Photo: Cat Holloway/WWF-CanonProposals for tighter trade controls for species such as the Atlantic Blue Fin tuna, sharks and corals were submitted to the CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna) convention, CITES has announced.WWF especially welcomed the proposal to list Atlantic bluefin tuna on Appendix I, which would ban international trade for commercial purposes and was submitted by the Principality of Monoco as Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks are declining dramatically because of uncontrolled overfishing.
Also proposed for an Appendix II listing were red and pink coral, which are used to make jewellery. Red and pink corals are found throughout the world’s tropical and temperate seas but the absence of effective international trade controls has led to overharvesting.
Elephants, one of WWF’s priority species, will be a topic of debate at the CITES CoP as potentially conflicting proposals were submitted for elephants. Kenya submitted a proposal, together with a group of west African countries, that would impose a 19 year ban on other countries seeking permission for one-off ivory sales, such as the one that took place under CITES supervision in 2008, and that would suspend the legal sale of ivory souvenirs in Namibia and Zimbabwe.
One the other hand, Zambia and Tanzania submitted proposals that would have elephant populations within their borders moved from Appendix I to Appendix II in order to ease the permitting rules for trophy hunting and allow for the sale of government-owned ivory stockpiles.
“WWF recognises that some southern African Elephant range States have successfully demonstrated that their populations should be placed on Appendix II.” “However, Tanzania and Zambia have yet to prove their case by demonstrating that their management of ivory stockpiles is adequate enough to prevent laundering of poached ivory,” said Amanda Nickson
“And while we acknowledge the concerns that have motivated Kenya’s proposal, we must focus not forget to address what WWF sees as the main issue driving elephant poaching – that is, unregulated domestic markets in central and West Africa,” Nickson said.
Two other of WWF’s priority species that were not the subject of listing proposals but that will be discussed at the CoP are tigers and rhinos, which are both critically endangered and are being poached in order to feed the illegal market for their parts and derivatives. Tiger numbers could now be as low as 3,200 and rhino poaching has reached a 15 year high according to new research released this summer.
WWF will now engage with its partners TRAFFIC and IUCN, which will do a full analyses of the proposals in order to assess whether or not they meet the criteria required for a species to be listed in the CITES appendices. WWF will formulate its position on each proposal based on this analysis.
“WWF looks forward to the CoP,” said Ms Nickson. “There has never been a CoP where marine animals featured so prominently. Now is an opportunity to show that CITES has the capacity to address the pressing issues concerning the trade in these species.”
