EU joins Cites meeting as member

THE EU IS participating for the first time as a full member of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP) currently underway in Sandton, Johannesburg.

It seeks stricter international measures against wildlife trafficking in line with the EU action plan.

The conference is providing a forum for parties to review the implementation of the Cites convention, which covers more than 35 000 plants and animals, ensuring that trade remains legal, traceable and sustainable, and to adopt new binding measures for wildlife protection.

The EU and its member states, represented by Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella, are in Johannesburg with a united voice and an ambitious agenda.

The EU is proposing to address wildlife trafficking and the corruption associated with it to define international standards on trade in hunting

criminal groups, said Milliken, an expert with the Traffic conservation organisation.

“Nobody is really uncovering their identities and making arrests and prosecuting the people who are really behind this,” he said, adding that poaching syndicates viewed occasional ivory seizures as a form of “taxation”. trophies, ensuring that such trade can only happen when both legal and sustainable.

It is also proposing to include additional marine (sharks), timber (rosewood), and exotic pet species (reptiles) in Cites.

“The EU is proud to be a world leader in the fight against wildlife trafficking.

“We see the Cites COP as an opportunity to get even tougher on the fight against wildlife trafficking and the corruption that fuels it,” Vella said.

“Through Cites, we are working with our partners to implement the new EU wildlife action plan to the full.

“We are building a global alliance among countries to protect wildlife where it lives, block points of transit, and stamp out the illegal demand”.

In particular, the EU is supporting a continuation of the ban on international trade in ivory.

It is also pressing for the adoption of strong measures against ivory trafficking, as well as trafficking affecting rhino, tigers, great apes, pangolins and rosewood. – ANA

Susan Lieberman of the Wildlife Conservation Society, a New York-based group, said some governments had the capacity to target ivory syndicates in the same way they prosecuted drug kingpins, but were sometimes “more comfortable” going after low-level operatives rather than well-connected ringleaders. – AP