SANTIAGO: The need to incorporate the protection of some 30,000 endangered species in sustainable development efforts is the focus of the talks begun on Monday by more than 2,000 delegates from 160 countries meeting in the Chilean capital.

The proposal by five Southern African countries to authorize limited international trade in ivory is one of the most contentious issues facing the 12th Conference of Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), inaugurated in Santiago.

According to CITES secretary-general Willem Wijnstekers, the ivory ban and the level of protection needed for the world’s whale populations are among the priorities on the agenda for the conference.

International trade in wild species involves an estimated 350 million plant and animal specimens each year.

The Convention, in force since 1975, establishes different levels of legal protection for more than 25,000 plant species and 5,000 animal species, depending on the adverse impact of international trade on their survival.

The species included in Appendix I of the Convention are those considered in danger of extinction. Appendix II lists species that are not necessarily in danger of extinction today, “but may become so unless trade is closely controlled”, but not as tightly as for Appendix I species.

The initiative to loosen the ban on ivory trade is an attempt by Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe to be allowed to export their reserves of 70 tons of raw ivory. They pledge to follow a series of controls in selling the ivory and to use the revenues from the sales to pay for efforts to protect the elephant, the Earth’s largest land mammal.

Kenya and India, which both have large elephant populations, are opposed to the initiative. They argue that easing the ivory ban would encourage poaching of these animals — found in 50 countries — for their highly prized tusks.

And in the case of the largest sea mammal, Japan is seeking open trade of Minke and Bryde whales, with managed whale hunting and trade to be based on national legislation and DNA identification. Similar proposals by this Asian whaling nation were rejected in 1997 and 2000.

The delegates to the 12-day conference will discuss 59 proposals for modifications of the Convention, including some related to other species of high commercial value, such as the mahogany tree, a Patagonian hakefish, Asian turtles and Latin American parrots.

Also to be debated are questions of conservation and application of measures for species that are threatened, but not in immediate danger of extinction.

Kenya proposed, for example, that the conference adopt a resolution on rescuing certain monkey species from the war-torn areas of Africa.

The United States is seeking to add 32 species of seahorse to Appendix II to provide protection for these otherwise vulnerable creatures. Seahorse populations have diminished 25 to 75 per cent between 1990 and 1995 in the ocean ecosystems of the Philippines, India, Indonesia and Thailand.

The negotiators will be asked to tighten controls on trade of leopard skins and hunting trophies, and to introduce limits in trade of 26 species of the giant tortoise, whose populations have seen a marked decline in Asia.

Among the species that countries are proposing to move from Appendix II to Appendix I are the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin, the yellow-headed Amazon of Central America and other tropical birds.—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.