Here is a scenario: You are coming from duty free at an airport. You are nervous that you have a bottle or two too much over your quota. Next to you walks a person with a suitcase containing a whole leopard. It may sound strange, but this can actually happen in Norway today. Nothing less than a whole leopard was seized by the customs officers. Photo: The Norwegian Environment Agency The Norwegian Environment Agency has a whole room full of exotic and equally illegal things that people have tried to smuggle into the country. Either negligently, or on purpose. – In the last ten years, we have made 664 seizures in Norway. This can be anything from hunting trophies, dietary supplements, feathers used in fly fishing and coffee containing species that are regulated. But worldwide, the scope is even greater, says senior adviser in the Norwegian Environment Agency, Jo Esten Hafsmo. A seized ivory ring. Elephants have long been vulnerable to poachers, who have been after their lucrative tusks, and the importation of such products is generally not allowed. Photo: Norwegian Environment Agency Shoes made with snakeskin from a python snake, seized. Photo: Norwegian Environment Agency A skull from a bear, seized. Photo: Norwegian Environment Agency Snakes and alligators The leopard is not the only endangered animal species that is attempted to be smuggled across borders. news has also talked about tourists in northern Norway who try to smuggle both aircraft parts from the Second World War and record quantities of fish. Recently, large seizures were made of, among other things, parrots and ivory. In an international campaign in which, among others, the Norwegian police and customs were involved. This is in line with the CITES convention. It regulates international trade in endangered animal and plant species. The CITES convention CITES is an international convention with the purpose of regulating and controlling international trade in endangered plant and animal species. The convention was adopted in 1973, and 184 countries are bound by it. Today, the convention protects to a greater or lesser extent more than 39,000 species of plants and animals. The protection applies to everything from animals used to make fur coats to dried herbs. The species covered are registered on various lists according to degree of vulnerability. Trade in the species is subject to different rules based on which lists the species are on. On list A we find species that are threatened with extinction. Species on list B are not threatened with extinction now, but may become so if trade in the species is not regulated. Norwegian species on the CITES lists include all whale species, polar bears, bears, wolves, lynxes, otters, as well as all raptor species and owls. Source: Norwegian Environment Agency According to Hafsmo, smuggling of endangered animal and plant species is the world’s fourth largest illegal export and import industry. Behind drug, human and arms trafficking, there is a turnover of 125 billion US dollars a year, in this area alone. This corresponds to NOK 1.248 trillion. So NOK 1,248,906,875,000. – What we have seen a lot of in recent years is food supplements in particular, but also things like watch straps in alligator skin and snake skin. Mainly this is due to ignorance and lack of permits. But at other times there may be deliberate attempts at smuggling. No corona brake We have been through a global pandemic with the coronavirus, and people have not traveled as much as they did before. However, it has not stopped the importation of illegal and regulated species, says Hafsmo. – It is a real problem that internet shopping makes this more possible than before. It is easy to order nutritional supplements and have them sent to Norway, and we see that there is clearly more that comes via the post, than people taking it with them from travel, and the like. This leopard is temporarily living in the Norwegian Environment Agency after being seized. This stuffed tiger didn’t make it to its intended destination either. – What are the consequences for those who attempt this? – If it is a matter of smuggling, the matter can be reported to the police and prosecuted under the CITES regulations and the Customs Act. If there is a question of missing permits, the copy may be confiscated, and an infringement fee may be issued from the Norwegian Environment Agency. – But everyone can’t be caught, is there good enough control at the borders in Norway today? – The customs authority carries out checks, and we are satisfied with their efforts. But even if they have good methods and routines, the customs office cannot control everything. Parcel mail in particular is difficult to check, since you can state different contents than what is actually inside. HOWDY: Would you wear this gorgeous snakeskin hat? Photo: Norwegian Environment Agency An elephant made of ivory. The irony is striking. Photo: Norwegian Environmental Directorate What is a snakeskin belt without the head of a cobra on it? New methods Customs are the ones who control what comes through Norway’s borders. Elisabeth C. Nettum, senior adviser at the Norwegian Customs Service, explains that they continuously monitor the flow of goods, and uncover new ways in which Norwegians smuggle. – The customs agency feels that CITES-regulated species are being smuggled. Not just as products sent by post. But also as goods in travelers’ luggage and as consignments of goods. Online shopping experienced a major upswing in 2020–2021. We see that it is easy to buy exotic products from abroad online. These goods arrive in Norway in postal and freight consignments. Elisabeth Nettum, senior advisor at the Norwegian Customs Service. Photo: TOLLETATEN Nettum says that they particularly see a trend where Norwegians are introducing nutritional supplements and products from endangered plant and animal species. – Some of these supplements contain powder from an endangered orchid species, Dendrobium. These products need permission from the Norwegian Environment Agency before import into Norway. In addition, some of the supplements contain medicines. They are then prohibited from being introduced without permission for this. These products are bought online, and they involve a health risk for the user. Not stored forever The Norwegian Environment Agency recently made a TikTok video about seized goods. There were several who wondered why they kept it in a room, when this is probably what the previous owners would have done. – Will it be left for the foreseeable future, Hafsmo? Jo Esten Hafsmo is a senior adviser in the section for alien species and international trade in the Norwegian Environment Agency. Photo: Norwegian Environment Agency – We have routines for destroying the fittings, and our stock is getting smaller and smaller. According to the convention, we are allowed to use seized specimens in training. Among other things, we have a collaboration with Dyreparken in Kristiansand and Avinor in Kjevik, which have goods on display, so that we can give examples of what is not allowed. Finally, are you wondering what you have to do to legally bring certain goods into Norway? Here you will find what you need, on the Norwegian Environment Agency’s pages.
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Customs and the Norwegian Environment Agency seize leopards, snake shoes and illegal alcohol – news Nordland
