Posted on
14 March 2010
Doha, Qatar – Beyond the headline-grabbing
proposals on bluefin tuna and ivory trade,
the largest wildlife trade convention meeting
this week will also address several timber-related
issues – an often overlooked responsibility
of the Convention on International Trade
and Endangered Species of Wild Flora and
Fauna (CITES).
In a CITES meeting on
Friday, Peru was given a six month ultimatum
to address critical issues over the illegal
mahogany trade.
The CITES Standing Committee
– the body that governs the CITES between
conference of the parties meetings – took
the decision to take this step following
Peru’s repeated failure to manage effectively
illegal logging and trade in the valuable
timber. CITES Parties will be discussing
timber, medicinal plants and agarwood at
the meeting on Monday, March 15th.
The timber-related trade
– including agarwood, an aromatic resin
extracted from certain tree species –is
especially important in the Middle East,
where CITES governments are meeting for
the first time.
Mahogany is popular
to make furniture all over the world, while
agarwood is used in perfume-making in Middle
Eastern countries.
“Trees account for the
vast bulk of wild plants in trade, yet only
three commercially important timber species
are listed on CITES, of which bigleaf mahogany
is the most valuable,” said Colman O’Criodain,
Wildlife trade analyst, WWF International.
Six months from now,
Peru must have enacted legislation to regulate
the mahogany trade, implemented a computerised
tracking system for mahogany and harmonised
the different harvest and export quota systems
being used.
Failure to meet these
requirements will result in the Standing
Committee voting on a suspension of mahogany
exports from Peru.
“Peru argues that it
exports less than a fifth of the mahogany
it did a decade ago, but that’s not because
they’ve cut down on the trade through better
management, it’s because they’ve plundered
their forests of the resource,” said Bernardo
Ortiz, Director of TRAFFIC South America.
“Years of mismanagement
in Peru’s mahogany trade are making an international
ban an inevitable outcome. But the reality
is it is too little too late given mahogany
is effectively commercial extinct in Peru
already.”
Earlier, Peru rejected
a recommendation from the Committee that
it set a voluntary moratorium on its mahogany
exports.
Other timber proposals
that CITES governments will consider at
this conference include Brazilian rosewood
and holy wood (also known as palo santo),
both of which are also valued for their
oils by the cosmetics industry.
An estimated 175 governments
are expected to participate in the 15th
Conference of the Parties to CITES, which
began Saturday in Doha, Qatar, and runs
through March 25.
