Compromise agreement on
African elephant is conference highlight
The Hague, 15 June 2007 – Diplomats and
environmental officials are departing The
Hague today after adopting over 100 formal
decisions that strengthen or fine-tune the
regulations governing the international
wildlife trade.
A Ministerial debate on Wednesday, 13 June,
enabled several dozen Ministers to explore
how the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora (CITES) can best contribute to the
broader biodiversity and sustainable development
agenda.
It also gave Ministers from the African
elephant range states an opportunity to
hammer out a ground-breaking compromise
agreement on future ivory sales .
New and emerging issues on the conference
agenda included the need to protect the
livelihoods of poor communities dependent
on wildlife trade and the growth in wildlife
trade via the Internet. The conference adopted
a strategic vision for the years 2008 to
2013 reflecting these and other concerns.
Extensive discussions on marine species
led to the inclusion in CITES of the European
eel, which is a popular food in many countries.
The eel joins a growing list of high-value
fish and other marine species whose trade
is managed through the CITES permit system
to ensure that stocks are not depleted.
This trend reflects growing concern about
the accelerating decline of the world's
oceans and fisheries.
A new timber species has also been added
to CITES. The trade in Brazilwood will now
require CITES permits, although exports
of bows for musical instruments are exempted.
In addition, trade will now be forbidden
for the slow loris, a small nocturnal primate
native to South and Southeast Asia; the
Guatemalan beaded lizard; the slender-horned
gazelle and Cuvier's gazelle of northern
Africa; and sawfishes, whose rostral saws
and other body parts are valued as curios
and in traditional medicine.
By contrast, the success of strong CITES
protection over many years for the black
caiman of Brazil has allowed the species'
population to recover to an estimated 16
million. The conference there decided that
carefully managed international trade could
resume as a way of providing benefits to
the local people who live with these dangerous
animals.
"Humanity's appetite for wild plants
and animals and for wildlife products will
clearly expand over the coming decades.
We need to think creatively about how to
manage the wildlife trade if we are to meet
human needs while conserving vulnerable
species. Finding the right balance will
require a healthy respect for science, market
dynamics and the needs of people who rely
on wildlife for their livelihoods,"
said CITES Secretary-General Willem Wijnstekers.
In addition to revising the rules for specific
species, the conference reviewed the progress
being made by conservation programmes for
the tiger, the leopard, the Saiga antelope,
the black rhinoceros, the Hawksbill turtle,
bigleaf mahogany, sturgeons, sharks and
many other CITES-listed species.
Capacity building, enforcement, national
legislation, the financial resources needed
for implementing CITES, and other priorities
and activities vital to the effectiveness
of the CITES wildlife trade regime were
also debated.
The conference accepted the offer of the
Government of Qatar to host the next CITES
conference (CoP15) in 2010.
+ More
UNEP Website Now Available in Chinese
On 17 July 2007, the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) launched a newly designed
Chinese-language homepage of its website
www.unep.org. The page provides an entry
point to a broad range of information about
UNEP and the environmental issues with which
it is concerned.
The launch is part of an ongoing effort
to make the UNEP website available in all
six official UN languages. For translating
the website into the Chinese language, UNEP's
Division of Communication and Public Information
UNEP received funding from Chinese entrepreneur
and photographer Mr. Luo Hong in early 2007.
Mr. Hong is a generous contributor to the
work of UNEP and environmental protection
in general.
With work beginning prior to World Environment
Day 2007, key websites of particular interest
to the Chinese-speaking community were identified
and are in the process of being translated.
Initially, the web pages available in Chinese
will include: About UNEP, Climate Change,
Urban Issues, the Billion Tree Campaign,
World Environment Day and key elements of
the News Centre, including information on
the 2007 UNEP publication Global Outlook
for Ice and Snow.
Further to these pages, concentration will
be placed on translating relevant sections
of the following thematic websites: Biodiversity,
Energy and Freshwater. Specific topics for
translation will include: desertification,
energy, river pollution, vulnerable species
and waste management.
In the past two years visitors to www.unep.org
registered in Asia have steadily increased.
In 2005, 16.8% (522,882) of users were from
Asia. The percentage increased to 20% (678,706)
in 2006. From China specifically, the total
monthly visits increased from 8,310 in August
2006 to 19,259 visits in May 2007. China
continues to record the highest percentage
of visits from Asian countries, and from
a global perspective, visits from China
constitute a significant percentage of total
visits to the UNEP website.
Translation of the UNEP website into Chinese
is an ongoing process, and will continue
over the coming year in order to make relevant
environmental information available to Chinese
speaking communities around the world.
