NATIONS MEET TO PROTECT WILDLIFE

[Anonymous]

Nations meet to protect wildlife
Elephants
and the ivory trade come under the spotlight as the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) summit opens.Just
prior to the opening, a committee voted that a limited sale of
stockpiled ivory from southern Africa to Japan could go ahead.

Some
African countries want a 20-year ban on trading ivory.The two-week
meeting in The Hague will also seek protection for the sawfish, cedar,
and some corals.

Conservation groups are targeting China’s tiger farming business.
The
three-yearly Cites meetings set restrictions on trade in species
regarded as endangered or threatened.This year’s summit on the 32-year
old treaty brings 175 national delegations to The Hague, along with
other UN agencies, and conservation and animal welfare organisations.

Opposing visions
Two starkly different approaches to the largely banned ivory trade will be up for discussion.

CITES EXPLAINED
Threatened organisms listed on three appendices depending on level of risk
Appendix 1 – all international trade banned
Appendix 2 – international trade monitored and regulated
Appendix 3 – trade bans by individual governments, others asked to assist
“Uplisting” – moving organism to a more protective appendix, “downlisting” – the reverse
Conferences of the Parties (COPs) held every three years
Cites administered by UN Environment Programme (Unep)

Kenya
and Mali are seeking a total 20-year moratorium, while Botswana and
Namibia are seeking increased exports.Cites has twice before granted
southern African countries the right to export ivory from stockpiles to
Asia.Concerns over mechanisms for monitoring the trade had prevented
the second sale, approved in 2002, from taking place.But on the eve of
the meeting, a technical committee decided that mechanisms to monitor
poaching in Africa were sufficiently effective, and that Japan had
established proper safeguards to ensure only the designated ivory was
imported. South Africa, Botswana and Namibia will sell 60 tonnes to the
Asian nation.Conservationists believe any extension in legal exports
will fuel the already substantial illegal trade.”Every time Cites even
talks about relaxing the ivory ban, poaching goes up,” said Peter
Pueschel of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw).A recent
report from the wildlife trade monitoring organisation Traffic said
there were now 92 seizures of illegal ivory seizures each month.

All at sea
Fresh
from a string of defeats at the International Whaling Commission in
Alaska, Japan is trying another route to an expansion of whaling by
asking Cites to review restrictions on trading whale meat.Conservation
and animal welfare organisations are also alarmed by China’s bid for a
relaxation of rules on trading products from tiger farms which have
sprung up in recent decades.”If you open up a legal trade in tiger
parts, it opens up a huge demand which can obviously cause problems for
the wild populations,” observed Dave Eastham, head of wildlife at the
World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).

The list of
life-forms for which governments are seeking extra protection is
dominated by marine organisms.The sawfish, hunted for its spectacular
rostrum (snout), the porbeagle shark, and the spiny dogfish (whose meat
is sold in British fish and chip shops under the name rock salmon) are
all being depleted fast.Red and pink corals, extracted principally in
Asia and the Mediterranean and exported mainly to the US for use in
necklaces, are also on the target list of conservation-minded
governments.However, there is opposition to listing some of these
species, notably from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
which feels effective fisheries management would be a better and less
bureaucratic option.On land, protection is being sought for some
rosewood and cedar trees. Pau Brazil, whose wood is used in
top-of-the-range violin bows, may also gain protection.One long-term
issue likely to divide delegates is a proposal that development and
poverty concerns should be taken into account when deciding Cites
restrictions. 

[Author]

June 4, 2007 at 10:37 AM