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SOME 50,000 mid-sized asteroids are hurtling around the Solar System (¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ, 1 February, p 5). This is the estimate that astronomers agreed on at an important conference in Frascati, Italy, earlier in the year. So far, though, astronomers have spotted only some 1700 of these asteroids, any one of which could present a threat to many people here on planet Earth.

When I discussed the conference with Lord Sainsbury, the minister for science and technology, he gave me the gist of the draft recommendations of the scientist delegates at the meeting, who represented 30 nations from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development:

•OECD governments should assess the likely hazard to public safety that each near-Earth object (NEO) presents, determine what level of response is commensurate with the hazard and undertake appropriate actions at national and international levels.

•Each government, if it has not already done so, should set up an official body, or work with another government’s, to follow the growing bank of knowledge about NEO impacts. Consideration should be given to providing resources for ongoing and new research relevant to analysing and assessing the hazards of NEOs.

•The scientific community should inform and advise government so it can undertake national risk assessments.

Of course, we earthlings also face the comparatively new hazard of artificial space debris: what goes up will eventually come down. Sainsbury went on to say that Britain’s delegation to a recent meeting of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), supported by staff from the British National Space Centre, proposed that an ITU recommendation be drawn up requiring satellites to be removed from their geostationary position at the end of their operational lives. The intention is to preserve the unique and valuable geostationary region of space for future generations, said the minister.

AS CHAIRPERSON of the House of Commons All-Party Group on Latin America, I was horrified to read recently that each year some 38 million animals are smuggled out of Brazil to supply the black market (¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ, 18 January, p 8). Brightly coloured macaws are being traded as pets, while snakes and lizards are captured for their skins. They are now valued second only to drugs worldwide. I asked John Healey, minister for Customs and Excise, for a comment.

Healey replied that as far as European Union countries are concerned, the import and export of animals is controlled under the European Council Regulation on the Protection of Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. In Britain, Customs and Excise has the job of enforcing import and export controls. As part of its frontier-control activity against the illicit trade in a range of items, it enforces restrictions set by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). London’s Heathrow Airport alone has a team of eight people to target violations against CITES and provide support for customs officers throughout Britain. Customs also deploys specialist investigators in cases where there is evidence of serious or attempted breach of the controls, Healey said.

So far as Brazil is concerned, customs keeps its officers alert to the risk of illicit imports of species listed by CITES as endangered, said the minister. It is understandable that this illicit trade may not be among the government’s highest priorities, but I wish greater effort was being put into addressing the trade in wild animals, not least because the habitats of so many are diminishing, especially the Atlantic rainforest.