While stocks last
The EU has failed to secure greater protection for certain types of marine life at an international convention.
Do endangered fish deserve the same protection as endangered tigers and bears? The answer according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is a firm ‘No’. When the latest CITES meeting ended in Doha last week (26 March), not a single proposal to protect marine life had been approved. The European Commission said it was disappointed. Marine conservation groups were less reserved: this was “a tragedy of the oceans”, said Oceana.
The rejection of a proposed ban on the trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna was the first big disappointment. It was especially hard to take for the EU, which had struggled for months to persuade its own tuna-fishing members to back a ban.
A coalition led by Japan and Canada defeated an EU proposal for a ban from 2011, arguing that tuna was best protected by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the international body that manages the fish. This is the same body that has been described as “an international disgrace” by scientists for failing to listen to their advice on declining stocks.
But ICCAT officials say times have changed. As the CITES conference ended, Fabio Hazin, the ICCAT chairman, told delegates that the body had entered a “new era” where setting quotas that do not match the science was “no longer possible”.
If the ICCAT fails to protect tuna – the next test is its annual meeting in November – a tuna ban will be back on the CITES agenda in two years’ time, predicts María José Cornax, a marine scientist at Oceana. But she says that could be too late.
The future of other marine species is no more encouraging.
The EU’s proposals to restrict trade in porbeagle and spiny dogfish sharks were thrown out, as were US-led proposals to protect other shark species. The EU and several countries around the world have passed measures to protect sharks, but these are not enough, says Cornax, adding that “the future for these species is really worrying”. China, where shark fin soup is a popular dish, voted against restricting trade in sharks.
Red and pink corals failed to make it onto protection lists for the second CITES conference in a row.
There has been a sharp decline in numbers of the stubby red corals, found around the Mediterranean and North African coasts. They are becoming another example of a species that the EU cannot protect in its own backyard.
Polar bears also failed to make it onto the list, although the EU had not been in favour of a endangered listing. Most EU countries see climate change, rather than trade in bear parts, as the main threat to the species.
Trade controls
There was better news for other species. Measures to protect tigers and elephants that were agreed in earlier meetings were upheld. Two South African trees, the holywood and Brazilian rosewood, will be subject to new trade controls.
But, overall, the meeting was another sign – after December’s climate change talks – of the EU’s inability to project its environmental values.
The view in the European Commission is that the CITES meeting was successful in drawing attention to endangered species, even if attempts to get endangered listings failed.
“Everyone agreed there was a problem with bluefin tuna and sharks,” says one official. But outside observers think the EU could improve its diplomatic game.
The EU spent an “enormous amount of time” co-ordinating its position at the CITES conference, says Peter Pueschel of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. “The problem is that the other parties are discussing with each other while the EU is behind closed doors just discussing with itself,” Pueschel says. Missing the chance to do deals in corridors and meeting rooms may have been a problem when big players such as Japan were involved in a high-profile lobbying effort.
But it was not all bad news, suggests Pueschel. Several member states, including Poland, Hungary, Romania and Germany, were more vocal about conservation. This is “a sign of hope that the EU may become a conservation player”, he says.
But questions remain as to whether the EU can be a stronger force for nature conservation, before time runs out for the most endangered species.