The United Nations Security
Council today will be briefed on the severe
and escalating threat to peace and security
posed by Central Africa’s heavily-armed
elephant poaching gangs.
In a report to the world’s
highest international security body, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says, “Poaching
and its potential linkages to other criminal,
even terrorist, activities constitute a
grave menace to sustainable peace and security
in Central Africa.”
The Secretary-General’s
report highlights increasing links between
elephant poaching, weapons proliferation
and regional insecurity. “Illegal ivory
trade may currently constitute an important
source of funding for armed groups,” the
report says. “Also of concern is that poachers
are using more and more sophisticated and
powerful weapons, some of which, it is believed,
might be originating from the fallout in
Libya.”
“The spread of cross-border
poaching in Central Africa and its links
to sophisticated armed groups is alarming.
We have seen the devastating impact of this
crime in too many countries,” said WWF International
Director General Jim Leape. “I echo Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon’s deep concern for the security
of the region.”
Report of the Secretary-General
on the activities of the United Nations
Regional Office for Central Africa and on
the Lord’s Resistance Army-affected areas
was made available in advance of a dedicated
Security Council session to be held at UN
headquarters in New York this morning.
The report references
a steep decline in Central African elephant
populations over the past decade and observes
that multiple mass slaughters of the animals
have been reported in protected areas in
recent months. Poachers seeking ivory are
believed to be responsible for elephant
massacres in Chad, Cameroon, Gabon and Central
African Republic.
“The situation has become
so serious,” Ban writes, that national military
responses have become necessary “to hunt
down poachers”. The Secretary-General urges
Central African governments to respond to
the major national and regional security
concerns posed by poaching through “concerted
and coordinated action.”
Leape said: “To ensure
peace, security and prosperity in Central
Africa, efforts must be taken at the highest
level to combat wildlife trafficking. I
urge the governments of Central Africa to
strengthen enforcement and criminal justice
responses to wildlife crime and to address
the linkages between it and other international
crimes.”
The WWF Director General
tomorrow will join Gabon President Ali Bongo
Ondimba and African Development Bank President
Donald Kaberuka to examine the threat of
illicit wildlife trafficking to sustainable
economic development in Africa. The discussion
will take place as part of the African Development
Bank’s annual meetings in Marrakech, Morocco
and is expected to be attended by government
and institutional officials from across
the continent.
+ More
EU fisheries ministers
use bullying tactics to allow overfishing
Brussels, Belgium: Despite
negotiating through the night to save fisheries
in Europe it is becoming clear that certain
European Union (EU) countries with large
fishing industries, supported by the Irish
Presidency, are using bullying tactics with
members of the European Parliament (MEP)
to push them into accepting a deal that
will result in overfishing until 2020, and
does little to support coastal communities.
“MEPs like Ulrike Rodust
have admirably defended their parliamentary
mandate in negotiations over recent weeks,
and have strongly resisted pressure from
Fisheries and Agriculture Council to throw
in the towel and reach a quick but weak
compromise. The council’s attitude of non-negotiation
goes completely against the spirit of co-decision
with parliament and is completely unacceptable.”
Roberto Ferrigno, WWF’s Common Fisheries
Policy reform coordinator
“WWF calls on parliament
and council to agree on a policy that effectively
stops overfishing and allows fish stocks
to recover in order to support fishermen
in the long term.”
Threats by some fisheries
ministers to walk out of negotiations and
abandon the whole Common Fisheries Policy
reform are a slap in the face of the widespread
public support for an ambitious deal which
spurred an overwhelming majority of over
500 MEPs in favour of strong reform earlier
this year.
WWF calls on the fisheries
ministers and the European Parliament to
agree on the fastest full recovery targets
for fishery stocks. They have it within
their powers to ensure that discards, fishing
subsidies and stock management are addressed
immediately and effectively so that we can
reverse, within ten years, the situation
where almost two out of three assessed stocks
are at crisis level.
“This is not just the
view of WWF, it is also held by progressive
fishermen, scientists, industry and the
public who all want real and sustainable
reform. This deal will guide EU fisheries
policy for the next 10 years and in the
current situation of depleted fish stocks,
we may not have another chance to get it
right.” Andrea Kohl, Programme Director
with the WWF European Policy Office.
“We need a strong reform
allowing fish stocks to recover. WWF is
looking very carefully at the non-transparent
negotiations which appear to contradict
the principle of co-decision and permit
blackmail threats to the MEPs by certain
countries.”
Common Fisheries Policy reform
Nearly two out of three assessed fish stocks
in Europe are overfished. WWF believes that
the current reform of the EU's Common Fisheries
Policy must aim to ensure that by 2020 no
more stocks are overfished through meaningful
reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.
Building on a draft
European Commission plan, the European Parliament
adopted a legislative proposal in February
with an overwhelming majority that would
end overfishing in Europe.
According to recent
research, the current position of the European
fisheries ministers, would allow overfishing
to continue for more than 100 years. Ministers
and Mrs Rodust, should respect their democratic
mandate and look for real compromise in
negotiations this week.
How it works
In the trilogue negotiations, the Council
of Ministers of the 27 EU fisheries ministers
is represented by Simon Coveney, Irish Minister
for Agriculture, Food and Marine Affairs,
who holds the Presidency of the Council
and speaks for all of the EU’s fisheries
ministers.
The European Parliament
is represented in the negotiations by Ulrike
Rodust, rapporteur of the reform of the
Common Fisheries Policy and a member of
the European Parliament.
The Council of Ministers
is not willing to negotiate with the parliament
on an equal basis, as provided by the Lisbon
Treaty, and is trying to force the parliament
to drop its ambitions to achieve a swift
recovery of fish stocks, and accept a reform
that will continue the status quo. Otherwise,
they threaten to stop the entire reform
process.
