IUCN 3rd World Conservation Congress
17-25 November 2004, Bangkok
IUCN Accepts Role of Recreational Hunting in Wildlife Conservation
1000 Members of the IUCN – The World Conservation Union – gathered at the Members Assembly of the 3rd World Conservation Congress have just adopted a Recommendation on sustainable consumptive use of wildlife and recreational hunting in Southern Africa.
Following an intense and controversial debate over the past days during which the CIC closely cooperated with the proponents of this Recommendation, namely the Game Rangers Association of Africa (GRA), the Endangered Wildlife Trust and the South African National Parks, and advised delegates on the importance of sound approaches to wildlife conservation by incorporating the needs of local populations, the IUCN members voted in favour of this Recommendation. The conservation of the sustainable use of wildlife can contribute to biodiversity by providing economic incentives for the conservation of natural areas.
With its Recommendation, IUCN “accepts that well-managed recreational hunting has a role in the managed sustainable consumptive use of wildlife populations” and “condemns the killing of animals in small enclosures where they have little or no chance of escape.” This is a clear statement against any form of “canned hunting”. “The Game Rangers Association of Africa (GRA) has always supported the sustainable use of wildlife in a legal manner which pays respect to animals and condemns any form of canned hunting”, says Tim Snow, Chairman of the GRA African Committee.
Sustainable Use of Wildlife Gets Strong Support at World Conservation Congress in Bangkok
By adopting the Addis Ababa Principles and Guidelines on Sustainable Use of Biodiversity at its 3rd World Conservation Congress 17-25th November in Bangkok, IUCN – The World Conservation Union – has firmly committed itself to their implementation. These Principles were developed under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The CIC was involved in shaping these Principles from the very beginning.
“These Principles represent the state of the art globally on sustainable use of biodiversity”, commented Robert Hepworth, Acting Executive Secretary of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) in introducing two workshops, organised by IUCN’s Sustainable Use Specialist Group (SUSG) and CIC at the Bangkok meeting, which illustrated the Principles and discussed their development and related tools for implementation.
Consumptive use of wild living resources is an imperative for many of the world's poorest people, yet with the global population burgeoning, these resources are threatened by overuse, which jeopardises both human livelihoods and biodiversity. Practical guidelines on how to increase the likelihood of use being sustainable are clearly needed. After an intense and lengthy participatory process, the Principles – based on IUCN's Amman Policy Statement on Sustainable Use of Wild Living Resources – were finally adopted by the Parties to the CBD in February 2004.
One key position emerging from the high-quality workshops was the need to ensure that tools for indicators and monitoring of sustainable use in practice must be kept simple and user-friendly for the benefit of local managers. Another one was the extent to which the Principles are already seen relevant to a wide range of activities. Commenting on this, David Morgan, Chief Scientist Officer of the CITES Secretariat said: “The recent CITES Conference of the Parties in Bangkok agreed to incorporate the Addis Ababa Principles and Guidelines into its work, not least in training and capacity building programmes, and it is significant that the proposal came from a developing country, namely Namibia.”
At the Congress, the CIC was substantially involved in the drafting promotion and successful adoption of the motions on the following topics (in addition to the Addis Principles already mentioned):
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Cherishing volunteers (i.e. more recognition of expert contribution to IUCN’s work)
In addition, CIC advised many NGO and several Government delegations, and closely worked together to ensure that delegates were fully informed on the issues raised the numerous workshops as well as key motions that impacted on sustainable use. The CIC contributed vigorously to the intense debates on the following motions, which contain important language relevant to the sustainable use of wildlife and hunting in particular:
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Conservation of the Saiga Antelope (tartarica and mongolica).
“We are very encouraged about the broad support to all issues of concern to the sustainable use of wildlife,” concludes CIC’s CEO Kai Wollscheid. He adds: “this IUCN World Conservation Congress has clearly given strong signal to the global community that the sustainable use of wildlife offers important contributions to development and livelihoods”.
