Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 4 • Number 20 • 5th November 2004
TRADE @ THE IUCN WORLD CONSERVATION CONGRESS
TRADE @ THE IUCN WORLD CONSERVATION CONGRESS
The 3rd IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC3), meeting from 17 to 25 November in Bangkok, Thailand, aims at setting priorities for conservation action. The first four days of the Congress feature more than 300 events on issues such as species loss, ecosystems, poverty and market instruments in the World Conservation Forum, attracting over 3,000 representatives of governments, business, science and civil society (see the Events section). The Members Business Assembly starting on 21 November will decide on the IUCN Programme 2005-2008, set long-term policies for IUCN and issue recommendations to other bodies.
The IUCN Programme 2005-2008
The draft programme to be adopted in Bangkok identifies population dynamics, consumption patterns, inequity, market failures and policy distortions as the four major underlying threats to sustainability and commits itself to deliver towards the Millennium Development Goals. It notes that multilateral instruments, not dedicated to the environment, are having a major impact on biodiversity and sustainable development and cites the WTO as an outstanding example. To address these impacts, the programme aims at improving the understanding of how markets, institutions and socio-economic forces create incentives and disincentives for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Non-environmental international arrangements such as the WTO should promote biodiversity conservation as a key element of successful sustainable development. This work includes incorporating biodiversity and sustainable development criteria into three regional trade agreements.
Trade-related motions
IUCN was given a strong mandate to work on trade and the environment at the 2nd World Conservation Congress in Amman 2000 with resolution 2.33. This mandate is incorporated in IUCN’s ongoing work and programme. Thus, no motions on trade and environment in general have been tabled so far, though a good number of motions feature trade as a means to achieve their objective or cite trade as a cause for concern. Under certain conditions, motions can still be submitted during the congress.
A motion called "Protecting the Earth’s waters for public and ecological benefits" (CGR3.RES010) tabled by the Sierra Club amongst others notes that "global trade and investment agreements treat water as a commodity and contain rules that favour profit by transnational corporations over the protection of the resource". It calls on the Director General and IUCN members to promote access to water as a human right and to take action to exclude water and water services from any multinational, regional or bilateral trade and investment agreement. The Centre for Sustainable Development (CENESTA) and others propose to promote "food sovereignty to conserve biodiversity and end hunger" (CGR3.RES067) within IUCN’s policies, especially in relation to FAO, WTO and CBD, and improve understanding of the role biodiversity conservation could play for reducing hunger.
A further motion by the Wildlife Conservation Society targets "Illegal and unsustainable international trade in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Mekong river riparian states" (CGR3.RES072) and urges all states to enforce legislation to control the illegal international trade in wildlife and wildlife products. This aim is supported by a motion on "Addressing the linkages between conservation, human and animal health, and security" (CGR.REC025) which amongst others calls for action to control global wildlife trade as a threat to human health worldwide. The importance of trade in species is acknowledged widely (e.g. for medicinal plants). Several species-specific motions (e.g. on Saiga Antelopes) call for trade bans or other trade measures to protect the species.
"The Precautionary Principle in Environmental Governance" (CGR3.REC008) is the title of a motion by Fauna and Flora International and others. It recalls the "increasing controversy over the Precautionary Principle [that] is impeding its effective implementation, and hampering progress within major policy-making arenas, including the Convention on Biological Diversity". The motion demands that the principle’s application should be based on assessments that take into account conservation, livelihoods, food security and economic considerations and incorporate socio-economic understanding and indigenous and traditional knowledge as well as formal environmental science. Reverting to the Precautionary Principle, another motion on Genetically Modified Organisms (CGR3.RES011), put forward by the Ecological Society of the Philippines, calls for a moratorium on further releases until they can be demonstrated to be safe beyond reasonable doubt.
While the IUCN Programme already places a strong emphasis on supporting efficient and equitable environmental governance and cooperation between institutions, a further motion (CGR.REC004) by the National Wildlife Federation and others calls for the creation of multilateral commissions on cooperation to achieve sustainable development which, inter alia, should address the challenges for capacity building in the context of economic integration and sustainable development. .
Bridges Trade BioRes will report on the outcomes of WCC3 in the forthcoming issues.
Additional Resources
Trade-related events at WCC3 and full programme
Daily coverage of WCC3 will be provided by IISD Earth Negotiations Bulletin.