Belgium bans hunting trophy imports
STORY: Belgium has banned the import of hunting trophies such as lion claw bottle openers and ashtrays made from elephant feet...
Campaigners hope the move will push other European countries to do the same.
Belgium's parliament voted in late January to ban the imports from a range of rare or threatened animals.
The list includes lions, tigers and elephants as well as orangutans, lemurs and various turtles.
Belgium Environment Minister Zakia Khattabi.
"At this stage, the impact will be limited. It's much more symbolic. It's a political signal which has been sent out, because we know that today, on a European scale, few countries ban as ambitiously as Belgium. The Netherlands has a ban, so does Finland, and France is working on it. But at the moment I think the impact will be relatively limited because of the numbers in Belgium, but also because the licences will be probably granted by other member states."
The ban was welcomed by Ruud Tombrock, executive director at the Humane Society International.
"...We are very happy with the unanimous vote of the Belgian Parliament..."
He says 25,000 animal trophies had been imported into the European Union from 2014 to 2022, of which about 500 went to Belgium.
The European Parliament in 2022 called for a ban on the import of trophies derived from species listed by CITES, an international agreement that aims to ensure that trade in wild animals does not threaten their survival.
EU law says an import permit is required for trophies of threatened or rare species, and checks should also be carried out on trophies from a wider range of wild animals.
