Japan was jubilant on Monday after the International Whaling Commission voted to oppose the 1986 ban on commercial whaling, a move that conservationists fear could lead to the resumption of large-scale hunting and bring whale populations to the brink of extinction.
Though Japan and other pro-whaling countries fell well short of the 75% of votes they needed to overturn the IWC moratorium, a foreign ministry spokesperson in Tokyo hailed the passage of a resolution critical of the ban as ”a significant step forward”.
”We rejoice at the outcome because we have long been hoping that the IWC will again become a talking shop,” he said. ”Now it isn’t even a talking shop — it’s just a forum for exchanging emotions.”
The resolution, which passed by 33 votes to 32, says the moratorium is no longer necessary and blames whales for depleting fish stocks. Its adoption at the meeting on the Caribbean island of St Kitts marks a shift in the balance of power at the commission and a victory for Japan after it narrowly lost three crucial votes, including a proposal to allow it to resume coastal whaling, on Friday and Saturday.
Delegates from Caribbean and African countries said they had voted against the ban to nudge the IWC towards taking up its original mandate of managing whale hunts rather than banning them. ”We’re dealing with an ecosystem where whales are on top of the food chain,” said Daven Joseph, a delegate from St Kitts.
But Chris Carter, New Zealand’s Environment Minister, said he was ”surprised and disappointed” that six Pacific islands had voted with Japan, after some had said they would abstain. ”I was told by Pacific leaders that they would never agree to the resumption of commercial whaling, but that’s essentially what their delegates did,” he said.
Japan’s allies in Sunday’s vote included several smaller countries that have received aid packages from Tokyo. Antigua, Dominica, Grenada and three other countries which last year received at least $300-million in Japanese aid voted against the ban, although Panama, which received similar support, voted in favour. The Pacific islands of Tuvalu, Nauru and Kiribati, the recipients of generous aid, also sided with the pro-whaling lobby.
But Japan denies claims that it has bought a majority on the IWC. ”Many people accuse Japan of chequebook diplomacy, but the Pacific islands have long been in the heart and mind of Japan as allies for UN reform and a whole range of other issues,” the spokesman said. ”The agenda for the Japanese government towards the Pacific islands has a scope far wider than just the whaling issue.”
Junichi Sato, the campaign director at Greenpeace Japan, cautioned against attaching too much importance to the St Kitts declaration. ”It’s a very sad day for whales, but we will take our message worldwide and bring the IWC back to being a conservation organisation,” he said. ”This vote wasn’t as controversial as the others so it was easier for [smaller countries] to vote that way. Japan is by no means guaranteed a majority over the next two days.”
The IWC is also expected to debate a motion on the role of NGOs, which Greenpeace and others fear could mean an end to their observer status.
Japan’s support for a return to commercial whaling, meanwhile, threatens to sour its otherwise close ties to countries such as the US and Britain. ”I can only ask them to put things into perspective and not come to the conclusion that Japan is an evil nation,” the spokesperson said. – Guardian Unlimited Â