The Outrage of Japanese politics and CITES – The fate of the blue fin tuna
Last week the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), met concerning issues around the possible extinction of the blue fin tuna, sharks, corals and the resumption of whaling. For months the Japanese Government has been lobbying hard in African and other countries offering trade and development funds in exchange for voting NO to a ban on fishing the blue fin tuna and other endangered species – which now face extinction and where whale species are again being threatened.
Not a single marine species got any protection despite being depleted to 20% or even 10% of their natural abundance.
It is amazing that there has been so little outrage about this. It amazes me how greed blinds people and countries. Stewardship of the world as an economic and spiritual discipline is needed now more than ever. Only 40 of the approximately 150 countries in Doha backed the move. “It is very much up in the air. There’s a lot of jockeying,” said Patrick Van Klaveren of Monaco, which is leading the charge for a ban. “Japan’s lobbying is formidable. Three or four people from the Japanese delegation are constantly criss-crossing the Convention, arranging meetings.” On Sunday, Japanese delegates met with some African nations, said a negotiator from west Africa. “We are used to it. They do the same thing before each meeting of the International Whaling Commission,” the body that oversees global whale populations, he said. Van Klaveren said that Tokyo was also targeting developing countries, “scaring them about what could happen to their (own tuna) stocks, along the lines of ‘your turn will come’.” For more information on this, do see the Greenpeace update.
