New Delhi: The 13 th session of the CITES Conference of Parties in Bangkok ended yesterday with a clear signal that the world was slowly opening up to trade in wildlife and killing of endangered species for sport and profit, Vivek Menon , executive director of the Wildlife Trust of India(WTI) said. “The sale of ivory jewellery, elephant hides and hair by Namibia, the increased hunting quota for South Africa and new quotas for Swaziland for killing the White rhino and allowing trade in the Nile crocodile in Namibia, all point to this trend emerging largely from Africa, which is being supported by the EU as well the US,” Menon said.

A three-member WTI team, which accompanied the Government of India’s delegation to CITES, is the only NGO from India which has the experience of attending six CITES conferences, held every two years, over the last 15 years.

“The dangerous part of the trend is the wording that has been used. Namibia has been allowed to trade in ivory jewellery for “non-commercial purposes” using ivory from naturally dead elephants and those killed for reasons of ‘management.’ The vote was passed unanimously and no one asked what “non-commercial” sale of jewellery meant,” Menon said.

However, the good news is that the opening up of the trade is facing immense opposition from a large number of members of this 166 member body. For example the proposal for an annual export quota of 2000 kgs of ivory by Namibia was soundly defeated. “If allowed this would have had major implications for the Asian elephants and would have increased poaching,” Ashok Kumar , Trustee WTI, also a part of the team, said.

The uplisting of the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin to Appendix I completely banning the international trade in the species was another good portent. This dolphin occurs in the shallow, near shore tropical and sub-tropical marine waters of the Indo-Pacific, marine areas in Australia , Malaysia , and Brunei . In India and Bangladesh , this species is concentrated in estuaries and semi enclosed water bodies adjacent to mangrove forests and freshwater rivers. Gillnet entanglement, electric fishing, damming, channel blasting are the main threats. The dolphin is also eaten and captured for live display.

Regarding ivory and elephant hide and hair, the Namibian delegation had suggested amendments to the annotation to the current Appendix II listing for the Namibian population of Savannah Elephant Loxodonta africana. The amendment of the annotation was to include three of the following points –

• an annual export quota of 2000 kg of raw ivory
• trade in worked ivory products for commercial purposes and
• trade in elephant leather and hair goods for commercial purposes

The annotation for trade in leather and hair goods for commercial purposes was accepted. However, Namibia was denied the one off sale of 2000 kg of raw ivory and trade in worked ivory products, also known as ‘ekipas’.

However, on 14 th October 2004, during the Plenary session of the CITES CoP 13, Namibia expressed its concern about the decision taken on the above-mentioned matter in Committee I on 11 th October and urged to reopen the debate on trade in ivory. The Namibian delegation wished to include the following annotation “trade in ekipas for non-commercial purpose’. The delegation from Botswana , Zambia , Uganda and Liberia spoke in favour of the amended Namibian proposal. Israel , Cote-de-Ivore , Togo , Kenya and India spoke against the amended proposal. Thereafter this matter was put in voting through a secret ballot and the Namibian proposal got 75 votes in favour, 31 against it while 21 countries abstained from voting. USA and Liberia put on record that they voted in favour of the Namibian proposal.

A species of freshwater turtle, Southeast Asian Softshell Turtle Amyda cartilaginea has recently been reported to occur within the boundary of India in the Northeast Indian state of Mizoram. This is probably the most heavily traded wild-harvested Asian freshwater turtle, as reported by the Species Survival Network (SSN). It was earlier this year that SSN brought to the notice of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) that the USA would like to propose inclusion of certain species of Asian freshwater turtles in the Appendix II of the CITES to be discussed during the CoP 13.

WTI gathered data on Amyda cartilaginea found in India from published data and from herpetological experts and drafted a text on this species for the US Proposal, which was later adopted into CITES CoP proposal No. 20. WTI also put efforts to get India as a co-proponent with the USA for this proposal however; this was not possible due to paucity of time available for submitting the species listing proposals. The USA recognized the efforts of India and mentioned that while presenting the proposal in Committee I of CoP 13 on 12-10-2004 . USA had proposed to include the entire genus Amyda in Appendix II.

During the discussion on this proposal at the Committee I of CoP 13 on 12-10-2004 the delegation of India mentioned that rather than inclusion of genus Amyda in Appendix II of CITES, it would request the parties to be more specific by listing only one known species of this genus i.e. Amyda cartilaginea in Appendix II. India ’s view was supported by other range states of this species, namely Thailand , Vietnam and Indonesia . Thereafter, the Chair of Committee I of CITES CoP 13 asked for the opinion of USA and the US delegation agreed to the amendment suggested by India . The proposal was then adopted meaning Amyda cartilaginea has been included in Appendix II of CITES.

Indonesia proposed to the COP 13 to include Agarwood Aquilaria spp. and Gyrinops spp. in Appendix II. 24 species of Aquilaria and 7 species of Gyrinops are distributed in Brunei , Cambodia , China , India , Indonesia , Lao , Malaysia , Papua-New Guinea, Philippines , Singapore , Thailand and Vietnam . No current information is available on their population status. However, all species under these two genus are threatened by trade of the resinous wood for use as incense, traditional medicine and perfume in Asia and the Middle East . Indonesia is the largest exporter. Northeast India is a conduit of this trade in India .

UAE, Kuwait , Qatar and Yemen opposed the proposal saying that it would create enforcement problems. India , EU (The Netherlands), Vietnam supported the proposal. This proposal was adopted.