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Whales Threatened
The largest living beings on
the planet, the whales, are constantly challenged
by a tenacious antagonist: humans. Each time there
is a global meeting on protected species, like the
one taking place Nov
3-15 in Chile, this conflictive relationship re-emerges
as a main topic of debate.
The 12th
meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Flora and Fauna (CITES) is no exception, as whales
have their place on the agenda.
Among the first
proposals presented to CITES for the Santiago
meeting, known as COP 12, there are two from Japan,
which seeks to soften the protection the Convention
grants for at least two whale species.
Japan and Norway stand out due
to their interest in more permissive rules on whale
hunting, and they are the constant target of criticisms
and denunciations by environmentalists for their continued
depredation of these giant marine mammals, which traverse
the world's oceans.
Most of the policy battles about
the whale occur in the context of the International
Whaling Commission, which is already preparing
for its 55th meeting in June 2003 in Berlin. In 1986,
the Commission declared a moratorium on the hunting
of these species for commercial ends. Limited "scientific"
whaling is still permitted, however, and Japan is
notorious for taking advantage of that stipulation.
The decisions of the IWC tend
to set the stage for the agreements reached by the
parties to CITES.
However, the International Fund
for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
has announced that at the CITES meeting under way
in Santiago the whale issue will be the source of
one of the most heated debates.
Whales belong to the Cetacean
order of species, which also includes other sea
mammals like dolphins. The exact status of the world's
whale populations is not known, but the IWC warns
that the 13 largest whale species have been hurt by
the excessive hunting that began centuries ago. But
in some cases, says the Commission, recovery of the
species has occurred thanks to international protection
measures.
Some countries promote more intense
protection by establishing whale "sanctuaries"
in their territorial waters. And many organizations
have joined the effort to defend the whales of the
world, most notably Greenpeace
and Save
the Whales.
CITES:
12th Conference of Parties
Chile's
Host Site for CITES Meet
CITES:
conference proposals
International
Whaling Commission
IFAW:
what's at stake at CITES COP 12
Greenpeace:
Whales
Connect
Yourself: Giants of the Sea
Savethewhales.org
Cetaceans
Climate Change
Predictions are now certain:
planet Earth is undergoing a climate change that could
have dire consequences for all forms of life. Thousands
of delegates are gathered in India to try to reach
agreements aimed at confronting this problem, debating
at the conference known as COP 8.
The 8th
Session of the Conference of Parties (COP 8) to
the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) was convened Oct 23 to Nov 1 in New Delhi.
Officials and environmentalists alike hope that it
will mark a shift towards a negotiating phase for
compliance with past agreements.
The
Framework Convention (pdf), which dates back to
1992, has been signed by 185 countries. For the last
decade, the world's governments have carried out intense
negotiations to define a strategy to halt climate
change, attributed to the so-called "greenhouse
effect", caused by the accumulation in the Earth's
atmosphere of gases emitted in the combustion of fossil
fuels like petroleum or coal.
The main outcome of the negotiations
was the Kyoto
Protocol in 1997. After the COP 8, the possibility
for this legal instrument entering into force should
become clear. The idea is to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions overall by 2008- 2012 to 5.2 percent less
than they were in 1990.
The Protocol will take effect
after being ratified by at least 55 countries whose
total greenhouse gas emissions made up at least 55
percent of total emissions in 1990.
When the COP 8 got under way,
the Protocol had been ratified
by 96 countries, but their total greenhouse gas
output is just 37 percent of the total. The situation
could change dramatically if industrialized countries
like Russia or Japan were to ratify the accord.
The United States, responsible
for a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions,
will not ratify the Protocol, as President George
W. Bush has repeated on several occasions.
Environmentalists, meanwhile,
say it is urgent to reach an agreement on how to immediately
begin reducing emissions. Climate
change is considered a perturbing factor in atmospheric
conditions, sea level and harvest timeframes.
To learn more about this
issue, there is plenty to peruse on the Internet,
where numerous websites explain the greenhouse
effect and climate change.
8th
Session of Conference of Parties
Secretariat
of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
Text
of the Framework Convention
Linkages:
special coverage of COP 8
Texts
of the Convention and Kyoto Protocol
Protocol
Thermometer: status of ratification
UNEP:
Climate change - vital climate graphics
Tierramérica:
Climate Change
BBC:
Global Warming
Migratory Species
A rare wild Asian camel, the
white shark, three types of whales and the river dolphin
are members of a new group of species protected by
an international convention that held its seventh
Conference of Parties (COP7) in the German city of
Bonn.
The Convention
on Migratory Species (CMS), the signatories of
which meet every three years, studied the cases of
37 species at the latest meeting, in September, and
as a result issued new
directions for species protection.
The delegates at the Bonn
meeting also considered the impacts of wind energy
turbines, electrical transmission lines and certain
types of fishing activities on the populations of
migratory birds.
The CMS,
sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program,
places on its Appendix I list those species that require
strict protection because otherwise their survival
is in danger. In Appendix II are those that require
intergovernmental agreements to ensure the stability
of their populations.
The objective
of the CMS is to achieve the preservation of migratory
species through actions that prevent their depredation
and protect their habitats, which in this case usually
involves more than one country.
The migration of animals is common
around the planet and involves a great diversity of
fauna species.
At the website of the Global
Registry of Migratory Species, an information
center highly specialized in this issue, there are
an estimate 5,000 "traveling" species.
Researchers have found that climatic
conditions, search for food or for appropriate nesting
areas are important motivations for animal migration.
But this behavior encompasses some mysteries:
Why do some species travel such great distances? How
do they know where they should go?
Among the known migratory species
there are numerous whale types, sea turtles, fish
and birds, the latter of which are probably the most
recognized because their annual journeys are so clearly
visible to humans.
Today, scientists use the latest
technological developments, such as transmitters and
satellite-based
tracking systems, to learn more about animal migrations.
Convention
on Migratory Species
Introduction
to the Convention
CMS
Text
UNEP:
Results of the CMS Conference (COP7)
Linkages:
Special COP7 coverage
The
Mystery of Bird Migration
Global
Registry of Migratory Species
Satellite
tracking of migratory species
Bird
Migration and Wind Turbines
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