed activity. Transformative changes are needed to restore and protect nature[i].

In the 25 Year Environment Plan, the UK government committed to providing international leadership in protecting and improving international biodiversity and undertaking international action to protect endangered species. To address the challenges facing nature today, the government recently announced a new £220m International Biodiversity Fund, which will support a tripling of Defra’s renowned Darwin Initiative, increased funding for work to tackle the illegal wildlife trade, including the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund, and a new £100m Biodiverse Landscapes Fund to protect and restore key landscapes and their ecosystems.

The UK’s international leadership is underpinned by a strong commitment to ensuring that our domestic policy does not threaten the conservation of species abroad. Whilst we recognise that some conservationists believe that trophy hunting can be an effective conservation tool, supporting local livelihoods and attracting revenues for other conservation activities, we also acknowledge concerns around the practice of trophy hunting. As a result, we are reviewing our current controls on the import and export of hunting trophies to understand whether further action is required to address these concerns.

The Queen’s Speech set out our commitments to protecting and improving the environment for future generations, which included bringing forward proposals to ban imports from trophy hunting. We are now seeking your input on this topic. As well as consulting on future policy options, we are also issuing a call for evidence on the scale and impacts of the import and export of hunting trophies.

This call for evidence and accompanying consultation provide an opportunity for you to present your views and supply evidence to inform aspects of government policy and action on the import and export of hunting trophies.