A summit on international trade in endangered species on Friday will decide whether to ratify a “historic” initiative to protect around 50 species of requiem and hammerhead sharks, which are endangered by the thriving trade in shark fins used in Asia for the manufacture of shark fins soups are popular.
This topic was the most discussed at the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP19) to CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora bringing together 183 countries and the European Union.
The debate was due to be decided in Thursday’s plenary, but votes, particularly on protecting hippos in Africa, took longer than expected and the shark issue was postponed to Friday’s plenary.
Regarding hippos, the European Union, which voted for all EU member states, rejected a proposal backed by West African states led by Togo. They wanted to introduce a “zero quota” for marketing to ensure better conservation in the face of poaching and the hippopotamus ivory trade.
The request was rejected, particularly with opposition from southern African countries, which are facing an expanding hippopotamus population that poses problems coexisting with human populations, according to experts consulted by AFP.
“bargain”
In a press release issued on Thursday, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation denounced “a bargaining with wild species” and “the (European Union’s) obstructive and condescending attitude that is blocking the protections sought by many countries to protect their endemic species,” such as like that of the hippopotamus.
The summit, which began Nov. 14 and ends Friday, could add requiem sharks (Carcharhinidae) and hammerhead sharks (Sphynidae) to Schedule II of the convention, which severely restricts trade in certain species. This initiative is supported by the European Union and some fifteen countries including Panama, host of the summit.
These are species that are not yet critically endangered, but could become so if their trade is not tightly controlled. Appendix I prohibits trade in certain species entirely.
If Friday’s plenum gives the green light, “it will be a historic decision because for the first time, CITES would comment on a very large number of shark species, representing about 90% of the market,” Panamanian delegate Shirley Binder said AFP news agency.
The shark fin market exceeds half a billion dollars a year (€483 million). They can sell for $1,000 a kilo in East Asia to make very famous soups.
intense debate
Ahead of the scheduled vote, a three-hour intense debate took place in a conference committee on Nov. 17, during which Japan and Peru proposed exempting certain types of protections — a measure rejected in secret bulletins, before proposals to strengthen protections for the Requiem were adopted and hammerhead sharks.
“We hope that everything will be approved in the plenum,” states Ms. Binder.
The plenary must also vote on the ratification of a proposal to protect the guitarfish (Rhinobatidae).
During the committee discussions, several delegations, including that of Panama, placed stuffed sharks on their tables, which then became a sort of symbol of the summit.
Delegates and heads of conservation organizations, observers of the summit, expressed their confidence in the adoption of the resolutions in plenary.
“We hope that nothing out of the ordinary will happen and that all of these shark families will be included in Appendix II,” Chilean delegate Ricardo Saez told AFP.
If the three proposals on requiem sharks, hammerhead sharks and guitarfish rays were accepted, “we would go from about 25% of the shark fin trade to over 90%,” Ilaria Di Silvestre, head of European campaigns at the International Fund for Animal, told AFP at the start of the summit Welfare (IFAW).
die out
“We are in the midst of a very large shark extinction crisis,” the “second most threatened group of vertebrates on the planet,” said Luke Warwick of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
In total, the summit participants considered 52 proposals to change the level of protection of certain species.
CITES, in force since 1975, sets the rules for international trade in more than 36,000 wildlife species, ranging from the issuance of permits (more than a million authorized transactions a year) to an outright ban.
Organized every two to three years, the summit took place this year in the shadow and influence of two other UN conferences also crucial to the future of living things on the planet: COP27 on climate, which ended Sunday in Egypt and the COP15 on protecting biodiversity in December in Montreal.