CoP 14 June 2007
Lobbying governments to make positive decisions for wildlife and wildlife conservation is one of IFAW’s main tools in protecting vulnerable species from the threat of extinction around the world. This year, up to 171 governments will come together at the fourteenth meeting of CITES Conference of the Parties (CoP) in The Hague, the Netherlands – the first time that the CoP will meet in a European country since 1989. IFAW is working vigorously to achieve a number of main goals this year.
First, IFAW is working tirelessly to preemptively protect elephant
populations in Africa and Asia from the imminent threat posed by allowing
international commercial trade in ivory. Demand for ivory - although
already illegal – drives the illicit trade and provides enormous financial
incentives for poachers. Weak enforcement, both on the ground and
increasingly on the Internet, allows the illegal trade to continue. That’s
why IFAW is supporting a proposal for a 20-year moratorium on trade in ivory. A
handful of opinion polls conducted in the UK, Germany, Spain, France, the
Netherlands, Italy, the USA and Canada reveal that a significant majority of the
populations of those countries support the current ban on ivory (from 65% to
85%).
One of IFAW’s other priorities this year is blocking Japan’s tactics to legalize the hunting of whales. All whales are currently protected by international law however Japan continues to kill hundreds of whales annually through an unfortunate legal loophole.
Our team is also concerned by the threat that wild tigers will face almost certain extinction if China succeeds in its scandalous bid to reopen trade in tiger bone and skins. International commerce in tigers and tiger products is banned both internationally (by CITES), and by Chinese state law, yet owners of commercial tiger farming and breeding facilities in China are openly flouting the law and worse, lobbying Chinese authorities for a repeal of the ban.
Similarly, a number of shark species are under threat of over-exploitation as a result of needless demand for meat, shark fin soup and even shark jaw trophies. Following IFAW’s successful campaign for CITES protection of the world’s largest fish species (the Basking-, Whale- and Great White sharks) at the latest CoPs, the Porbeagle shark and the Spiny Dogfish are now in need of our attention.
Another hurdle for IFAW and other conservation-minded organizations is countering the influence of the uncompromisingly pro-trade bloc that seeks to turn CITES away from it’s conservation roots and into a trade convention. IFAW is working to preserve the conservation roots of the convention, and to ensure that its decisions are aligned with its original precautionary mandate.
One of IFAW’s other priorities this year is blocking Japan’s tactics to legalize the hunting of whales. All whales are currently protected by international law however Japan continues to kill hundreds of whales annually through an unfortunate legal loophole.
Our team is also concerned by the threat that wild tigers will face almost certain extinction if China succeeds in its scandalous bid to reopen trade in tiger bone and skins. International commerce in tigers and tiger products is banned both internationally (by CITES), and by Chinese state law, yet owners of commercial tiger farming and breeding facilities in China are openly flouting the law and worse, lobbying Chinese authorities for a repeal of the ban.
Similarly, a number of shark species are under threat of over-exploitation as a result of needless demand for meat, shark fin soup and even shark jaw trophies. Following IFAW’s successful campaign for CITES protection of the world’s largest fish species (the Basking-, Whale- and Great White sharks) at the latest CoPs, the Porbeagle shark and the Spiny Dogfish are now in need of our attention.
Another hurdle for IFAW and other conservation-minded organizations is countering the influence of the uncompromisingly pro-trade bloc that seeks to turn CITES away from it’s conservation roots and into a trade convention. IFAW is working to preserve the conservation roots of the convention, and to ensure that its decisions are aligned with its original precautionary mandate.
