Special
Issue - 20 November 2004
IUCN
World Conservation Congress
Trade @
the Members' Business Assembly
The draft
IUCN Programme 2005-2008 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
on "IUCN's Work on Trade and Investment Policy Matters", to
be submitted to the Members' Business Assembly by the International Institute
for Sustainable Development (IISD), stresses the urgent need for IUCN
to continue its work on trade and investment (as mandated since 1990)
in light of recent developments in the trade and environment policy forums,
including ongoing trade negotiations in the WTO, the imminent entry into
force of the Kyoto Protocol, parallel and potentially conflicting negotiating
processes on access and benefit-sharing related to genetic resources and
traditional knowledge, current negotiations on fisheries subsidies, and
the impacts of changing global production patterns – primarily driven
by globalisation on natural resources. The motion calls on the Director
General to "continue and accelerate his efforts and investment"
to build capacity among IUCN members and the Secretariat to effectively
engage in trade policy-making processes and in trade-related environmental
negotiations.
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.
|
