IELP Goes to Thailand to Protect Endangered Species

October 8, 2004

Bangkok, Thailand

(Erica) Well, I do not think that our postings actually correspond with the days posted for, but we are having a hard time keeping track of the days. It is around the clock madness at these CITES conferences. So many people are now walking around with huge black circles under their eyes. It is interesting to observe people, especially members of NGOs, working so intensely—at first you think they are just crazy, but then you remember that these people work so hard for two years straight to have their work either adopted or squashed within these two weeks. I have not been working on CITES issues for even near that long, only since this school year began, but was I ever pleased when Committee II adopted an enforcement document I had been working on. A small group of us had been working hard with some of the Kenya delegates to make the enforcement document amenable to a majority of the Parties. Although the Secretariat, as well as many significant Parties, like the US and the EU, had opposed the document originally, with our changes the document garnered the support it needed and passed. Yahoo! It was such a great feeling! IELP has also been working on the language of a compliance document. Yesterday, Prof. Wold, Debby, and I (Erica) submitted formal comments to the working group on compliance, and we hope that some of our suggested changes make it into the draft to be completed during the Conference.

Many other exciting things have happened this Friday. First, and very exciting, Indonesia’s Ramin proposal passed in Committee I. As James wrote yesterday, this could mean not only protection for that species but also for the larger scope of biodiversity as well as for species that inhabit those forests, like orangutans.

(Debby) Erica captured the scene here well – it’s madness. The NGO members work hard, and they work all the time- drafting resolutions with friendly Parties, writing up fact sheets, organizing briefings on their topics. And always lobbying. Lobbying is a non-stop process – even apparently neutral conversations are done to establish connections to get future information or to be able to sway a delegate in the future.

I’m definitely getting more used to being here. I know where to get fried treats in the morning on our route from our hotel to the convention center; I’m getting adept at grabbing up the free bottled water at the end of every session; I can follow Committee II discussions more easily (well…more often than not), and; most excitingly, today I handed out fact sheets on the Irrawaddy dolphin appendix I listing (that’s lobbying!) AND I MADE AN INTERVENTION! An “intervention” is just a comment, but with a fancier name. It was about Australia’s proposal regarding CCAMLR (the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) and trade in toothfish. Austraila proposed that the CITES Secretariat collect Catch Documentation Certificates from CITES Parties and send them on to CCAMLR. There are far more Parties to CITES than there are to CCAMLR, so this would result in more regulation of the toothfish trade. There was a lively debate over this proposal – countries such as Japan do not want to extend the CCAMLR requirements and the Secretariat isn’t necessarily keen on any extra work. I gave an intervention on behalf of IELP, supporting the proposal and highlighting the opportunity for increased synergy between CITES and CCAMLR. It was short, but I did get on the big screen, and the Chair thanked me for the intervention and its brevity….

The proposal didn’t pass – it only got 64% of the voting Parties’ support, and a proposal needs a 2/3 majority to pass in Committee. However, this is not the end of the proposal. The Plenary session may discuss it further if enough Parties vote to reopen the debate. Furthermore, we were just 1 vote off.

Incidentally, passing out the fact sheets on the dolphin was much less scary and more enjoyable than anticipated. I got to use my very, very limited knowledge of Amheric to greet the Ethiopian delegate, which was a big success.

Indeed, it was an incredibly exciting day for IELP. Chris Wold sat in with the Thai delegation as an advisor on procedural machinations, which was very thrilling. Despite angst from the Japanese delegation and with Chris’s expertise, the Thai delegation was able to get their proposal to list the Irrawaddy dolphin in Appendix I. It was very much a success for Chris’s wife Sue as well as the entire SSN group, which has been working hard on getting the proposal passed!

Links

CITES Secretariat
13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP13)