CITES celebrates
its 35th anniversary of coming into force
Geneva, 30 June 2010 - From medicine
to musical instruments and from fashion and beauty products
to delicacies, wildlife items in trade must be properly
regulated to ensure the continued survival of animals
and plants in the wild.
This is the main message coming from
the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which celebrates its
35th anniversary on 1 July 2010.
"While not a single one of some
34,000 CITES-listed species has become extinct as a result
of international trade until now, growing pressures on
biological resources make regulating global wildlife trade
even more relevant today than it was in 1975 when countries
brought this unprecedented global treaty into force",
said CITES Secretary-General John Scanlon.
Global wildlife trade has increased
significantly since 1975. CITES Trade Database, which
registers legal trade in wildlife, holds over 10 million
records of trade, with an average of 850,000 permits to
trade in a CITES-listed species issued annually by the
Convention's member States.
With the forthcoming accession of Bahrain
announced today, CITES will have 176 Parties, while it
only had 10 Parties 35 years ago, including Switzerland,
which hosts the Convention's Secretariat, and the United
States where the text of the Convention was adopted.
"By being a pioneer in adopting
trade measures to prevent overexploitation and relying
on scientific advice for the authorization of wildlife
trade, CITES has put the machinery in place to contribute
to the improved management of the key natural assets of
our planet", declared Ambassador Betty E. King, Permanent
Representative of the Mission of the United States of
America to the United Nations Office and other International
Organizations in Geneva.
"Switzerland is very proud to host
a biodiversity-related Convention that is able to deliver
concrete conservation results. We hope that the international
community will build on its successes for many more years
to come to contribute to alleviating poverty and stopping
the decline in global biodiversity", added Mr Thomas
Jemmi, Deputy Director General of the Swiss Federal Veterinary
Office, the CITES Management Authority of Switzerland.
"This treaty was visionary because
it was able to put practical trade rules in place for
the use of terrestrial and marine species, before the
global boom created by the liberalization of trade and
the acceleration of transactions via Internet. CITES is
thus part of the transition to a resource efficient 21st
century Green Economy", said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment
Programme, which administers the CITES Secretariat.
CITES-listed species that are traded
in significant volumes include species as diverse as orchids,
crocodiles and sea shells. More recently, CITES has been
used to address the precarious situation of marine and
timber species, such as the great white shark and mahogany.
The Web-based CITES Trade Data Dashboards,
unveiled on the occasion of this anniversary, use the
trade data from the annual reports of the Parties to provide
an instant overview of the magnitude of wildlife trade
per country and per species group, such as mammals, birds
or fish. For instance, the Dashboard provides a way to
see general trends, such as "trade volume over time";
"top 10 trading partners", "top 5 items"
and "trade by source (e.g. wild or captive breeding)".
"The International Year of Biodiversity
offers an opportunity to both reflect upon the past successes
and mobilize efforts to address current and future challenges.
CITES has a proven track record in managing wildlife trade
internationally. Its ongoing relevance and ability to
adapt to changing circumstances are essential to the conservation
and sustainable use of wildlife," concluded Scanlon.
Note to journalists: Media representatives
are invited to an official reception on the occasion of
the 35th anniversary of the entry into force of CITES.
The reception will take place at the Natural History Museum
of the City of Geneva on 1 July 2010 from 15h00 to 18h00.
Maldives is Walking the Talk: Phasing
Out Ozone-depleting Substances
Thursday, 17 June 2010 - The Maldives has strongly renewed
its commitment to carbon neutrality with a declaration
by its President Mohamed Nasheed to phase-out HCFCs (hydro-chlorofluorcarbons),
the substitutes for chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), used in
refrigeration, including air-conditioning units, refrigerators
and various types of manufacturing processes.
HCFCs not only destroy the stratospheric
ozone layer which is essential to life on Earth, but they
are also greenhouse gases. The Maldives has now committed
to phase-out the consumption of HCFCs, which are mainly
used in the air conditioning in its nearly 100 tourist
resorts spread over its more than 1,200 islands.
"We believe that going green isn't
just ecologically sound but also economically beneficial.
The Maldives is famed for its luxury resorts, whose refrigeration
systems are the source of most of the country's HCFC emissions.
Moving early to phase-out the use of HCFCs over the next
decade, not only helps protect the beautiful tropical
environment tourists come to see, but also positions Maldives
as a strong eco-destination," said President Nasheed.
In 2007, the international community
took an important step for an accelerated phase-out of
HCFCs and President Nasheed has pledged to make the Maldives
the world's first carbon-neutral country by 2020, ten
years ahead of the Montreal Protocol phase-out schedule.
The recent Joint Declaration for the Implementation of
the HCFC Phase-out Management Plan (HPMP) is one more
step towards achieving this goal and the Maldives can
now also boast having the world's first national phase-out
plan which specifically targets this group of chemicals.
"The Maldives has become the first
country in the world to receive the funding from the Multilateral
Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol for
the country's HPMP. This demonstrates to the world that
Small Island States can also be at the frontline in the
battle against climate change and the protection of the
ozone layer," said Ms. Maria Nolan, Chief Officer
of the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the
Montreal Protocol.
High-level officials from the Maldives
and the United Nations, along with high commissioners
from India and various national stakeholders, during the
recent meeting in Male discussed the mechanism and the
way forward in expediting the implementation of the HCFC
phase-out plan.
"This dialogue gave us the opportunity
to brainstorm about the implementation mechanism, including
the policy and legislations, private sector's involvement,
energy-efficiency benefits, as well as how to put the
HCFC phase-out at an appropriate place in the carbon-neutrality
policy of the Maldives," said Mr. Javier Camago,
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Multilateral
Fund.
"The Montreal Protocol's success
has shown that we now know that together we can address
climate challenges through technology support and capacity-building
efforts. What we need now is leadership to get further
climate benefits from the ozone layer protection. I am
pleased that the Maldives is demonstrating that leadership
role" said Mr. Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and Executive Director of UNEP.
In April, President Nasheed also brought
the Maldives into the limelight once again when he was
chosen as UNEP's 2010 Champion of the Earth. President
of the Maldives since 2008, he has received increasing
global recognition for his efforts to curb climate change
and raise awareness of environmental issues, particularly
as it related to island-nations.
He featured prominently in the international
media in the run-up to, and during, the United Nations
climate change conference in Copenhagen in December. During
that time, he even convened an underwater cabinet meeting
on the ocean floor to highlight the grave climate change-related
threats to the Maldives.
He has also warned that Maldivians may
be forced to seek a new homeland should rising sea levels
make the Maldivians' archipelago uninhabitable. Moreover,
he is campaigning for the protection of coral reefs that
helped save his country from the devastating 2005 tsunami
by absorbing the brunt of the powerful earthquake-triggered
wave.
President Nasheed continues to urge
various leaders from developing or vulnerable countries
like the Maldives to break away from carbon-based growth
and to embrace green technologies for a carbon neutral
future.
Background Information:
United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP)
UNEP is the United Nations system's
designated entity for addressing environmental issues
at the global and regional level. Its mandate is to coordinate
the development of environmental policy consensus by keeping
the global environment under review and bringing emerging
issues to the attention of governments and the international
community for action.
Montreal Protocol on Substances that
Deplete the Ozone Layer
The Montreal Protocol on Substances
That Deplete the Ozone Layer is an international treaty
designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the
production and consumption of a number of substances believed
to be responsible for ozone depletion. The Treaty was
opened for signature on 16 September 1987 and entered
into force on 1 January 1989. Since then, it has undergone
five revisions, in 1990 (London), 1992 (Copenhagen), 1995
(Vienna), 1997 (Montreal), and 1999 (Beijing). Due to
its widespread adoption and implementation, it has been
hailed as an example of exceptional international cooperation
and perhaps the single most successful international agreement
to date.
About the UNEP DTIE Compliance Assistance
Programme (CAP)
As an Implementing Agency of the Multilateral
Fund of the Montreal Protocol, since 1991 UNEP through
its Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE)
OzonAction Programme has been strengthening the capacity
of governments ? particularly National Ozone Units (NOUs)
- and industry in developing countries to elaborate and
enforce the policies required to implement the Protocol
and make informed decisions about alternative technologies.
The Protocol's compliance regime requires countries to
achieve and sustain compliance, promote a greater sense
of country ownership and implement the agreed Executive
Committee framework for strategic planning. UNEP strategically
reoriented its approaches and delivery mechanisms in 2002
by creating a Compliance Assistance Programme (CAP), under
which the majority of the CAP staff are based in UNEP's
Regional Offices, where they closely interact with countries
to support and sustain compliance.
