New York, 14 April 2007: A group of NGOs and International Whaling Commission (IWC) commissioners gathered at the UN Headquarters in New York to discuss the current status of IWC and the possibility of legal amendments to modernize it, giving it a more protectionist character and clarifying its coverage of small cetaceans. The Executive Secretary of CMS, invited to attend the symposium in a personal capacity, stressed the need to focus on existing and effective instruments like CMS, before thinking of developing new legal tools.

Mr. Hepworth advised that IWC activists need to look honestly and fully at the existing international legal infrastructure. He reminded participants that the broad tendency of the UN, reflecting the views of the overwhelming majority of Governments, is to focus on streamlining, synergy and effective implementation of existing global treaties affecting the environment, rather than creating new ones.

“ In this context I have to advise you very strongly that if there are proposals to negotiate a new or substantially expanded successor to IWC as a UN treaty, it will be pointed out as soon as you step into the building outside that there are already exists a global UN Convention which covers whales rather comprehensively, with all the standard apparatus of a modern Multilateral Environmental Agreement (MEA). The convention is called CMS! “, he stressed and reminded participants about the current mandate of CMS.

CMS is administered by UNEP, and now has 102 Parties, substantially more than IWC, and has grown by about 20% over the last 3 years. Several further Parties are in the pipeline including Palau and Costa Rica, illustrating the increasing popularity of CMS and its broad appeal within the spectrum of views on whaling. “When these two new Parties accede to CMS later this year, 45 of the 73 IWC members will also be CMS Parties.” he noted. There are of course some important gaps, notably Japan, Brazil and the US. However, with the exception of the latter 2 countries, all the key members of the Like Minded Group are also CMS Parties. Norway is also a CMS Party.

The CMS Executive Secretary further noted that there are extensive listings of great and small cetacean species on the CMS appendices. Importantly for IWC, there are no disputes, whatsoever, within CMS about the legal vires of the Convention to cover small cetaceans.
“CMS is already, de facto and de iure, the major global convention for the conservation of small cetaceans. Virtually all small cetaceans are migratory; CMS is a UN organisation, addressing the issues in all parts of the world.” he added.

Mr. Hepworth invited countries to formally acknowledge the reality on the ground ie that CMS is the lead, global Inter-Governmental body for small cetaceans. The approach of CMS to small cetaceans is conservation-oriented, whilst not excluding sustainable use, and actively promoting non-lethal use such as safe wildlife-watching. As for great whales and whaling, he believes that was an argument belonging to IWC, which should continue to be discussed and eventually settled there.

“This is IWC´s core business and it should concentrate on it as long as it remains a major international controversy.” said Mr. Hepworth. “However” he added, “we need to ensure in future that the effects of the controversy do not freeze, deter, delay, or divert resources from the programmes which the Parties to CMS and its regional agreements have agreed to pursue internationally and regionally for the conservation for whales, and particularly small cetaceans for whom direct hunting is generally a secondary and receding threat in the 21st century. “


Notes for the reader:

The Executive Secretary of UNEP/CMS, Robert Hepworth, was participating and speaking in a personal capacity at the Symposium which was convened by the Pew Foundation and the Varda Group at UNHQ, New York on 12-13 April 2007. In his previous career, Mr Hepworth helped develop dolphinaria guidelines for the UK Government; participated in his national delegation to several meetings of the IWC Commissioners; drafted the first-ever national Government paper submitted to the IWC on the potential of whale watching as a non-lethal, sustainable use of whales; and helped to negotiate and establish the first cetacean agreement under UNEP/CMS (ASCOBANS) in the early 1990s.

Parties’ requirements under CMS:

The requirements on Parties for species, including great whales, listed on Appendix I of the Convention repay scrutiny. Under Article III, Range State Parties (which include flagged vessels) are required to conserve and restore whale habitats…prevent adverse activities or obstacles to their migration … and above all prohibit the taking of all listed whales with specified content-and-time limited exceptions for science, propagation, and traditional subsistence users. A more extensive list of whales, including many small cetaceans, are on Appendix II of the Convention, for which Range State Parties are required to try to conclude (regional) agreements. For more information please check: http://www.cms.int/documents/index.htm

Cetacean agreements under CMS:

There are already three CMS regional agreements for cetaceans in force: (i) ASCOBANS, covering Baltic and North Seas Small Cetaceans, and whose area is set to expand later in 2007 to cover Atlantic waters around Ireland and western Iberia; (ii) ACCOBAMS covering all cetaceans in the Mediterranean and Black Seas and (iii) the new agreement (in MoU form) for the conservation of cetaceans and the habitats in the Pacific Islands Region concluded under CMS in partnership with the regional seas agreement, SPREP. Negotiations on a 4th CMS regional Agreement, in the Eastern Atlantic (West Africa), perhaps covering all marine mammals, will open at a crucial meeting in the Canaries in October 2007. For more info see: http://www.cms.int/species/index.htm

Publications and Year of the Dolphin:

In 2005 CMS (with UNEP) published the current major scientific encyclopaedia of all small cetaceans species; in the current year, 2007, UNEP/CMS with our supportive partners the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), our commercial sponsors TUI, and with further support from ACCOBAMS, ASCOBANS and UNESCO, is running a highly successful international awareness and action campaign “Year of the Dolphin”. For more information check the Year of the Dolphin website at www.YoD2007.org

For more information please contact:
Paola Deda
Inter-Agency Liaison Officer
CMS Secretariat
pdeda@cms.int
Tel: +49 228 815 2462