Meetings and more meetings...

Today I attended a meeting held by the Convention of Migratory Species (CMS).

It was about how they are trying to synchronise their efforts with those of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to try and protect endangered species which rightly or wrongly are being traded between countries.

It was depressing. The chairman said, "Our efforts have been characterised by fragmentation. So many bodies are working, but not co-ordinating their work".

Parties were invited to speak. Ghana reported good progress on a national level, but problems when dealing with other countries (elephants and other migratory species, of course, know no boundaries). Liberia expressed that it had found it hard to connect at some of the meetings with the right people, and asked for guidance on how to proceed.

Zambia requested advice on how best to protect their species.

The chairman closed by saying we need to improve and consolidate.

I spoke to the Elizabeth Mrema, the Executive Secretary of UNEP/CMS, and she told me that it was depressing because even though Interpol has a branch dedicated to environmental crime, even if poachers are caught, it is left to the lawmakers of the country to penalise them, and often the fine is not enough to put them off re-offending. She said it would be good if governments could make the penalties prohibitively high, so that poachers really felt it was not worthwhile doing it, but that at the moment, the profits were much higher just to pay the fine and re-offend.

Yesterday, at the rhino and tiger press briefing, John Sellar, the CITES Chief Enforcement Officer, said the increasingly sophisticated organised crime rings are winning. He said that we have lost the battle to save the wild tiger, and that we need to ensure this does not happen to the rhino.

Some hope was offered by Fundisile Mketeni (Deputy Director General of Biodiversity and Conservation for SA Environmental Affairs) yesterday about the rhino situation. He said that a national wildlife crime reaction unit had recently been established in South Africa and that they had put a moratorium on selling existing horn.