CITES, Tuna and Climate Change
Friday, March 19th, 2010Filed under: News, Climate Change, Plants and Wildlife
If you "keep up" with eco-news, you've seen an article or two, or 800, about a trade ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna, which was proposed -- and failed to pass -- yesterday at the meeting of the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, more commonly known as CITES.
The short story is that the population of Atlantic bluefin tuna has plunged 80-90% since 1970s, and is in danger of being fished into extinction. But it's considered a delicious delicacy, particularly in Japan -- and that fiercely opinionated nation has no intention of letting the rest of the world tell them what they can and can't eat.
Although most Atlantic bluefin tuna is caught in the Mediterranean, about 80% of it is purchased by Japan. The tuna trade supports a robust industry: one bluefin can go for as much as $175,000 at auction. Those tuna brokers came out in force against the proposed worldwide ban. Even though the U.S. supported the ban, Japan was able to successfully lobby enough other countries to prevent it from passing.
The goal of CITES is to ensure that international trade doesn't threaten the survival of a species. So in the case of the bluefin, it would have made it illegal to for the fishermen in France, Spain and Italy, where most of the bluefin is caught, to sell it to Japan, where most of it is eaten.
Even though it failed to help the bluefin this time, CITES has proven to be an effective way to protect a species, if you can get a majority of the 175 member countries to consensus. Since the first CITES convention, only one protected species has become extinct in the wild.
In addition to the bluefin ban, there are 39 other proposals being considered at the 12-day meeting, conducted every 2.5 years. Polar bears have already lost out (Canada gets to keep exporting them), but there is still hope for protective trade restrictions to be passed on several marine species, including sharks and coral, as well as tigers and elephants.
The new element this year is climate change. In addition to activities that target specific species, like ivory poaching, delegates are also starting to take into account pressures on species from changing (i.e. shrinking or disappearing) habitats. This is a logical move, as an increasing number of species are threatened with extinction from these environmental shifts.
Of course, in a tough economic environment, sometimes commerce trumps all, as in the case of the bluefin. So we'll have to wait and see what the CITES verdict is for the all those other species proposed for protection -- keep your tusks crossed, elephants!
CITES, Tuna and Climate Change originally appeared on Green Daily on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:09:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.