Born Free USA Blog:
CITES Day 2
(Video) The Death of Diplomacy?
In an extraordinary, unprecedented, and quite undiplomatic start to CITES CoP 15, a delegate from Botswana moved during plenary to have Proposal 6 removed from the Agenda. This proposal, submitted by Ghana, Mali, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Congo Brazzaville and Liberia, seeks to prevent further ivory trading and maintain the current level of CITES protection for elephants for the next 20 years.
CITES Opens
A Call to Action
The 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES officially opened this afternoon in Doha, with thousands of delegates spread throughout the Doha Sheraton Conference Center.
The opening ceremony, filled with ceremonial music and dance, included speeches from the Qatar Minister of the Environment, Abdullah bin Aaboud al-Midhad, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Achim Steiner, and the Secretary-General of CITES, Willem Wijnstekers.
1 Day until CITES
(VIDEO) CITES on the Horizon ...
We have arrived safely in Doha, Qatar for the 15th CITES meeting and the whispering in the halls has begun.
Climate Change Will Bring a Silent Spring
Released on March 11, 2010, by Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, “The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change” is a call to action. Though not as elegantly written, it is nevertheless reminiscent of the warnings of Rachel Carlson’s Silent Spring, which drew attention to the decline of birds as a result of pesticides such as DDT and inspired the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
8 Days Until CITES
12 tusks recovered from poachers
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe — Ivory poached in Zimbabwe finds a ready market in Botswana, according to the police.
Gorillas and gibbons love The Great Ape Conservation Act!
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a legislative hearing on the reauthorization of H.R. 4416, the Great Ape Conservation Act, a bill that has already been instrumental in protecting great ape species through funding granted by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to NGOs and other groups committed to their survival.
SeaWorld. Lesson learned or ignored?
I am a naysayer. A wet blanket. Chicken Little screaming that the sky is falling. A mean, Grinch-like scrooge of a man out to ruin every family’s good time out.
14 days until CITES
I Thought Ivory Was Taboo
I could have sworn that the consciousness of the world had evolved in the past twenty years so that exploitative items such as fur and ivory were taboo, shunned, and no longer sought after or seen.
Three feet of snow here in Washington, DC has reminded me that fur is still out there, and amazingly, worn with pride (or is it a smirk?). Surely there is a moment when it is donned where the unglamorous ignorant sees her reflection and thinks “I can’t wear this!” Apparently not.
