Europe to crack down on wildlife smugglers to protect rare lizard species

EU proposal seeks to close a legal loophole allowing the sale of endangered lizards in Europe after a Guardian article revealed the scale of the problem

Europe has moved to close a loophole that allows wildlife smugglers to trade in several endangered lizard species, after revelations by the Guardian about the scale of the problem.

An EU proposal to strictly regulate the trade in arboreal alligator lizards (Abronia), backed by Mexico, will be debated at the Convention on international trade in endangered species (Cites) conference, which opens in Johannesburg this autumn.