The Customs Control of the Trade of Endangered Wild Species

Abstract

Several thousand species have become endangered for the last few decades owing to legal and illegal trading; nonetheless the authorities and the public opinion do not pay proper attention to this issue. In this paper the authors examined the specifics of legal and illegal trading, the legal background and the theoretical background of customs control and the practical experiences. They give an overview of the international and national laws, the international literature and the international trends. They analysed in their research the seizure dates of the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Administration, and interviewed two customs officers in order to know specifics of the illegal trading. According to their research, our country does not play a central role in illegal trading, nevertheless the value of the illegal market reaches several million Forints...