Between July 9-11, members of the CEEweb CITES Working
Group participated in a conference entitled "Protection of Wildlife Against
Commercial Trade in Central and Eastern Europe". The conference was organized
by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and included over 50 participants
from NGOs and governmental agencies in more than 15 countries.
It was a good cross-section of the organizations
dedicated to fight the illegal trade of rare and endangered species,
the third largest illicit trade in the world after the drug and arms trade.
In the first days, the delegates met to discuss the extent of the trade within
their countries and their successes and failures enforcing national laws governing
this malicious and unforgiving trade.
Presentations by CITES Working Group Members Salamandra
(Poland), Green Balkans (Bulgaria), and the Birds of Prey Protection Society
(Bulgaria) served to educate conference members on steps taken in Bulgaria and
Poland to enforce the CITES treaty and highlighted the different paths CEE NGOs
have taken to combat illegal activity.
After the presentations in the first days, it was
apparent that CEE countries are at drastically different levels of compliance
with the treaty in terms of the application of the legal framework to national
legislation and in the actual implementation of the treaty itself. Sales of
endangered species in many CEE countries are often carried out in full view
of the authorities and only recently have laws been changed in some countries
to adequate punish the offenders.
The conference also brought promise of greater
future cooperation between CEEweb and IFAW to adequately gauge the extent
of the illegal trade in CEE countries and form a baseline for future activity.
The CITES WG Chairman, Marton Kelemen, presented our activities and a discussion
was held between IFAW and members of the Working Group to discuss the best path
to take to stop this trade using the combined power of our two organizations.
In addition, the conference provided the impetus for a new Working Group, comprised
of many CEEweb members, to tackle the illegal trade in wild songbirds,
a problem of growing proportions in Italy and the Balkan Peninsula.
In the final days of the conference, participants
discussed the upcoming proposals for the CITES Convention of the Parties
(COP) in Thailand in October. Analysis of the proposals was provided by the
Species Survival Network (SSN), a coalition of international NGO’s including
IFAW. The discussion provided a useful insight into the internal workings
of the COP which will be attended by two members of the CITES WG, Marton
Kelemen and Andrzej Kepel. Members discussed different tactics to persuade their
home governments of the pragmatic insights provided by SSN in order to best
protect nature for future generations. Discussions also concentrated on Japan’s
efforts to affect change in the International Whaling Convention and the ivory
trade.
While most of the species referred to in the proposed
CITES amendments are not indigenous to CEE Countries, it is obvious the NGOs
must do everything possible to protect biodiversity worldwide and under
the CITES treaty we have the tools to do so. Now, we just must make use of them.
