Trade in polar bears, bluefin tuna can continue, UN conference says

Mar 18, 2010, 18:42 GMT

Doha - Thousands of delegates from hundreds of countries gathered in Qatar on Thursday decided not to ban trade in polar bears, the Atlantic bluefin tuna, or the ornate spiny-tailed agama.

Participants in a conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the 1975 treaty regulating trade in endangered and threatened species, rejected the three proposals after lengthy debate.

The United States had sought to ban trade in polar bears or their parts for profit and curb hunting of the animal, but Canada successfully led opposition to the ban.

William Wijnstekers, secretary general of the treaty organisation, told the German Press Agency dpa that he had asked representatives of state parties to consider the effects of climate change on the polar bear's habitat.

But Steven Nash, of the treaty body's Capacity Building unit, said representatives of arctic communities had successfully argued that hunting and trading polar bears were essential to their livelihood.

Canada argued that trade in the animal, which it said affected only 2 per cent of the 28,000 polar bears in the world, did not threaten the species' survival.

Delegates also rejected a proposal from Monaco to ban trade in the Atlantic bluefin tuna, prized around the world as a delicacy, saying its population had declined by 75 per cent following overfishing.

Japan, which imports 80 per cent of the fish, successfully led opposition to the ban, but said it would continue to work to ensure the massive fish's survival.

Delegates likewise rejected an Israeli proposal to classify the ornate spiny-tailed agama - a large lizard that lives in mountainous regions, including in Egypt's Sinai peninsula - as in urgent danger of extinction because of trade in the reptile by collectors.

Egypt and Mexico had backed proposals to take the Nile and Mexican crocodiles, respectively, off the list of creatures classified as facing an urgent threat of extinction, but only the Mexican crocodile was re-classified in the end, after the proposal was amended to exclude the Guatemalan crocodile.