Cites gives too much rope to countries that flout rules on wildlife trade – WWF analyst
THE inter national wildlife trade body needs to be “more courageous” in recommending the suspension in trade of non-compliant countries, says a global wildlife trade analyst.
Dr Colman O’Criodain, of WWF International, said this in Joburg this week in a briefing on the organisation’s key issues before the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the Convention on Illegal Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) in Sandton in September.
The two-week meeting is to be the biggest CoP yet, with 182 parties voting on a record number of proposals to regulate the trade in specific species to boost the battle against wildlife crime.
There are 62 proposals to amend Appendices 1 and II.
“Countries are given the opportunity to report to Cites and if they fail, they face sanctions,” O’Criodain said.
“The problem is if you report badly as a country, often to the point of pure fiction, Cites is tolerant. It feeds these countries more and more rope. That’s an issue that needs to be addressed.
“Guinea is the one suspended country because it is a basket case (in) legislation and wildlife crime enforcement. But there are other countries that could be considered for suspensions on those grounds, including Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
Considerable attention will probably be given to the conference’s “Big Five” – elephants, rhinos, sharks, pangolins and tigers.
O’Criodain hopes other species of concern, such as rosewood trees, African grey parrots, and rock geckos, are not sidelined.
Debates on the ivory trade have tended to “suck all the oxygen” out of previous CoP meetings, he says.
“The level of ambition aspired to by all the documents at this conference will add a huge burden of work not only on Cites, but the committees that meet in between.
“A lot of the participation in Cites meetings is voluntary and there simply aren’t the resources to achieve those ambitions. The conference needs to wake up, take a sharp look at itself and say how it’s going to deal with that problem. It does need to be more effective.”
O’Criodain says it’s important that CoP17 is being hosted by South Africa.
“It is a champion and defender of sustainable use of wildlife, which we do support. We don’t like Swaziland’s bid for the legal trade of rhino horn and Namibia and Zimbabwe’s ivory trade proposal, but we don’t oppose sustainable use.
“The importance of community ownership in tackling wildlife crime and the management of what are dangerous and burdensome animals are one area where South Africa has made strides.
“South Africa is doing far more right than wrong – more than a lot of the countries that routinely criticise it because they don’t like the concept of sustainable use.
“South Africa’s laws are better than many other countries, and it uses them more proactively. There are deficiencies and there have been enforcement lapses… It does need to look operationally at how it deals with wildlife enforcement.”
Cites was only now “beginning to behave as if wildlife crime is organised crime…”