KEY POINTS:
The encounter at Auckland International Airport pretty much ruined my holiday. I'd had a great time in Papua New Guinea and was returning home on a high, with some great photos, marvellous stories to tell and a fantastic souvenir: a beautifully carved 12cm-long crocodile tooth.
But then a Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries biosecurity officer confiscated my tooth, saying it was in breach of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
This was more than a little upsetting. The tooth had cost quite a bit, but more than that it was a very special reminder of an amazing trip up the Sepik River with two guides who, when not showing tourists around, are crocodile hunters. I didn't want to lose it.
I'm aware that it's not exactly a unique experience. The Department of Conservation, which administers CITES, has a warehouse in Auckland full of prized souvenirs, collectively representing not only a threat to global wildlife but also thousands of disappointed travellers.
But I know about CITES and I thought I had done all the right things to ensure my croc tooth would be okay.
At the place where I bought the tooth I asked whether I needed a CITES permit. The New Zealand co-manager assured me they had sold such teeth to tourists from all round the world and had no problems because saltwater crocodiles in PNG were not endangered.
Okay, you'd probably expect them to say that, so I also asked a PNG customs officer at the Port of Rabaul. He said there was a scheme for identifying crocodile skins but there were no other restrictions. The final confirmation came when an Australian customs officer at Cairns glanced at my tooth, plus a few carvings collected by my wife, and said: "No worries, mate."
So how come, if the PNG and Australian customs thought my croc tooth was fine, their New Zealand counterparts saw things so differently? The MAF officer at the airport wasn't impressed by these international precedents. "We take CITES more seriously than they do," he claimed, and handed me a receipt.
On the back of the form was the big question I was asking myself: "Can I get my items back?" And the worrying answer was: "Only ... if the correct paperwork is provided."
How the heck could I ask for paperwork from a place which is way up in the Highlands of PNG and contactable only by radio?
But, being stubborn, I did a bit of research. The official CITES website (www.cites.org) is not exactly user-friendly. Eventually I discovered that the saltwater crocodile is on appendix II of the CITES agreement which covers species which are not yet endangered but where some control is needed.
Appendix II species can mostly be traded, and generally require a permit to be exported, but not usually to be imported. Since I had been told by PNG customs that I didn't need a permit to export a crocodile tooth I thought maybe, perhaps, possibly I had a case and sent off a letter to DoC asking for the tooth back.
Whatever the outcome, it had been a wake-up call. I agree with the aims of CITES. I understand that tourists who buy elephant tusks or skins or turtle shells are encouraging poachers to kill off endangered species, but I hadn't realised how pervasive the rules are.
Appendix I of the agreement, listing species in which trade is forbidden except under exceptional circumstances, covers 800 species ranging from gorillas and echidnas to slipper orchids and conch shells, and from rhinoceros and dolphins to eagles and snakes. And then there's appendices II and III listing dozens more items in which trade is restricted.
The problem for tourists is, how do you know what's allowed and what's not? The woman selling curios by the roadside in Tari or the guy in the market at Luang Prabang have probably never heard of CITES. The shopkeeper in Ho Chi Minh City or the antique dealer in Luxor may know the rules but are they willing to lose a sale by telling the truth?
The fact that more than 30,000 items a year are confiscated from travellers entering New Zealand rather indicates that a lot of people get innocently caught in the CITES web.
So what is a well-meaning tourist to do? Wilbur Dovey, senior CITES officer for DoC, agrees it is a tricky issue.
Both DoC (at www.cites.org.nz) and Customs (at www.customs.govt.nz/travellers/Arriving+in+New+Zealand/Import+Restrictions/Endangered+Species.htm) have websites on CITES. But, Dovey acknowledges, they're "not particularly comprehensive, only intended to give you a general impression".
In any case, most people go overseas not knowing in advance what they might buy. "The best advice I can offer is that roughly - and it is really rough - anything that's exotic, anything to do with rare animals, large species of cat, for instance, or elephants, you need to think hard about and ask some questions.
"Of course you might not get the right answer, that's one of the problems, but you may at least get a feel for the situation, and if you're in doubt you may be better not to buy."
The most common souvenirs to be confiscated, Dovey says, are bits of coral and shells. "People pick stuff up off beaches and mostly that's okay. White bleached coral is not a problem but coloured coral often is. You can buy coloured coral in Australia that's okay but you need to make sure you get a certificate. Most shells are okay too but there's some, like conch shells, you've got to watch out for."
Another significant problem area is old ivory. "Ivory on bagpipes causes us a lot of trouble," he says, "because we have to guard against anyone trying to pass off old ivory as new ivory. If you've got something made of old ivory it's essential that you get a certificate to confirm that it is pre-CITES or you'll have problems."
What all that seems to amount to is that tourists need to be very careful about buying any sort of wildlife curios because chances are they'll be confiscated.
It's a bit of a worry ... but at least I got my croc tooth back. Yes, a couple of weeks after I sent my letter off, a parcel arrived and there it was.
"Well you should have got it back too," says Dovey, "because you can bring back up to four pieces of crocodile species without documentation. There is a particular provision in the soft CITES legislation for that." Whew.
* Have you got any cautionary tales of items unexpectedly confiscated at the border?
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