IELP Goes to The Hague to Protect Endangered Species

June 12, 2007

The Hague, Netherlands

Although the Convention is winding down, issues here in The Hague are heating up with only one more day of Committee meetings before all delegates meet together in Plenary to vote on the recommendations of the two Committees. Working groups (groups of Parties designated by the Chair to work outside of the floor debate to reach consensus on draft language) are returning with their reports for acceptance by the Parties. Today, in Committee I, the Parties agreed that the Bushmeat Working Group should continue its work and that their examination should be extended beyond Africa to include Asia and South America. The draft decisions on the protection of Sea Cucumbers were accepted after some debate.

The management of annual export quotas was a topic of much discussion in Committee II today. As with many issues this CoP, the debate centered on the Secretariat’s role and authority in implementing the terms of the Convention. In the case of export quotas, many Parties expressed their support for strengthening the Secretariat’s role in reviewing export quotas for potential errors before making them available to all the Parties. The Secretariat reiterated its willingness to collect information about quotas, adding that oftentimes export quotas need clarification and in extreme cases may even raise questions about whether a species actually occurs in the country of export. Some Parties opposed this document on the grounds that the Secretariat has no supervisory role in the determination of a Party’s export quota and that this decision should be left to the discretion of individual Parties alone. Ultimately, this document was accepted by an 86% majority.

Saving the most difficult issues for last, the discussion of the elephant proposals was supposed to begin today. The discussion of elephants began with presentation of the reports on the Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) program and the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) program for approval by the Parties. Both reports were accepted by consensus after some discussion. Next on the agenda were the substantive proposals on elephants. Two proposals would have allowed various degrees of ivory trade, while one proposal would have instituted a 20-year moratorium on ivory trade. The African elephant Range States have been meeting in closed-door meetings for the past two weeks in an attempt to arrive at a consensus compromise. Clearly, the Parties were starting from highly divergent initial positions. Unfortunately, due to the fundamental difference in belief about whether trade in ivory can benefit the survival of elephants, the Range States have as yet been unable to reach an agreement. Several new amendments to the proposals were presented to the Parties, but when the discussion finally began, Kenya, the most vocal opponent of ivory trade, requested the debate be tabled so that the Range States could continue their attempt to reach consensus. More time was granted, and the Committee I moved on to proposals delayed earlier in the meeting.

Leaving Committee I heavy-hearted and exhausted after an anti-climatic adjournment of ivory trade proposals, the group reflected on how large a role regional and international politics play in determining the fate of species. Jason, Natasha and Bethany cooked dinner at our rented apartment and Paula, Professors Thorson and Wold and the co-chair of the Shark Working Group for the Species Survival Network joined us. This was the first day we arrived home before 9pm. It does not get dark until 10pm in The Hague, which may be a blessing when we are working late, but also contributes to our general state of sleep deprivation because it is so easy to stay up when it is light out.

Links

CITES Secretariat
Species Survival Network