Complex Wildlife Issues Plague International Accords

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, October 21, 2002 (ENS) - The difficulty of implementing international environmental agreements, and the implications of slow progress, took center stage at the Seventh International Wildlife Law Conference, held in Washington DC last Friday.

The conference examined some of the challenges facing the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a voluntary international agreement for the development of national strategies for conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. More than 180 parties are now parties to the CBD, but the United States, which signed the pact in 1993, has not taken the actions required to become a party to the treaty.

While the lack of support from the U.S. remains a fundamental concern, the first 10 years of the CBD have gone quite well, according to Daniel Ogolla, legal advisor to the secretariat of the CBD.

But socioeconomic issues remain a primary obstacle as the CBD begins to move away from policy development toward implementation, and this is not likely to change anytime soon, Ogolla said.

"Countries in the South have more immediate concerns than simply preserving the next elephant," Ogolla said. "The list of obstacles is daunting."

Involvement of local and indigenous communities is key, he added, and CBD has received feedback that it has "effectively integrated them into the convention process."

The CBD does not form binding obligations. Instead, it creates a guiding principles and mechanisms for policy development and implementation. The success of biodiversity policies, noted Chris Hedley, editor of OceanLaw.net, ultimately depends on financial capabilities and political will.

Invasive species - like the Asian longhorned beetle which now infests trees throughout the United States - cause losses to biodiversity and cost millions in control efforts. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Agriculture)

"Invasive species are the second leading cause of biological diversity loss," Muffett said. "They are responsible for $123 billion of economic loss a year. There are no legally, binding international guidelines for risk assessment of invasive alien species."

It looked like advocates for creating principles to explore the issue won a victory at the last meeting of the CBD, but Muffett said this could be in doubt. A decision to adopt the principles was challenged during the final plenary session at the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the CBD (COP 6), held in April 2002 in The Hague, Netherlands.

The Australian delegation, which had participated in the process to develop the principles, raised concern over how it might conflict with trade agreements. The decision was adopted despite the protests from Australia, but delegates from that nation are formally challenging the result.

Ogolla added that he believes "the decision remains valid as adopted." But the challenges of adopting a single set of principles illustrates how complex the negotiations over international conventions can become.

Frustration with the current framework of the international Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) is illustrated by growing concerns over the possible resumption of the ivory trade.

CITES, established in 1973, is a voluntary international agreement now signed by 160 parties, including the United States. The pact restricts international trade in species listed under either of the CITES appendices, requiring special permits for trade in more numerous species and barring trade altogether for the rarest species.

Because the agreement is focused on trade regulation, CITES does not involve mechanisms for protecting habitat, according to Edmund Couzens, author of "Different Global Perspectives on Conservation: CITES, the IWC, the Africa Elephant and the Whale."

Shrinking habitat is the primary threat to most endangered species, including the elephant. Couzens explained that Botswana, for example, is blaming CITES and the ivory ban for its overpopulation of elephants, though a lack of habitat lies at the root of the problem.

Tusks seized from poachers rest in a Tanzanian storeroom. (Photo courtesy World Wildlife Fund)

Given recent evidence of a booming illegal ivory trade, talk of resuming the legal trade of ivory alarms many conservationists. Kenyan wildlife officials have confirmed that more than 16 million tons of illegal ivory have been confiscated this year.

But the proposal to sell ivory stockpiles is not without precedent. In 1997, CITES agreed to allow Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to make one time sales from their existing legal stocks. Almost 50,000 kilograms (kg), totaling 5,446 tusks, was sold to Japan in 1999 for about $5 million; the funds were used for conservation efforts in the three African countries.

The current proposals are for a first sale of 20,000 kg and an annual quota of 4,000 kg for Botswana, a 10,000 kg sale and 2,000 kg quota for Namibia, 30,000 kg and a 2,000 kg quota for South Africa and 10,000 kg and a 5,000 quota for Zimbabwe. Zambia is proposing a one time sale of 17,000 kg.

India and Kenya have offered a counter proposal, arguing that further ivory sales from African elephants should be clearly prohibited as a precautionary measure for reducing future threats to the elephant.

Couzens said a good case could be made for Botswana and the other African nations to cull their elephant herds if overpopulation is harming the countries' environment. There would be no need for them to sell the ivory, he argued

But because CITES is not designed to address this issue, Couzens said it is worth considering whether CITES may have reached "its shelf life." Couzens added that perhaps the CBD would be a more comprehensive vehicle for addressing the international concerns over the elephant population.

CITES faces other pressures from beneath the sea, as the debate over whaling will also be a primary issue at the November CITES meeting. The agenda includes a proposal from Japan to open up trade of minke whales and Bryde's whales, as well as proposals from five southern African nations to trade ivory.

Japanese whaler takes a minke whale in the Southern Ocean. (Photo courtesy Greenpeace)

Japan currently abides by a moratorium on whaling imposed by the IWC in 1986. Efforts to lift the IWC whaling ban have repeatedly failed, but the last week's reentry of Iceland into the IWC has conservationists worried that the Japanese may soon succeed in their efforts to end the moratorium.

Within CITES, the Japanese are pushing a proposal to open up trade in most northern hemisphere populations of minke whale and a Pacific population of Bryde's whale. Similar proposals were presented without success at the most recent CITES conferences in 1997 and 2000.

The next CITES conference will be held in Santiago, Chile from November 3-15, 2002.

For more information on the Convention on Biological Diversity, visit: http://www.biodiv.org/

For more information on CITES, visit: http://www.cites.org/