Nature Conservation

Mr. Randall
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what methods his Department uses to assess the validity of captive breeding claims of species in Annex A of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species before issuing sales certificates.

Joan Ruddock
Captive breeding claims are assessed by the UK CITES management authority in consultation with our scientific authority, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. The evidence provided by the applicant is assessed against the criteria set out in Article 54 of EU Regulation 865/2006, that is:

that the specimen is, or is derived from, the offspring born or otherwise produced in a controlled environment;

the breeding stock was established in accordance with the legislative provisions applicable at their time of their acquisition and in a manner not detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild;

the breeding stock has not been supplemented by specimens taken from the wild (except in certain restricted circumstances);

the breeding stock has itself produced second or subsequent generation offspring in a controlled environment, or is managed in a manner that has been demonstrated to be capable of producing second generation offspring in a controlled environment.

A specimen is assessed as captive bred if both the Management and scientific authorities are satisfied that all of these criteria are met. If there are any doubts about the evidence supplied by the applicant, an inspection may be carried out to verify these claims. This inspection may include DMA testing of parents and their claimed offspring.

If the authorities are not able to satisfy themselves that a specimen meets the criteria above, they may still decide to issue a certificate, but with conditions attached to it to restrict how the specimen can be used commercially. Certificates issued under CITE are issued by Animal health.