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CITES continues to protect big animals; sharks on their own |
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April 22, 2000
NAIROBI, APR 21 (AP) - Elephants, whales, tigers and turtles will continue to enjoy international protection, but sharks will have to defend for themselves following a 10-day meeting on trade in endangered species that wound up Thursday.
After often impassioned debate, delegates from 151 nations agreed to continue a ban on international trade in elephant ivory, to deny a Cuban request to sell hawksbill turtle shells and to keep the meat of minke and grey whales off international shelves. Japan and Norway hunt both for domestic consumption but failed in their bid to open up international trade in the seagoing mammals.
But Britain, the United States and Australia failed to get basking sharks added to Appendix II of the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) where their capture would have come under strict quotas.
The world's second-largest marine fish are prized for their fins, which can reach 2 meters (6.6 feet) in length.
"It is a bad day for sharks," said Stuart Champman, expert on the fish for the World Wildlife Fund. "For some of the most vulnerable, slow-breeding species, continued unregulated fishing will fast erode their vulnerable populations."
Sixty-seven delegations voted in favor of the British proposal to have the sharks added to the CITES list for the first time, 42 voted against, and eight abstained. But the proposal failed to muster the required two-thirds majority.
"In the area of marine fisheries, we feel CITES has not gone as far as we agreed," said WWF director Sheperd Gordon, referring to the initial drive to set up the convention in the early 1970s.
Peter Johan Schei, head of the Norwegian delegation, said although Norway failed again in its bid to carry out international trade in minke whales caught in its territorial waters, he felt they were moving closer to acceptance of the plan which would be buttressed by a sophisticated DNA identification system to identify the origin of all whale meat.
Perhaps the most emotional items on the agenda were bids by four southern African nations to be allowed to sell elephant ivory under strict quota, as well as hides and live animals.
Kenya objected strenuously, arguing that such sales would only encourage poaching among its struggling herd.
In the end, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe reached a compromise with Kenya and India under which no ivory would be sold until an effective system is put in place to monitor poaching. But the southern Africans said they wanted to review the decision in two years' time.
"If there had been no consensus, it would have been a real battle here, which is not good for conservation," said Edwin Bradley Martin of the East Africa Wildlife Society.
Indian delegates went home happy after fending off a CITES recommendation to have all financial assistance to tiger conservation halted until the Indian government accounts for funds.
The WWF's Gordon criticized developed nations for failing to support the CITES budget.
"They're not giving enough, and this is not good for conservation," he said. The current CITES budget is 6 million Swiss Francs (dlrs 3.65 million). The secretariat had asked for a 35-percent increase but delegates agreed only to 20 percent.
The United States was elected to chair the CITES standing committee that handles the convention's business until the next conference in two years. Chile has offered to host the 12th conference, but no decision has yet been made on the location.
"Not only did we accomplish our objectives for the big, high-profile species like whales, elephants and sea turtles, but we re-established our leadership role within the international conservation community as a whole," U.S. delegation head Don Barry said.
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