Posted on 21
March 2010
Doha, Qatar – Governments participating
in the United Nations’ species trade convention
voted today against implementing better
protections for red and pink coral, which
are being overharvested to supply the international
jewelry trade.
Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES) governments voted against
a joint United States and European Union
proposal to list all species in the family
Corallidae in Appendix II of the Convention.
An Appendix II listing
would have required countries to introduce
measures to ensure international trade in
these corals is sustainable and regulated.
“TRAFFIC and WWF are
deeply disappointed with the decision not
to list red and pink corals,” said Ernie
Cooper of TRAFFIC Canada.
“Without the trade control
measures this would have introduced, the
current overharvesting of these precious
corals will continue unabated.”
There are more than
30 species of Corallidae found worldwide,
which are harvested in the Mediterranean
and the Western Pacific, primarily for the
manufacture of jewelry and other objets
d’art.
Major harvesting and
processing territories include Italy, Japan
and Taiwan. The USA is the largest market
for red and pink corals.
Many species are known
to be threatened through overharvesting.
According to TRAFFIC and WWF there is a
clear case that regulation of trade in Corallidae
under CITES would provide important safeguards
in support of better management of these
valuable coral species.
“This is a shame for
CITES governments because it was an opportunity
to show that the Convention has not entirely
lost the capacity to face down vested interests
that oppose CITES protection for marine
species,” said Dr Colman O’Criodain, Wildlife
Trade Policy Analyst at WWF International.
China has already listed
four of the threatened coral species found
in its waters in Appendix III of the Convention.
Such a listing requires that trade must
be conducted only with the appropriate paperwork,
allows countries to track and assess levels
of international trade.
However, several countries
considered the identification of corals
a serious stumbling block for implementing
trade regulations.
“Bringing up coral identification
was just a smokescreen to confuse the issue,”
said Cooper, who is soon to complete a guide
to allow identification of corals, and has
recently published a method for using DNA
to identify manufactured coral products.
“Today’s decision was
a question of expediency rather than a full
examination of the facts. Commercial lobbying
won through,” said Cooper, adding: “The
conservation of corals is all at sea.”
Between 30 and 50 metric
tonnes of red and pink corals are harvested
annually to meet consumer demand for jewelry
and decorative items. The United States
alone imported 28 million pieces of red
and pink coral between 2001 and 2008.
Corallium populations
off parts of the Italian, French and Spanish
coasts are no longer commercially viable,
while in the Western Pacific they have been
depleted within five years of their discovery
and harvest is shifting to newly discovered
populations.
Corallium populations have diminished dramatically
in size; in the Mediterranean, colonies
of Corallium rubrum of up to 50cm in height
were once common and now more than 90 percent
of colonies in fished areas are only 3 to
5cm tall, and less than half are sexually
mature.
+ More
Compromise reached on
tiger trade proposal
Posted on 21 March 2010
Doha, Qatar: WWF welcomed improvements over
trade in tigers and other Asian big cat
species at a United Nations meeting on wildlife
trade.
An amended CITES resolution
on Asian big cats calls for increased regional
cooperation among tiger range states, improved
reporting, establishment of a tiger trade
database and improved law enforcement. Representatives
from the more than 100 governments attending
the meeting, including the majority of the
tiger range countries, agreed unanimously
to a European Union proposal at Convention
on the International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
“This proposal was a
test for the effectiveness of CITES as an
international conservation agreement and
despite the compromise, progress was made,”
said Carlos Drews, Director, Species Programme,
WWF International. “But words alone will
not save wild tigers as a global poaching
epidemic empties Asia’s forests and CITES
governments will need to live up to the
commitments made today.”
Unfortunately, no improvements
were agreed to strengthen the control of
domestic trade in tiger parts and products
from tiger farms. Tiger range countries
led by China claimed that CITES oversight
would infringe on the sovereignty of countries
and was beyond the mandate of CITES as an
international treaty, even though similar
measures have already been taken by CITES
for Tibetan antelope, elephants, rhinos
and sturgeon. However, the decision relating
to tiger farming agreed at the last meeting
of the CITES Conference of the Parties in
2007 was retained, so the control measures
have not weakened.
“We are pleased that
no ground was lost and that China joined
the consensus,” added Drews. “It is now
up to the tiger range countries to work
with the wider international community to
crack down on illegal poaching and trade,
and further reduce demand for tiger products.”
Investigations have
found products like tiger bone wine are
still openly available in Asian markets
and online. Sustained efforts through demand
reduction campaigns are desperately needed
or the gains made since China’s 1993 domestic
tiger trade ban will be severely compromised.
With tiger numbers still
decreasing and an estimated 3,200 wild tigers
remaining, poaching and illegal tiger trade
as the most urgent threat to their survival
must be addressed aggressively.
