Posted on 11-11-2002
Nations
Votes Protect Whales
SANTIAGO, Chile, November 8, 2002 (ENS) - Countries in favor
of conserving
minke whales and Bryde's whales won two votes at the meeting
of Parties to
the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
(CITES)
today, turning down proposals by Japan to transfer these two
species to a
lower level of protection under the treaty.
The delegates from 160 countries voted to keep Bryde's and minke
whales
listed on the convention's Appendix I, ensuring that they can
not be traded
internationally. Japan had proposed to list them on CITES Appendix
II,
which would allow closely regulated international trade. The
minke whale
proposal received 41 votes in favor, 54 votes against, five
abstentions,
and six spoiled votes. The Bryde's (pronounced Broo-dahs) whale
proposal
received 43 votes in favor, 63 against, three abstentions, and
two spoiled
votes. Both votes lacked the two-thirds majority required to
approve the
proposal. The Parties must accept these results in the meeting's
plenary
session late next week before they will become final.
Benin, Cuba, Dominica, Greenland, Grenada, Cote Ivoire, Senegal
and
Zimbabwe voted with Japan, on the basis that the whale stocks
are abundant
and whaling supports the livelihoods of poor coastal populations.
Canada,
Chile, the European Union, Georgia, Mexico, India, Israel, the
United
States and the International Environmental Law Project, among
others,
opposed Japan's proposals, on the basis that a lowered level
of protection
would cause enforcement problems. Australia pointed to problems
in
distinguishing robust from endangered whale stocks.
Conservationist groups, including the International Fund for
Animal Welfare
(IFAW), are optimistic that the votes' results will carry through
the
plenary session, and ensure that international trade of whale
products will
not be allowed. Still, they remained alert to the potential
for a Japan
stronghold on several small island nations and vote swapping
with Southern
African pro-ivory trade nations that could swing the votes in
the final
decision phase. "We are pleased that Parties to CITES stood
firm on the
conservation of these whale species," said Vassili Papastavrou,
IFAW whale
expert, and member of IFAW's delegation to the CITES meeting
in Santiago.
"Japan did not manage to reach a simple majority on either vote,
showing
clearly that the world does not support commercial whaling,"
said
Papastavrou. "We need to ensure that Parties remain strong and
do not allow
these results to be reversed next week. It would be disasterous
for whales,
as it would bring Japan another step closer to realizing its
goal of
re-opening the global whale trade."
Japan's position on whaling as advanced by the Ministry of Fisheries
is
that, there are more than 10 million whales throughout the world
and they
eat too much of the fish that humans should be consuming. "The
quantity of
marine living resources they consume is estimated to be some
180 million
tons a year in the Antarctic alone and 500 million tons in all
the oceans
of the world combined. This represents approximately five times
as much as
the total of the resources now being harvested by the world's
marine
fisheries - 90 million tons," the Japanese Ministry of Fisheries
says.
For the last four CITES meetings, held at 30 month intervals,
Japan has
submitted proposals to downlist certain species of whales. At
each of these
meetings, the Japanese proposals have failed. A majority of
the CITES
Parties, along with the CITES Secretariat, stated that Japan's
proposals
undermined the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the international
body charged with the responsibility to conserve whale species.
An ongoing
global IWC ban on commercial whaling has been in force since
1986. "Japan
was unable to circumvent the IWC whaling moratorium by playing
one
Convention off another," said Kitty Block, international lawyer
for the
Humane Society of the United States.
Today, across the Pacific Ocean from the CITES conference, the
Japanese
whaling fleet set sail for Antarctic waters. "Today was a great
victory for
the whales," said Block. "However, it is ironic that on the
very day the
CITES Parties refused to allow Japan to kill whales and trade
in their
meat, Japanese whaling ships began a five month expedition to
kill 400
minke whales in Antarctic waters."
Japan circumvents the ban on commercial whaling by conducting
it under the
scientific research provisions of the International Whaling
Commission. The
meat from the slaughtered whales ends up as food in sushi shops
and markets
because the IWC rules require that the whales taken for research
be
utilized rather than discarded.
The whaling issue will next be debated on an international level
at the
June 2003 meeting of the International Whaling Commission, in
Berlin,
Germany. The 12th Conference of Parties to the CITES Convention
opened
November 3 and continues through November 15.
|