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LATIN AMERICA: NGOs Call for Regional Whale Sanctuary

Daniela Estrada

VALPARAÍSO, Chile, Oct 17 2007 (IPS) - A score of Latin American whale conservation organisations have asked the Chilean senate to support their proposal to create a whale sanctuary in this country’s territorial waters, ahead of the next meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to be held in Chile in 2008.

“The context of this proposal is a regional initiative for conservation and non-lethal use of whales, promoted by the Latin American bloc within the IWC and led by the Buenos Aires group,” Bárbara Galletti, head of the non-governmental Chilean Cetacean Conservation Centre (CCC), told IPS.

The request was made on Tuesday at a meeting between 23 representatives of Latin American organisations for cetacean research and conservation and members of the senate Environment Commission, at the seat of Chile’s parliament in the port city of Valparaíso, 120 kilometres west of Santiago.

Last week the Confederation of Artisanal Fisherfolk (CONAPACH) sent a letter to President Michelle Bachelet with the same request.

The aim is “to establish a whale sanctuary in the territorial waters (12 nautical miles) and exclusive economic zones (extending to 200 nautical miles) of the countries in the region; that is, to permanently ban commercial and scientific whaling in these waters,” Galletti said.

Galletti is one of the representatives of marine conservation centres in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Uruguay and Venezuela who have been meeting in Santiago since Monday to coordinate their positions in advance of the IWC’s 60th annual meeting.

The next IWC meeting will be held from Jun. 23 to 27, 2008 in the Chilean capital. It will be the third time the IWC will be meeting in Latin America since its creation in 1946 by the countries that signed the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, and the second time, after a gap of 23 years, that it will be meeting in South America.

In 1986 the IWC agreed on a moratorium on commercial hunting of all species of whales, which only Norway, which continues to practise commercial whaling in its own waters, did not sign. Iceland and Japan also hunt whales, purportedly for scientific purposes.

The IWC is made up of 78 countries. At its meeting in May 2007 in Alaska, the Latin American bloc comprised Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru, representing 12.9 percent of the total vote. Mexico and Panama have already established whale sanctuaries in their waters, by presidential decree and by law, respectively. “Laws in Argentina and Brazil ban commercial and scientific whaling and intentional harassment of marine mammals,” Galletti said.

In Chile there is only a temporary administrative measure in force, which bans whaling until 2025. If the proposal for a regional whale sanctuary is successful, Chile’s portion would extend over 5.4 million square kilometres.

“It would be the first step towards a policy of conservation and non-lethal use of marine mammals,” involving plans for the recovery of threatened species and promotion of whale-watching tourism, said the expert.

“Latin America is the region with the greatest potential for developing non-lethal uses of whales, because it has large numbers of whales, knowledge has increased markedly in recent years about the populations of these mammals, and it has the political and social stability to allow tourists to visit the region,” she said.

The meeting in Congress was also attended by Environment Minister Ana Lya Uriarte, the national coordinator of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) project for multiple-use marine and coastal protected areas, Roberto de Andrade, and the head of environmental, marine and Antarctic affairs at the Foreign Ministry, Ambassador Cristián Maqueira.

At the meeting, attended by IPS, the non-governmental organisations’ (NGOs) proposal was praised because it aims at aligning Chile’s vigorous foreign policy on whale conservation with the country’s domestic strategy of protecting these species.

However, the authorities were cautious about making a concrete commitment to the proposal.

“When you create an international whale sanctuary, which we’re interested in doing because we think that it’s wholly beneficial from the environmental point of view, you take decisions at state level that have to be analysed from every point of view, not just the environmental one,” Uriarte told IPS after the meeting.

“As environment minister, the project has my full support and my vote,” said Uriarte, shifting any further responsibility on to the Foreign Ministry.

According to information provided by Uriarte, 50 out of the 83 known whale species in the world are found in the southern hemisphere, and 41 in the waters off of Chile, including the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus).

“Naturally the proposal is a welcome one, because it is consistent with Chile’s conservationist policy in regard to whales,” Maqueira told IPS.

“But when you take such a measure, dedicated exclusively to one species, you must be very careful how it’s done. You have to refine the details and the definitions, and study what consequences it may have, because different levels of fishing activities are going on in Chile,” he said.

“The problem is defining it rigorously enough,” said Maqueira, who predicted there would be “great internal debate” about relevant aspects of international law. He declined to estimate how long it would take.

At the meeting, he indicated that the current dispute between Chile and Peru over their Pacific ocean border, which the administration of Peruvian President Alan García will be taking to the International Court of Justice in The Hague in November, would also be part of the debate.

The Chilean senate’s Environment Commission promised to sign a draft agreement to request that the executive branch create the whale sanctuary.

At the same meeting, some NGO representatives called on the Chilean authorities to take a more active role against the Japanese position in the IWC.

“Chile has always opposed Japan’s initiatives, which we believe undermine the basic pillars of the work of the Whaling Commission, and we will continue to do so,” said Maqueira.

“We must also consider that the IWC is a paralysed organisation, because it’s divided into two sides: the conservationists, who control 55 percent of the votes, and the pro-whaling lobby, which controls 45 percent.” When a two-thirds majority is required, this basically results in a stalemate, so pondering the future of the IWC is essential, Maqueira said.

The NGOs estimate that with Uruguay’s reentry to the IWC in September 2007, Colombia’s recent incorporation and the possible reentry of Venezuela, the Latin American bloc’s share of the vote could grow to 18.8 percent.

“Latin American countries are a strategic bloc for any resolution presented at the IWC,” Beatriz Bugeda, of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in Mexico, told IPS. IFAW sponsored the coordination meeting of NGOs in Santiago.

“One vitally important issue for the region, which will be discussed at the next meeting of the IWC, is the proposal presented by Argentina and Brazil to create a whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic,” she said.