Fed: Aust facing tough battle to protect whales

AAP General News (Australia)
04-15-2000
Fed: Aust facing tough battle to protect whales

CANBERRA, April 15 AAP - Australia is facing a battle against Japan and Norway in its
bid to better protect whales in the southern hemisphere.

Environment Minister Robert Hill has conceded Japan will not budge in its push to downlist
Minke and Gray whales from the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES) list.

Four key measures designed to protect the whales from hunting are hanging in the balance
at the CITES international convention in Nairobi this week.

Australia will vote against the Japanese and Norwegian push to reduce protection for
the whales, but a one-third majority is required to win.

"Well, Japan knows our position quite clearly and we know theirs," Senator Hill told AAP.

"Over time it is useful (to try to influence Japan), but in terms of the immediate
meetings, whatever we say won't influence Japan to change its negotiation position.

"We say to Japan, it's a matter of who wins the debate and who wins the numbers."

But it is not yet clear whether Australia and other nations supporting its stance have
been able to secure a majority.

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), attending the Nairobi convention running
until April 20, said Norway, Japan, Russia and Iceland were all seeking a resumption of
commercial whaling in the northern and southern hemispheres.

And they were bringing pressure to bear on the smaller nations, ACF national marine
campaigner, Margi Prideaux, said.

"All three Pacific Island states party to CITES - Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Fiji
- have received significant pressure from the proposal proponents to either support or
abstain," she said.

Any abstentions from voting could reduce the majority needed by Japan and Norway to
downlist the whales, allowing for more whaling.

The whales have not been officially hunted since a moratorium in the late 1980s, but
Japan conducts whaling on scientific grounds.

The decision was expected to be made late next week.

AAP lm/as/br

KEYWORD: CITES

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