CANADA SAYS 3 SPECIES NO LONGER IN DANGER
Proposals to remove or lower protections brought to World Wildlife Conference
As representatives from more than 180 countries are in Johannesburg updating and tweaking the rules that govern the multibillion-dollar global wildlife trade, Canada has made three requests.
This country is asking, for different reasons in each case, to scrap or lower the protections offered to the peregrine falcon, the eastern cougar — along with the Florida panther — and the wood bison.
The treaty being talked about — the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) — has been legally binding for more than four decades.
It regulates the international trade of more than 35,000 species, with rules that are up for debate every three years at a global conference.
This year’s World Wildlife Conference, the first on African soil since 2000, continues until Wednesday.
While much of the world’s attention at the convention has focused on the plight of elephants and rhinos with poaching and the ivory trade, gamechanging conversations about many lesser-known species are also ongoing.
Here’s a look at three proposals Canada has brought to the table — final decisions are expected to be inked in the coming days.
The peregrine falcon
Canada is asking that the species be downgraded from the highest level of protection — designated to species at risk of extinction — to one meant for those not necessarily at risk of being wiped out, but still requiring strict trading rules.
Peregrine falcons, birds of prey with a wingspan that can reach up to a metre, had a rough go of it for a long time: Decades ago the population declined starkly because of the use of pesticides.
Canada says that, globally, populations of these birds are mostly stable or increasing and that legal frameworks are in place to safeguard the species from decreasing again.
“The recovery is quite spectacular,” said Basil van Havre, acting director general of Domestic and International Biodiversity Policy, a member of Canada’s delegation at the conference in Johannesburg.
“Often you will hear about the terrible tragedies — I’m sure you’ve heard about elephants in Africa and those species — it is good to see that when the government takes action we can recover species.”
He said other species can benefit from measures that helped bring the bird back to stability.
But some say that even though things seem to be on the upswing for the species, the government might have acted too quickly.
“I think it’s a little too soon to allow that sort of international trade to happen, I really do,” said Mark Nash, executive director of the Canadian Peregrine Foundation.
He calls the recovery of the peregrine falcon an “outstanding” success but says Canada’s latest proposal needs to be approached with caution.
“You have to be very careful with the message that you send, and if you open up the floodgates and dams and allow one to happen, they are pretty quick to open another one, and another door and another door,” Nash said.
Eastern cougar and Florida panther
Canada’s proposal recommends that the eastern cougar — noted in Canada’s proposal as being extinct — and the Florida panther be moved to a lower level of CITES protection.
Canada’s statement notes that there is no international trade of these species.
CITES Animals Committee flagged the issue, so van Havre said the country stepped in, in collaboration with the U.S., to address this.
Wood bison
Canada’s making a request to remove international trade controls for the wood bison — Canada’s largest ground-roaming mammal — asking that the species no longer be bound by CITES regulations.
The wood bison is on Canada’s Species at Risk Public Registry (SARA) as “threatened,” with discussions ongoing to further downgrade its status.
It’s been more than two decades since the global community has considered the species to be at risk of extinction.
Van Havre said Canada was prompted by requests from the country’s bison industry to bring this proposal to the meeting in South Africa: looking to make it administratively easier to export commercially bred bison products — for meat — to the United States.
“The demand substantially exceeds the supply,” said Terry Kremeniuk, executive director of the Canadian Bison Association.
“The industry has been working hard on increasing the profile of bison as a healthy, tasty, red meat alternative for some people.”
He said when it comes to bison meat, there’s no taste difference between the two types of bison in Canada, the other being the plains bison (not on the CITES list).
Kremeniuk said Canada’s proposal could put wood bison on a level playing field with its counterpart.
Canada claims that trading the animal independently from CITES won’t be a threat to the species, citing local regulations already in place to keep it safe.
Canada says disease, not trade, poses the greatest threat to the wood bison.
But, Andrea Olive, an assistant professor in political science and geography at the University of Toronto, wonders whether or not it might be premature soon to take the species off the CITES list.
“I think it’s interesting that a species that is still being actively recovered in Canada, we are saying it is a threatened species in our country that we are trying to actively recover, yet we are saying internationally we are saying it is OK to allow some trade in these species,” Olive said.
But, she said, while it may be less so than the peregrine falcon — the species is still a recovery success story.