Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-13-Speech-2-178"
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"en.20040113.7.2-178"2
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"Mr President, I support the ideas behind the proposals in Mr De Rossa's excellent report and congratulate him on it. One of the issues we need to address is the definition of bushmeat. It is insufficiently precise. We know or believe that we are all talking about the same thing: primarily, endangered species, in particular the great apes. There is, however, a delicacy trade, which is for the consumption of bushmeat outside Africa. It is clearly enormously difficult, both in Africa and in South America, to prevent people who are starving or who have extremely limited amounts of food from 'poaching' in their neighbouring jungle.
However, there are species both in South America and in Africa that can be managed and could form the basis of an organised trade, with the appropriate safeguards. My concern is that there is a large market in Europe for bushmeat. Every year several thousands of pounds in weight of illegally-imported bushmeat is seized at London Heathrow airport alone, most of it in an appalling condition. There is a reasonably large number of residents and citizens from the European Union, and from African and South American countries who, perhaps legitimately, want to consume this if it can be provided on a sustainable basis. This demand will not go away any more than the demand of Mr De Rossa's Irish compatriots for Guinness will go away, wherever they are based. The risk is that we will drive it underground even further than has been the case.
One of the options that the Commission needs to look at most earnestly is the proper management of the trade, which would involve extensive and, unfortunately, expensive, surveys of animal populations, control of selective killing and, as far as the export trade is concerned, proper regulation for public health. As Mr Corrie said, driven underground, the implications of this trade for public health are appalling. It is a scandal that, in the interests of land management, American multi-millionaires can shoot elephants that need to be culled, whilst people of African origin are not allowed to buy and consume bushmeat in a managed trade.
I thank Mr De Rossa for his assurance that this report does not and cannot refer to deer and elk management in Europe. I would also point out that any references to high-powered rifles are unnecessary. There are approximately 20 million AK-47s in Africa, and any control we have over rifles in the European Union will make no difference. However, like other colleagues, I urge the Commission to take action soon."@en1
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