Le Canada ne respecte pas ses engagements (CITES)

[Animal 0]

For: World Wildlife Fund Canada
Stock Symbol:
Contact: Wendy Douglas, World Wildlife Fund Canada
Primary Phone: 416-484-7726
E-mail: wdouglas@...

Date issued: May 23, 2005
Time in: 03:00 e

Attention: Agriculture Editor, Assignment Editor, Environment Editor, News
Editor

Canada uncommitted to protecting wildlife
Update on the most important environmental agreement you've never heard of


Vancouver, British Columbia, May 23 /PR Direct/ - Canada is not meeting its
obligation to implement the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) - the most important and effective
global wildlife conservation agreement in existence - according to a new
report by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, entitled CITES,
Eh? CITES is an international agreement between 167 countries that protects
more than 30,000 species of animals and plants from over-exploitation.

Canada was the tenth nation to ratify CITES, bringing it into force on July
9, 1975. Thirty years later, Canada is still not providing the human and
financial resources to adequately administer or enforce the Convention.

"The inadequacies in Canada's CITES programme can be traced to insufficient
resources for administering and enforcing the convention", stated Ernie
Cooper, the National Representative of TRAFFIC in Canada (TRAFFIC works in
co-operation with the Secretariat of CITES and is a joint programme of WWF
and IUCN - the World Conservation Union). " It appears that CITES is not a
priority for the Canadian government as a whole or for Environment Canada,
the department charged with ensuring that the Convention is effectively
implemented. The offices for the CITES management and scientific authorities

are understaffed and cannot carry out all of their responsibilities."

There are about 50 federal wildlife enforcement officers in Canada. Less
than half are dedicated to CITES enforcement and only about eight are
actually involved in inspecting the movement of wildlife into Canada to try
and catch illegal shipments of endangered species. "The government of Canada

needs to provide Environment Canada with the resources to hire at least 100
more wildlife enforcement officers," Cooper stated.

Canada is an exporter of its native wildlife and a significant importer of
exotic species - sometimes including threatened and endangered species such
as tigers and rhinos. "However, despite the good legislative base for
implementing CITES, there is a long list of gaps in Canada's administration
and enforcement of the Convention - gaps that affect the conservation of
wildlife around the globe and not just Canada," said Cooper.

Examples of Canada's wildlife trade include:
. In 2004, an Ontario man was convicted of illegally exporting bear
gallbladders.
. Every year more than 10,000 black bears are exported as trophies.
. In 2003, authorities intercepted a shipment of more than 2,000 packages of

medicine made from leopard bone (an endangered species).
. In 2002, approximately 400,000 kg of frogs' legs were imported from
Vietnam into Canada. This was done in more than 40 shipments, but Vietnam
only issued permits for 8 of those shipments.
. In 2003, a Manitoba plant nursery was convicted of illegally importing
more than 200 endangered orchid plants.

"Nobody really knows all the species of live animals and plants that enter
Canada every year. This has implications not only for conservation, but for
agriculture and even human health," remarked Cooper, "In 2000, a Quebec man
was convicted of illegally importing endangered butterflies in a 'hollowed
out' hardcover book sent through the mail".

Canadians can support WWF's TRAFFIC program by going to wwf.ca. WWF-Canada
is currently running a campaign to raise awareness and money to stop the
illegal trade of tiger parts.

When a country joins CITES it must adopt its own domestic legislation to
make sure that the Convention is administered and enforced within its
borders. In 1992, Canada drafted the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and
Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act (WAPPRIITA) to
enforce CITES, although this did not come into force until 1996, when the
enabling regulations-the Wild Animal and Plant Trade Regulations (WAPTR)-
took effect."WAPPRIITA meets or surpasses the legislative needs of CITES," Cooper noted.

"In fact, despite it having taken more than 20 years in its making,
WAPPRIITA can now be considered a good model for developing or strengthening

domestic legislation for implementing CITES in other countries. But before
this can be done, we urgently need to start setting an example of effective
implementation on a practical level to the rest of the world."

CITES, Eh?, provides a detailed set of recommendations resulting from the
analysis of Canada's administration and enforcement of CITES. Execution of
these recommendations would drastically improve Canada's implementation of
the Convention and enhance the country's role in international wildlife
conservation.

TRAFFIC hopes that the report released today will serve as an incentive for
the Canadian government to fulfill its obligations to CITES and do its part
to ensure the survival of the world's endangered species.

The full report titled CITES, Eh? A Review of Canada's Implementation of
CITES Under WAPPRIITA is available at www.wwf.ca and www.traffic.org.
For more information and to arrange interviews with Ernie Cooper, the senior

author of the report, please contact:

Ernie Cooper, Canada National Representative, TRAFFIC North America
Tel: (604) 678-5152, cell: (604) 341-2358, E-mail: ecooper@...
or
Maija Sirola, Communications Coordinator of TRAFFIC International,
Cambridge, UK
Tel. +44 (0) 1223 277 427, email: maija.sirola@...

Notes to editors:

TRAFFIC - The wildlife trade monitoring network, works to ensure that trade
in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature.

TRAFFIC recognizes the diversity of cultural perspectives related to the use

of wildlife and collaborates with a wide range of other partners, many
governments and other organizations. TRAFFIC works in co-operation with the
Secretariat of CITES and is a joint programme of WWF and IUCN - the World
Conservation Union. www.traffic.org

CITES - The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora regulates international trade in more than 30,000 species of

wild animals and plants. The Convention is currently applied in 167
countries, including Canada. www.cites.org

WAPPRIITA - Legislation protecting Canadian and foreign species of animals
and plants that may be at risk of overexploitation because of illegal trade.

It is also to safeguard Canadian ecosystems from the introduction of species

considered to be harmful by controlling the international trade of certain
wild animals and plants, as well as their parts and derivatives.

www.cites.ec.gc.ca/eng/sct4/index_e.cfm

Environment Canada is the lead agency for CITES implementation in Canada.
www.cites.ec.gc.ca/default.cfm

- END PRESS RELEASE - 5/23/2005

/For further information: Ernie Cooper, Canada National Representative,
TRAFFIC North America
Tel: (604) 678-5152, cell: (604) 341-2358, E-mail: ecooper@...
/
http://www.prdirect.ca/en/view_release.aspx?TrafficID=2777

__________________________________________
Barry Kent MacKay
Canadian Representative
Animal Protection Institute
www.api4animals.org