Calls for a new Geneva convention to protect wildlife and nature reserves in conflict zones are welcome (Make environmental damage a war crime, say scientists, 25 July). But we should go further. Humanity is waging a veritable war on wildlife and nature every day. We are destroying habitats, changing the climate and persecuting animals that encroach on farmland that was once their home. The pursuit of wildlife for “trophies” to adorn our walls and with which to pose is the cruellest wildlife crime of all. Scientists have warned that “sport” hunting of lions is leading to a loss of genetic diversity that puts their survival at risk. The combined rate of deaths from poaching and trophy hunting is now greater than the birth rate of elephants. Permits are granted to hunters to shoot species that are extinct in the wild and of which just small numbers remain in private collections.
The late Polly Higgins, the acclaimed environmental lawyer, called for ecocide to be considered a crime on a par with genocide. If we are serious about protecting wildlife, world leaders should implement her recommendation. We must also take steps towards abolishing trophy hunting, a “sport” that is as senseless as it is damaging to wildlife. We can begin by banning the import of hunting trophies into Britain, and by calling on Cites at its conference next month to close the loophole that presently allows trophy hunters to shoot endangered species.
John Cooper QC, Rosalind Coward Author, Greenpeace UK board member 2003-11, Eduardo Gonçalves President, Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting
• The biggest threat to rare mosses is not gardeners buying peat but those wishing to carpet our moors with trees (Specieswatch: the ‘UK rainforest’ threatened by gardeners, 24 July). Our research found one of the best ways to increase sphagnum moss is through the occasional burning of the heather, to restore it, as practised on driven grouse moors. Mosses were highest on areas burnt between three and 10 years earlier yet were very low if the area was left unmanaged for 17 years or more. We must thank the hard work and dedication of gamekeepers who protect the future of this internationally significant resource.
Andrew Gilruth
Director of communications, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust
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