Publicized through a leaflet, phone line, luggage tags and the Internet, the campaign provides a checklist of gifts and souvenirs to avoid. It includes tiger and leopard skin coats and bags, sea turtle shell jewellery and sunglasses, and alligator and crocodile shoes and handbags. Environment Minister Michael Meacher. We are asking holiday-makers, and all other international travellers, not to bring home these unsuitable souvenirs. Last year, the UK Customs and Excise Office seized over 1,500 live animals and birds, more than 1,700 plants and nearly 52,000 wildlife parts and derivatives.
Culprits face the threat of prosecution and fines.
The Convention requires parties to protect wild populations of endangered species by banning international trade in some of them and controlling trade in others. This has not stopped tourists from stimulating illegal trade, unwittingly or otherwise. When questioned, he said that he had bought it in a shop in South Africa and had not been questioned about his unusual package when he left the country. Earlier this year, customs officers at London's Gatwick Airport discovered Russian seamen trying to exchange tortoises for cigarettes. Realizing they had been spotted, the seamen began abandoning their animals around the terminal building.