By Isaac Anyaogu
LAGOS (Reuters) -Nigeria will impose fines of up to 12 million naira ($8,200) and jail terms of up to 10 years on traffickers of ivory, pangolin scales and other wildlife in a sweeping new bill passed by its Senate on Tuesday.
Conservation groups say the law could help curb organised crime networks which have made Nigeria a major hub for illegal wildlife trade. The networks have been linked with more than 30 tonnes of ivory since 2015 and over half of global pangolin scale trafficking between 2016 and 2019.
The Endangered Species Conservation and Protection Bill, passed by the lower parliament in May, updates decades-old laws that allow offenders to spend three months to five years in jail or pay fines as low as 100,000 naira ($68) for trafficking.
The Bill grants the Nigerian Customs investigators powers to track financial flows, and search and detain aircraft and vessels transporting prohibited wildlife. Judges will be allowed to fast-track cases and seize assets.
The law, which also prohibits pollution of wildlife habitat and the eating of endangered wildlife, aligns Nigeria with global treaties and enables extradition of offenders.
“This is a huge win for Nigeria and shows, without any doubt, that we remain committed to stamping out wildlife trafficking and protecting our unique fauna and flora,” said Terseer Ugbor, the lawmaker who sponsored the bill.
Environmental groups welcomed the move, saying it will help protect wildlife.
“For too long, traffickers have used Nigeria as a transit country for the illegal wildlife trade, bringing endangered wildlife from all over Africa through our porous borders, ports and airports to export them illegally to Europe and Asia,” said Tunde Morakinyo, Executive Director, Africa Nature Investors Foundation (ANI).
They urged swift presidential assent before the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, a UN-affiliated international agreement summit in Uzbekistan in November.
($1 = 1,467.8100 naira)
(Reporting by Isaac Anyaogu, editing by Ed Osmond)
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