§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr. Elliot Morley)One hundred and thirty Parties attended the Conference in Santiago, which took place in a very positive atmosphere in the excellent facilities provided by the Chilean Government.
The Conference considered 60 proposals to amend the species covered by CITES, which are listed in three Appendices. Appendix I lists highly endangered species which are prohibited in international trade. Appendix II lists species in which trade is permitted only under licence. Appendix III contains species which are listed for monitoring purposes only.
I attended the Conference during its second week and presented the UK's proposal to list the basking shark on Appendix II. Our first attempt—made at the 11th Conference in Nairobi in April 2000—failed to gain the two thirds majority needed. Since then we have worked hard to produce a stronger proposal based on sound science. This time, following a narrow defeat in an initial vote, we were eventually successful when we took the issue back to the final Plenary session, where we achieved a resounding 82 votes in favour, 36 against and 3 abstentions. I am delighted that our second listing attempt at Santiago has succeeded, providing much needed protection through proper CITES regulation and monitoring of trade. We also welcomed the successful bid by the Philippines to list the whale shark, the world's biggest fish, on Appendix II.
Another significant success was the Conference decision to support the proposal from Nicaragua and Guatemala to list bigleaf mahogany on Appendix II. We lobbied hard in support of this proposal, and very much welcome the outcome which will help enormously in properly regulating trade in this much sought after timber.
We also lobbied against certain proposals and were particularly pleased that the Parties rejected Japan's proposals to downlist Minke and Bryde's whales from Appendix I to Appendix II. We are opposed to all forms of whaling other than subsistence whaling by indigenous people and all EU Member States opposed these proposals at the Conference.
There has been considerable public interest in the elephant proposals. We believe that the outcome of the elephant proposals was fair and reasonable.
The proposals from Zambia and Zimbabwe for a limited trade in products from their elephant populations were rejected, whilst those from Botswana, 2WS Namibia and South Africa were adopted with significant amendments to ensure that adequate safeguards are in place before a one-off sale takes place. Under the terms of the agreement reached in Santiago, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa may conduct one-off sales of their raw ivory stockpiles, but not before May 2004 and only provided that a number of strict conditions relating to trade controls, monitoring and the use of the funds raised for elephant conservation have first been met. The sale will not take place if any of these conditions are not met. Under the agreement, the only trade which may go ahead will be in:
- a) hunting trophies for non-commercial purposes;
- b) live animals for in-situ conservation programmes;
- c) hides;
- d) leather goods for non commercial purposes;
- e) registered raw ivory (whole tusks and pieces) subject to the following:
i. Only registered government-owned stocks, originating in [Botswana/Namibia/South Africa] (excluding seized ivory and ivory of unknown origin);
ii. Only to trading partners that have been verified by the Secretariat, in consultation with the Standing Committee, to have sufficient national legislation and domestic trade controls to ensure that the imported ivory will not be re-exported and will be managed in accordance with all requirements of CITES Resolution Conf. 10.10 (Rev.) concerning domestic manufacturing and trade;
iii. Not before May 2004, and in any event not before the Secretariat has verified the prospective importing countries, and MIKE (the 'Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants' programme) has reported to the Secretariat on the baseline information (e.g. elephant population numbers, incidence of illegal killing);
iv. A maximum amount of [20,000kg/10,000kg/30.000kg] of ivory may be traded, and despatched in a single shipment under strict supervision of the Secretariat;
v. The proceeds of the trade are used exclusively for elephant conservation and community conservation and development programs within or adjacent to the elephant range;
vi. Only after the Standing Committee has agreed that the above conditions have been met.
On a proposal from the Secretariat, the Standing Committee can decide to cause this trade to partially or completely cease in the event of non-compliance by exporting or importing countries, or in the case of proven detrimental impacts of the trade on other elephant populations. All specimens that are not allowed to be traded under the above provisions shall be deemed to be specimens of species included in Appendix I and the trade in them shall be regulated accordingly."
In addition to the 60 species listing proposals the Conference considered 71 Resolutions relating to implementation of the Convention. These included a Resolution to address conservation of and trade in tigers and other Asian big cat species such as the leopard, snow leopard, clouded leopard and Asiatic lion; and another agreeing to continue the work of the CITES Bushmeat Working Group for the intersessional period to the next Conference. The Conference rejected a proposal by Switzerland to exempt synthetically derived material from the requirements of the 3WS Convention, but adopted a Resolution outlining simplified procedures for issuing permits and certificates for time sensitive biological samples which will reduce the administrative burden on those transmitting DMA or other diagnostic samples for example.
The UK's application on behalf of the Cayman Islands to register the Cayman Turtle Farm narrowly failed to obtain the necessary two thirds majority for approval, despite support from the CITES Secretariat and many Parties. The main concerns were over the lack of proof of legality of the founder stock, and possible mixing with and contamination of wild stocks. The Farm will now seek to address the concerns which emerged in debate, with a view to resubmitting this application under the CITES postal procedure.
I believe that this represents an excellent outcome overall, not only for the UK but also for the CITES process itself, which has demonstrated that countries all over the world can unite to provide effective conservation measures to protect a wide range of commercially exploited species.