PeteG
AH elite
This popped up on FB today on the Zambia DNPW page.
If this is true and the minister is aiming at community involvement, then he is certainly on the right track in my mind.
Some interesting stuff said...
Department of National Parks & Wildlife
3 hrs ·
Subject: Tourism and Arts PS calls for rural participation in CITES
September 29, 2016
MINISTRY of Tourism and Arts Permanent Secretary Stephen Mwansa has called for the establishment of the rural communities committee of the conference of parties of Convention On International Trade In Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) .
Making a presentation at the ongoing CITES Conference of Parties (COP 17) in Johannesburg, South Africa yesterday, Mr Mwansa said the participation of rural communities, in the cites decision-making mechanisms, has been almost completely neglected.
“Yet the lack of community engagement in natural resource management is one of the main causes of increased illegal trade in wildlife and other natural resources, and this neglect has far reaching ramifications,” he said.
He noted that the convention has not established any mechanism to assess the social consequences of listing of species in the appendices, and when cites makes decisions that restrict trade, without consultation with the people that share their land and livelihoods with wildlife, unintended consequences, such as illegal harvesting and hunting, are to be expected.
“CITES has no mechanism for addressing effectively the social consequences of its decisions on appendix listing and trade, when the livelihoods of many rural poor depend on that trade, is a serious humanitarian and sustainable development shortcoming,” he said.
Mr Mwansa said exclusively biological focus on the sustainability of biodiversity harvesting and trade can never guarantee sustainable use of any species, in fact it tragically refuses a critical tenet of sustainability as a principle, which requires, in its applications, an ecosystem scale of assessment, in which the social systems with their cultural, economic and political dimensions are embedded.
“The proposed draft resolution seeks, through the establishment of a permanent rural communities committee of the conference of the parties, to give an advisory role to representatives of legally recognized organizations of rural communities and/or Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) organizations on issues pertaining to biodiversity conservation,” he said.
The Permanent Secretary noted that it is envisaged that the proposed committee would provide guidance and advice to the parties, within the administrative structure of the convention, on issues related to biodiversity harvesting and trade, in order to assess, inter alia, the potential social impact of cites decisions, including amendments to proposals, draft decisions and resolutions of the conference of the parties, on peripheral rural communities and local communities.
“Of notable relevance, IUCN [International Union for Conservation of Nature] at its recent world conservation congress held a few weeks ago, adopted a motion on the role of indigenous peoples and local communities in tackling the illegal wildlife trade crisis. This motion, inter alia, urges the director general of IUCN to ‘Promote Opportunities for indigenous peoples and local communities to engage as equal partners in wildlife conservation and management decisions, including through establishing mechanisms for formal and structured consultation in relation to the decisions of multilateral environmental agreements”.
The motion received an overwhelmed support both from governmental and non-governmental IUCN members. Out of 156 governmental members, 139 voted yes for the motion and 17 abstain. We are confident that the same parties that are present here will now show that they want to implement their commitment by adopting the draft resolution that we have presented.
Importantly and recently the G7 environment ministries met in japan on 15 and 16 may 2016, and have issued a communiqué on the main outcomes of the meeting. Interestingly point 28 of the communiqué is relevant to the cites resolution presented by Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and United Republic of Tanzania for discussion at CITES COP 17 and it reads; “As economic instruments complement other approaches, we reaffirm that sustainable use including the legal commercial trade of wildlife may be beneficial to biodiversity conservation by engaging local communities. In this context, we reaffirm our commitment to effective implementation of CITES.”
If this is true and the minister is aiming at community involvement, then he is certainly on the right track in my mind.
Some interesting stuff said...
Department of National Parks & Wildlife
3 hrs ·
Subject: Tourism and Arts PS calls for rural participation in CITES
September 29, 2016
MINISTRY of Tourism and Arts Permanent Secretary Stephen Mwansa has called for the establishment of the rural communities committee of the conference of parties of Convention On International Trade In Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) .
Making a presentation at the ongoing CITES Conference of Parties (COP 17) in Johannesburg, South Africa yesterday, Mr Mwansa said the participation of rural communities, in the cites decision-making mechanisms, has been almost completely neglected.
“Yet the lack of community engagement in natural resource management is one of the main causes of increased illegal trade in wildlife and other natural resources, and this neglect has far reaching ramifications,” he said.
He noted that the convention has not established any mechanism to assess the social consequences of listing of species in the appendices, and when cites makes decisions that restrict trade, without consultation with the people that share their land and livelihoods with wildlife, unintended consequences, such as illegal harvesting and hunting, are to be expected.
“CITES has no mechanism for addressing effectively the social consequences of its decisions on appendix listing and trade, when the livelihoods of many rural poor depend on that trade, is a serious humanitarian and sustainable development shortcoming,” he said.
Mr Mwansa said exclusively biological focus on the sustainability of biodiversity harvesting and trade can never guarantee sustainable use of any species, in fact it tragically refuses a critical tenet of sustainability as a principle, which requires, in its applications, an ecosystem scale of assessment, in which the social systems with their cultural, economic and political dimensions are embedded.
“The proposed draft resolution seeks, through the establishment of a permanent rural communities committee of the conference of the parties, to give an advisory role to representatives of legally recognized organizations of rural communities and/or Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) organizations on issues pertaining to biodiversity conservation,” he said.
The Permanent Secretary noted that it is envisaged that the proposed committee would provide guidance and advice to the parties, within the administrative structure of the convention, on issues related to biodiversity harvesting and trade, in order to assess, inter alia, the potential social impact of cites decisions, including amendments to proposals, draft decisions and resolutions of the conference of the parties, on peripheral rural communities and local communities.
“Of notable relevance, IUCN [International Union for Conservation of Nature] at its recent world conservation congress held a few weeks ago, adopted a motion on the role of indigenous peoples and local communities in tackling the illegal wildlife trade crisis. This motion, inter alia, urges the director general of IUCN to ‘Promote Opportunities for indigenous peoples and local communities to engage as equal partners in wildlife conservation and management decisions, including through establishing mechanisms for formal and structured consultation in relation to the decisions of multilateral environmental agreements”.
The motion received an overwhelmed support both from governmental and non-governmental IUCN members. Out of 156 governmental members, 139 voted yes for the motion and 17 abstain. We are confident that the same parties that are present here will now show that they want to implement their commitment by adopting the draft resolution that we have presented.
Importantly and recently the G7 environment ministries met in japan on 15 and 16 may 2016, and have issued a communiqué on the main outcomes of the meeting. Interestingly point 28 of the communiqué is relevant to the cites resolution presented by Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and United Republic of Tanzania for discussion at CITES COP 17 and it reads; “As economic instruments complement other approaches, we reaffirm that sustainable use including the legal commercial trade of wildlife may be beneficial to biodiversity conservation by engaging local communities. In this context, we reaffirm our commitment to effective implementation of CITES.”
for engaging local communities and listening to them, not just the yapping dogs from the self appointed, self important NGO's.
