The wildlife flies away
This is the last update by John Frizell from the CITES meeting that has just ended. You can read the first here and the second here.
The bird is back. Yesterday there were two very small ones flying around the room. Today a larger one, that looked like the one seen last week, made a brief appearance. It looked well fed and active. Perhaps it is not lost at all. Perhaps it has a nest or burrow amid the ceiling fittings 12 meters above our seats.
Below, on the floor of the meeting, the final hours of the meeting played out. Last ditch attempts to gain protection for the hammerhead shark were defeated in the name of economic need. And the one small victory, the listing of the Porbeagle shark was overturned. Not a single marine species got any protection despite being depleted to 20% or even 10% of their natural abundance.
What to make of the massive failure of CITES to protect threatened and endangered species as we go into 2010, the year of bio diversity? Is it like a desperate householder tearing up his floorboards and burning them in his fireplace to keep the cold at bay for bit longer? Is it like a corporate raider stripping assets?
It’s hard to find the right analogy. But what has happened here is a tragedy – a failure by CITES to stop the plundering of the ecosystems that are the heritage of all people, of all life that depends on them, by the few that profit from them.
Perhaps for the birds this was just another gathering of humans which has passed through their habitat and will be gone in another hour. CITES has left their world unchanged. Other creatures will not be so lucky.
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Comments
I am utterly outraged at CITES failure to keep up to its mission: saving endagered species from extinction. I wonder how all those bureaucrats feel now that they leave their luxury hotels and go home having achieved NOTHING as far as the Oceans are concerned. We could flood CITES with letters of protest (I did send one) but it would achieve nothing as well - these people are well fed, paid and completely useless. So back to square one with one important lesson learned: we MUST get 40% of the Oceans protected if we want to give marine species a chance. Nobody else will do that if we don't. Let's step up the pressure on this, get all other environmental associations on board and start a strong, united campaign with the governments in Europe, USA and beyond.
Posted by: Giuseppe Alvaro | March 25, 2010 4:52 PM
what has happened there is a shame nobody will do what we can do I say it before... .it's Politics around the world so..get all other environmental associations on all around..and start a strong,make the pressur
on the governments will help indeed a little..........
Posted by: Fatma Jamal | March 26, 2010 10:48 AM
Discusting
Posted by: Kristen Mackenzie | March 26, 2010 2:41 PM
Greenpeace is making a big mistake in this (and other campaigns) again: it's using only the name of the institution. CITES is just a hollow structure that doesn't do anything in itself. It's the people inside the structure that do or don't do things. So, WHO ARE THE PEOPLE that work at CITES??? Where are their faces??? We HAVE TO MAKE PRESSURE ON THE PEOPLE, expose them personally. They must take personal responsibility for their acts. Don't allow them to hide inside the structure. Making pressure only on the institution / corporation has very little effect. Let's make direct pressure on the people who work in them!
Posted by: Cristiano Richers![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://weblog.greenpeace.org/makingwaves/nav-commenters.gif)
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March 26, 2010 4:07 PM
CITES.
Clueless&corrupt
Inadequate&insufficient
Trepedating&trouble
Export&profits
Seafood,no more.
Posted by: finn braaksma | March 26, 2010 10:41 PM