Delegates gather in Qatar to save endangered wildlife - Summary

Doha, Qatar- Some 1,500 delegates on Saturday gathered for a conference in Qatar to draft tougher new measures to protect the planet's endangered plant and animal life. The two-week conference on the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Doha will be reviewing 42 proposals for improved protection of bluefin tuna, elephant populations and a wide range of sharks, corals, polar bears, reptiles, insects and plants.

The delegates represent the 175 parties to the treaty, as well as non-governmental groups, businesses and indigenous peoples.

"2010 is a key year for biological diversity," said Achim Steiner, UN undersecretary general and executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, which administers the treaty.

"By ensuring that the international trade in wildlife is properly regulated, CITES can assist in conserving the planet's wild fauna and flora from over-exploitation and thus contribute to the improved management of these key natural assets for sustainable development," Steiner said.

"We do not want to risk letting down the developing world in its struggle to ensure that trade in wild fauna and flora is conducted legally and sustainably," CITES Secretary General Willem Wijnstekers said in his opening remarks, according to a CITES press release.

Among the proposals delegates will discuss is one from Tanzania and Zambia, whose governments will seek approval to sell government- owned ivory.

CITES banned international trade of the luxury product in 1989, but subsequently allowed Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe to sell more than 150 tons to Japan.

The 20 million dollars those sales raised went into elephant conservation and other programmes, conference organisers said.

Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, by contrast, have proposed a halt to the limited trade in African elephant ivory, and a 20-year moratorium on further proposals to relax controls on international ivory sales.

Delegates will also debate whether to ban the trade of bluefin tuna, prized by sushi lovers around the world.

Monaco has proposed a temporary ban on commercial fishing of the species to allow populations to recover, given that they had "undergone very substantial declines in the last 40 years."

CITES said that other agenda issues in Doha would include the adoption of urgent measures to tackle the illegal trade of tiger products, rhinos and other species that are on the brink of extinction.

Delegates will also review the potential impact of CITES measures on the livelihoods of the rural poor, who are at the forefront of those who use and manage wildlife.

The CITES conference comes in the same year the UN General Assembly has declared as the international year of biodiversity.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/313935,delegates-gather-in-qatar-to-save-endangered-wildlife--summary.html.