IUCN World Conservation Congress Report
IUCN World Conservation Congress Barcelona, Spain, Oct. 5-14, 2008
The IUCN is unlike any of the other conference (IWC, CITES and CMS) in which I have participated.
I went to the IUCN representing PTOP Poland.
IUCN is 10 times bigger than CITES and feels a lot more disorganized. There were no seating arrangements at the workshops and the name badges were barely visible, which made it very difficult for the lobbying I was doing with the governments of the EU for the seal ban. Another big inconvenience were the ribbons all delegates wore. People were informed that the delegates wearing red ribbons were government officials, and people wearing blue ribbons were NGOs. To my dismay I found that wasn't always the case because government officials were also wearing blue ribbons, adding to the challenge of trying to spot them.
I had many opportunities to meet with delegates during receptions, breaks and lunch time. I had a fantastic opportunity to speak with government officials during the European members' meeting. It went really well and I received much support (and sympathy!) from several officials from the EU Ministries of Environment, interested in receiving more information on the proposed EU seal products ban. I had a chance to educate delegates on whaling matters in Canada, as well.
I met with 25 EU member countries officials, most of whom had not heard about the upcoming motion to ban seal products at the European Parliament and Council and all of whom received my CATCA brochures very well, discussed the information with me and agreed to circulate the material among their Secretaries of State, ministers, advisors, and other decision makers.
The most support I got was from Poland. Also the Ukraine official delegate, intends to discuss the issue with EU official delegates in Brussels, even if Ukrania is not part of the EU yet.
In Eastern/Central Europe, the Polish, Croatian and Ukranian governments strongly supports the seal ban.
During Plenary, I voted in favour of the following pro-conservation motions:
MOT016 Sustainable use and accountability
MOT027 Promotion of Dugong during the UN 2010
International Year for Biodiversity
MOT028 Conservation of Leatherback Turtles and
Hammerhead Sharks in the eastern tropical Pacific
marine corridor
MOT029 Conservation and recovery of the Mediterranean
Monk Seal
MOT031 Avoiding the extinction of the Vaquita
Porpoise (Phocoena sinus)
MOT033 An effective European Plan of Action for
Sharks
MOT034 Conserving migratory and oceanic sharks
MOT035 Global policy against shark finning
MOT036 Conservation of whales 57
MOT037 Interactions between fisheries and great
whales
MOT038 Action for recovery of the eastern stock of
Blue fin Tuna
MOT040 Fisheries management by Regional Fisheries
Management Organizations
MOT041 Flag State responsibility regarding Illegal,
Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing
MOT042 Promoting transparency to achieve sustainable
fisheries
MOT043 Achieving conservation of marine biodiversity
in areas beyond national jurisdictions
MOT044 Coordination of the Ocean Pacific 2020
Challenge
MOT046 Arctic legal regime for environmental
protection
MOT047 IUCNs engagement on Antarctica and the
Southern Ocean
MOT057 World Heritage nomination for Ningaloo
Reef
MOT067 Accelerating progress to establish marine
protected areas and creating marine protected area
networks
MOT144 Improving the governance of the Mediterranean
Sea
Motion 16 was approved, but with few amendments, including the exclusion of the paragraph that included following text: (Rec 3.092: Conservation and Sustainable Use of Seals) who are Parties to the CBD to honour the commitments they made when they adopted the Addis Ababa Principles and Guidelines for Sustainable Use of Biodiversity, which are fully congruent with the Policy on Sustainable Use of Wild Natural Resources (Res 2.29; Amman, 2000)
As I mentioned before, the controversial Motion 37 was also approved. Curiously during the voting, half of the official governmental delegates and more than half of the NGO's had mysteriously "disappeared", not registering a vote and probably to be found at the nearby beaches or doing a Gaudi Tour!
I participated in the Educational Learning Opportunity workshops regarding the inclusion of species at the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It was very interesting to be there surrounded by all these biologists with one to four PhDs who assess their local, regional or national threatened species to see if these species apply to be included in the Red List in their own countries. I found this Learning Opportunity fascinating and very educative.
I also participated in several workshops and forums about marine mammals, global climate change affecting marine animals, wildlife crime and other topics related to African mammal species and the eternal conflicts that come with the interaction with human kind.
Acknowledges
My main purpose of participating at this IUCN meeting, was to be able to lobby with the remaining heads of governments at the European Union, because I could not afford financially to go to all the EU Ministries of Environment due to lack of money (I got a personal debt of $10,000 for the 3 Seal Tours I took in 2008) and a total lack of support of the big international well known animal welfare organizations (and their celebrity activists), that are active against the seal hunt in Canada.
I owe this last desperated attempt to end the seal hunt in Canada and the last Seal Tour at the EU in 2008, to my wonderful colleagues of CMEPS, the Irish Seal Sanctuary, the ISPCA, PTOP Salamandra and the WCASC. Without their kind support, I just would not have been able to do it.
For the seals,
Ericka Ceballos
CATCA
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