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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Acting Secretary for the Environment, Ms Christine Loh, on ivory trade before attending the Legislative Council meeting today (December 2):
Reporter: Why is it such a suitable start time for Hong Kong to quit as the world's largest ivory centre? What do you (think) is going to happen?
Acting Secretary for the Environment: There is a generational change and I don't mean just with young people. I actually feel that Hong Kong is going through a change where we see wildlife protection as much more important and Hong Kong is actually very successful in persuading people without actually passing laws, not to consume shark fins for example. So I think now, in terms of ivory, this is an area that has received tremendous local and international concern. And we see that China and the United States have come to a broad understanding of coming to a near-ban for the commercial trade of ivory even on the domestic basis. So I think in Hong Kong we want to take all of these very seriously and we are considering what should be our next step.
Reporter: So I mean what is going to happen during the debate tonight? You know it is not really binding. What is the next step for the Government to stop this trade?
Acting Secretary for the Environment: The debate is a political debate, and is a non-binding debate in Hong Kong, which means that it is an occasion for political parties and legislators to express themselves on how they see this. So I think we see this as very important within the Government to get the mood of the political consensus in the Legislative Council. Obviously, as we are considering whether to tighten and strengthen what we are doing today to prevent trafficking, then it is very good to get a political steer.
Reporter: Do you agree with the conservation (opinion) that there is a loophole in the law that has to be plugged?
Acting Secretary for the Environment: I think what we are saying today is that we do want to strengthen our enforcement and we have already implemented some measures. We are willing to consider more methods. So I think today at the Legislative Council I should get a good reading of the political support that we have in Hong Kong.
Reporter: How can those measures been implemented, as there are already restrictions on the trade but there is an environmental report saying that it is being circumvented and there is still a lot of illegal ivory being traded through Hong Kong?
Acting Secretary for the Environment: We have said that we are open-minded to a domestic commercial trade ban because right now we already have an international trade ban. So we are open-minded to thinking about further restrictions in Hong Kong itself. But I think of the details, we need a little bit more time to think through whether we could do that or not.
Ends/Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Issued at HKT 12:44
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