This decision aims to protect fifty-four species of squales threatened by the flourishing trafficking in their fins in Asia.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
The conference on international trade in endangered species, gathered in Panama, took a “historic” decision by the host country on Friday 25 November. It aims to protect fifty-four species of Requiem (from the Carcharhinidae family) and shark (Sphyrnidae) family threatened by the flourishing trafficking in their fins in Asia.
The delegates of 183 states and the European Union (EU) decided in plenary to regulate their fishing. These squales were registered in the annex II of the Convention on International Trade in Species of Wild Wild flora and flora threatened (CITES) strictly limiting the trade of certain species by consensus. These are species that are not yet threatened with extinction but could become so if their trade was not closely controlled. Annex I, it completely prohibits trade in certain species.
Japan has issued reservations concerning the protection granted to the blue shark, believing that it is not a threatened species. The Japanese delegate expressed “the lively concern” of Tokyo concerning the consequences of this decision deemed “prejudicial from a social and economic point of view” for the fishermen of his country.
The protection of these sharks, requested by the EU and fifteen countries, was the most discussed of the summit decisions which started on November 14. It has become over the debates an emblematic measure of the conference and several delegations had posed torts on their offices.
therapeutic and aphrodisiac virtues
Shirley Binder, the Panama delegate, argued that sharks that will now benefit from the protection of the CITES represented “approximately 90 % of the market” of squale fins. This market, whose center is in Hong Kong, exceeds the half-mini dollars per year (or 483 million euros). The fins can sell $ 1,000 (960 euros) per kilo in East Asia to make very famous soups of traditional Chinese gastronomy.
adorned with mythical therapeutic and aphrodisiac virtues, formerly reserved for the Emperor of China, then for an elite, this dish became a marker of social success, essential in banquets and festive meals.
The guys-guitars (rhinobatidae) and species of fresh water rays (potamotrygon) will also benefit from the protection of Annex II, decided the CITES by consensus.
“This will be remembered as the day we have reversed the trend to prevent the extinction of sharks and rays from the world,” welcomed the NGO Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in a press release. “This historic list of a hundred highly marketed species will lead to the adoption of conservation measures at the national level which these species urgently need. The next crucial step will consist in implementing these inscriptions and to ensure that They result in commercial and more solid fisheries management measures as soon as possible, “warns the NGO.
According to the regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Fund for Animal Protection (IFAW), Joaquin de la Torre, “sharks and rays are today the group of species More threatened, more threatened even than elephants and great felines “. “International demand for their fins and their flesh (…) has caused a significant decrease in their populations around the world: it is estimated that more than 100 million sharks die each year in fisheries, twice” in the number of samples To preserve the species, he told the France-Presse agency (AFP).
The only dissonant voice in environmental defense organizations, the French NGO Foundation Brigitte Bardot denounced in a press release “a high mass [which] has once again demonstrated that the CITES is not intended To protect wild animals but to orchestrate their international trade by trying to repair, with some dressings, the ecological disaster that it causes “.