CITES Decisions on Trade in Endangered Species
6/19/97
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Headline: CITES Decisions on Trade in Endangered Species
Source: Reuters
Date: 6/19/97
Copyright 1997 by Reuters
HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuter) - A 10-day Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which ends in
Zimbabwe Friday made the following decisions:
-- Conditionally accepted an amended proposal by Botswana,
Namibia and Zimbabwe to be exempted from a 1989 world ban on
ivory trade to allow the three elephant-rich southern African
states to sell on an ``experimental'' basis some ivory quotas to
Japan in 1999. Some 76 CITES countries voted in favor of the
proposal ,which also shifts these countries' elephants from list
of no-trade species to the Appendix II allowing controlled
trade. Twenty voted against and 20 countries abstained from the
secret ballot.
-- Rejected contentious proposals by Japan and Norway to
relax an 11-year ban on commercial whaling. The proposals failed
to win a two-thirds majority in a secret ballot by the
138-member CITES. The conference also rejected a Japanese
proposal, backed by Norway, seeking to lessen the CITES'
dependence on the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which
is regarded as the world's foremost authority on whaling issues.
-- Turned down a proposal by the United States and Bolivia
to list big leaf mahogany as an endangered species requiring
controlled trade. Some 67 countries voted for the proposal, 45
against and nine abstained, failing to muster the two thirds
vote it required to pass to the Appendix II list.
-- Refused a proposal by South Africa to relax a 1977 ban
on rhino horn trade. South Africa failed to get two-thirds of
the vote it needed to allow it to trade in rhino parts and
explore possibilities of trading in the animal's horn. Some 60
countries voted in favor of the proposal and 32 opposed it in
open ballot by show of hands.
-- Accepted a proposal sponsored by Germany and the United
States to place sturgeon fish on a list of animals facing
extinction and which can be traded only under strict control.
The proposal was accepted by consensus.