Pets, Aquarium, and Terrarium Species - Convention on Biological ...

<strong>Pets</strong>, <strong>Aquarium</strong>, <strong>and</strong> <strong>Terrarium</strong> <strong>Species</strong>: Best Practices for Addressing Risks to Biodiversity
after the assessment has been conducted. In this context,
assessment of the risks to biodiversity <strong>and</strong> the
environment is an important input to decision-making.
Decision-makers may have to consider additional
matters such as national policy, food security, livelihoods
<strong>and</strong> cost-benefit considerations.
Participants noted that for species assessed as “likely
to be benign,” importation could usually be allowed
with few, if any, conditions. <strong>Species</strong> assessed as “likely
to pose a high risk of harm” could be prohibited or,
if import is allowed, be subjected to stringent conditions
(such as sterilization) to manage identified risks.
Decision-making considerations:
▶▶
Decision-making systems usually provide the
option of allowing import either with no or
few conditions or with stringent conditions as
well as the option of not allowing import.
▶▶
Decisions based on risk-assessment procedures
could be part of a country’s regulatory
framework or part of a self-regulating process — for example an industry code of conduct.
▶▶
How to include precaution in decision-making is a policy question, open to a range of choices.
▶▶
One of the challenges is to make a decision about the species that are assessed as “medium” risk (as
opposed to species that are assessed as high or low risk, in which case decision-making is often more
straightforward.). They could be invaders in lag phase, which could be cause for rejection, or they could
be minor risk species <strong>and</strong> will stay that way.
▶▶
Cost/benefit considerations may include impacts of substitutes (if a species is not allowed), human wellbeing,
biosecurity concerns, sustainable use <strong>and</strong> livelihoods.
▶▶
Decision-making should be independent of proponents of the import.
4.3. Sub-National <strong>and</strong> Regional Risk Assessments
<strong>Species</strong> Already in Trade
Assessing risk for newly proposed imports lead to questions
about what happens with species that are already
in trade, before any assessments were done on them: can
they be added to “black lists”(not permitted to be imported)
or “white lists”(may be imported) after assessment?
Some nations have approached this in different ways:
Israel: An assessment can be done on species already in
trade which can then be used to decide whether the species
should go on the white list or black list. It can be quite
challenging to persuade people that something already in
trade can no longer be imported.
New Zeal<strong>and</strong>: The Chief Technical Officer of the
relevant government agency can designate such species as
an “unwanted organism”. This was for example done with
ferrets. It is not illegal to possess this species, however the
“unwanted organism” designation makes it illegal to breed
or trade the species. Eventually, the last surviving ones will
die out.
Japan: The raccoon (which had been imported previously)
has been put on the black list. Existing pets can stay
with their owners, but no new raccoons can be purchased
as pets.
In addition to being carried out at a national level, risk assessments can be conducted with respect to smaller
or larger geographic <strong>and</strong>/or jurisdictional scales. Regional cooperation is urgently needed, particularly where
individual countries do not have the capacity to implement complex processes independently. Because environmental
boundaries are more relevant to species than political boundaries, risk assessments at scales other than
the national scale are often very appropriate.
Risks might be assessed at a regional (multi-country) scale by a regional entity such as the Secretariat of the
Pacific Community (SPC), a regional industry body, or by neighbouring countries cooperating to manage a
transboundary ecosystem such as a watershed. Such regional cooperation can effectively increase in-country
capacity. Regional cooperation can be used to share/harmonize st<strong>and</strong>ards, share data, information, scientific <strong>and</strong>
analytical services, etc.
24