Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 July 2018
2791. Deputy Marc MacSharry asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, certificates issued by the National Parks and Wildlife Service in each of the years 2013 to 2017, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32428/18]
View answerThe Irish CITES Management Authority issues two types of documents to facilitate trade in CITES listed species – EC Trade Certificates and CITES import/export permits.
The CITES Regulations, namely Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97, control commercial activities associated with Annex A specimens within the European Union. Most commercial activities, including the sale and offering for sale of any Annex A specimen are prohibited unless an appropriate CITES Certificate has been issued by the relevant CITES Management Authority exempting the prohibition in question. The CITES Management Authority may grant such CITES Certificates on a case by case basis in certain situations as described in Article 8(3) of Council Regulation 338/97. Responsibility for the CITES Management Authority in Ireland rests with my Department and its functions are executed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service of the Heritage Division.
In the EU Wildlife Trade Regulations commercial activities includes “the purchase, offer to purchase, acquisition for commercial purposes, display to the public for commercial purposes, use for commercial gain and sale, keeping for sale, offering for sale or transporting for sale of specimens”.
The following table gives the total number of EC Trade Certificates issued by the Irish CITES Management Authority from 2013 to 2017 to facilitate trade in Annex A specimens. The “total Number of CITES documents issued” column includes both import/export permits and the CITES certificates.
|
Year |
Total Number of CITES Documents Issued |
Number of CITES EC Trade Certificates issued |
|
2013 |
361 |
289 |
|
2014 |
372 |
290 |
|
2015 |
406 |
305 |
|
2016 |
497 |
377 |
|
2017 |
667 |
454 |
