WEDNESDAY, 5.30PM
DELEGATES to the Cites convention in Harare, the world’s largest conservation meeting, went into closed committees on Wednesday to study scientific reports and search for consensus on issues threatening to split the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
The meeting is threatened with rifts over emotional calls by African nations to resume the ivory trade, as well as a call by Japan and Norway for resumption of whaling, and the convention’s enforcement measures on breaches of its treaty on wildlife trade. Delegates are expected to vote on convention decisions next week.
“Voting has always been contentious … You have victor and vanquished and that leaves a sour taste. We want to reach consensus wherever we can,” said Robert Hepworth, vice chairman of the Cites standing committee, its main policy body.