Regeringer i lande, som i årevis har undladt at dæmme op for ulovlig handel med elfenben, er sluppet billigt fra CITES konferencen i Bangkok, mener Verdensnaturfonden, mens nedslagtningen af Afrikas elefanter fortsætter.
BANGKOK, 12 March 2013: World governments at the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) on Tuesday opted against (fravalgte) immediate trade sanctions against several countries that have repeatedly failed to tackle the trade in ivory (elfenben).
Skuffelse hos Verdensnaturfonden
“We are disappointed by the lack of urgency from governments to speed up the sanctions process against countries that have failed to act for years to curb (begrænse) the illegal ivory trade in their countries, while the slaughter of thousands of elephants continues in Africa,” said Carlos Drews, head of WWF’s CITES delegation.
“However we will be watching to see that CITES holds these governments to account in the coming year.”
Sanktioner afløst af rapporteringer
Despite an early discussion in CITES on potential trade sanctions against countries failing to regulate their ivory markets, governments did not enact those rules against offenders including Cameroon, Republic of Congo, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Mozambique, Nigeria and Uganda.
Governments instead directed those countries to identify actions and deadlines to ensure progress in controlling illegal ivory trade before summer 2014, with the potential threat that they could face trade sanctions then if there was no significant improvement in the situation.
The nine countries were given just over a year to show improvements in their performance.
“Governments have been aware for years about the lack of compliance by several countries. Forest elephants in Central Africa are declining rapidly and running out of time,” Drews said. “We hope governments will speed up compliance measures against countries flouting restrictions on the ivory trade.”
Læs pressemeddelsen her: http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?207866/Governments-fall-short-on-immediate-efforts-to-curb-illegal-ivory-trade-at-wildlife-trade-meeting
Læs videre fra: ”The worst offenders, including top demand countries China and Thailand…”
