Another CoP 15

 After the recent failure of 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference or the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, there is another COP 15 which started yesterday in Doha, Qatar. This meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) will be held till 25th of this month. Since the UN General Assembly has declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity, many conservationists believe that some positive results come out of the negotiations for the 42 proposals on board. Details on these proposals can be had from here. I will try to give a simple explanation to some of the important terms one will encounter below:

  • Appendix I: Contains animals threatened with extinction. International trade is prohibited except when the purpose of the import is not commercial Eg: Japan’s scientific whaling.
  • Appendix II: lists species that are not immediately threatened with extinction but are in danger unless trade is closely controlled. This also contains includes species whose traded products are similar to International trade may be authorized by the granting of permits from a Scientific Authority of the State of export in addition to the regular wildlife management body.
  • Appendix III: Has species which are unilaterally subject to regulation within a member jurisdiction for preventing exploitation. Other members support the effort by not allowing trade without permit from the exporting country.
Changes to Appendices I and II happen only in CoP meetings
Separate populations of a species may be included in different Appendices.

Class dismissed.

This conference has gained lot of attention because it will discuss banning the trade of high commercial value species, such as Atlantic bluefin tuna. For the first time, the conference will be held in an Arab country. I find it hard to decide whether the other 41 proposals are getting shoved to the backburner because of all the focus on Tuna or whether the Tuna topic is making people give second-hand attention to them.

The survival of 8 shark species will be on the line. Millions of sharks are caught every year, because some Chinese and some rich people without a life want to drink soup with their fins. If that is not an excess resembling Roman Orgies, do you know how they are harvested?



Trade in precious corals has been on between Mediterranean coast and India for a long time. The United States alone is said to have imported 28 million pieces of red and pink coral between 2001 and 2008. Ban on its trade was defeated the last time by a secret ballot.

International commercial ivory trade was banned in 1989.From 1997, some African countries were allowed to sell stockpiled ivory coming from elephants that have died naturally or was seized from illegal poachers. This act weakened the Moral prohibition against any Ivory trade. Now Tanzania and Zambia want to jump on the money train. Thankfully, there are other sane African countries which want to put a 20 year ban on all trade and attempts at delisting. I hope the second proposal wins.

Measures must receive a two-thirds majority of those nations present to be adopted, and are then enforced by laws passed in member nations. Let us wait and watch

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