The only UN body with the power to ban trade in endangered animals and plants started a triennial meeting in Doha yesterday with bluefin tuna, African elephants and polar bears on the docket.
Besides the proposal to stop cross-border commerce in bluefin, fiercely contested by sushi-loving Japan, the 1975 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) will also vote on less stringent measures to protect several types of shark and their look-a-likes. Up to 73 million of these open-water predators are harvested every year for their fins, a prestigious food eaten mainly in China and Chinese communities around the world.
About 120 of the 175 member states are to gather for the 13-day CITES conference, the first to be held in the Middle East.
Among the 41 proposals on the table, one put forward by Tanzania and Zambia would seek to reopen trade in ivory, currently under a nine-year moratorium started in 2008.
However, most other African nations oppose the move and are instead set to back a competing measure that would extend the ban another decade. Polar bears are up for so-called Appendix I listing, which triggers a total ban on international trade.
The meeting seeks to strike a sustainable balance between protection and commercial exploitation for thousands of species. Measures must receive a two-thirds majority of those nations present to be adopted, and are then enforced by laws passed in member nations.
After an opening ceremony at 12pm GMT delegates will consider boosting the CITES budget which, at less the US$5 million, is by far the smallest of all the UN conventions.
Species are listed on three levels according to the degree of protection needed. Going into the meeting, Appendix I covers about 530 animals, including tigers, great apes, snow leopards and sea turtles, and more than 300 plants.
The vast majority of the 33,500 species covered by CITES are listed in Appendix II, which covers species “not necessarily threatened with extinction” but exploited in an unsustainable manner. Pink and red coral, harvested mainly in the Mediterranean for jewelry, is under consideration for this more limited degree of protection. A similar proposal failed at the last convention in 2007.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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