Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-16-Speech-4-040"
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"en.20040916.2.4-040"2
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".
Mr President, the next conference of the parties to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species – CITES – has a very full agenda. However, I am pleased to inform you that preparations in Council have proceeded smoothly and we have already reached a consensus. In doing so, our position on some high-profile issues has evolved. For example, we are now leaning in favour of the proposal to outlaw commercial trade in the Irrawaddy dolphin.
CITES has been in force for nearly 30 years and has proved a very effective tool in reducing the threats to wild fauna and flora posed by unsustainable international trade. Since its entry into force, other agreements relating to biodiversity have been adopted, most notably the Convention on Biological Diversity. One of the Community's strategic objectives is to achieve greater synergies between these agreements, thereby contributing to a significant reduction in the rate of loss of biological diversity by 2010, as endorsed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
The Community also believes that CITES should remain a vehicle for the sustainable use of wild fauna and flora. Increased protection is often required to safeguard the conservation status of some species in trade, but we must also acknowledge the efforts of those countries that have already implemented effective conservation measures. For this reason, we have to consider seriously the proposals for easing trade restrictions on some species, such as the Christmas orchid from Colombia, black and white rhinos, the leopard, and so on.
CITES is a science-based convention, as has already been underlined, and sets out detailed criteria for determining the level of protection that should apply to individual species. The Community supports this science-based approach and therefore is hesitant about the proposals concerning the African lion and endemic reptiles.
Finally, the Community wishes to maximise the efficiency of CITES by minimising unnecessary administrative burdens. While we must avoid illegal or unsustainable trade, we should also ensure that parties' resources are directed towards issues of real conservation concern."@en1
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