2.20 Conservation of marine biodiversity

RECALLING Recommendations 17.38 Marine and coastal zone conservation adopted by the 17^th Session of the IUCN General Assembly (San Jose, 1988) and 1.37 Marine Protected Areas adopted by the 1^st Session of the World Conservation Congress (Montreal, 1996), 19.46 Marine and Coastal Area Conservation, and 19.56 Global Fisheries adopted by the 19^th Session of the IUCN General Assembly (Buenos Aires, 1994);

ACKNOWLEDGING the jurisdictional framework for the marine environment provided by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982;

RECALLING that Article 197 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 calls upon States to “cooperate on a global basis and, as appropriate, on a regional basis … for the protection and preservation of the marine environment, taking into account regional features”;

RECALLING that the 1995 Jakarta Mandate on Marine and Coastal Biological Diversity, adopted by the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), reaffirmed that there is a critical need to address the conservation and sustainable use of marine and coastal biological diversity;

RECALLING that the 1995 FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries calls upon states to apply the precautionary approach widely to conservation, management, and exploitation of living aquatic resources in order to protect them and preserve the aquatic environment;

RECALLING that Decision 7/1(22) of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development encouraged States to establish and manage Marine Protected Areas, along with other appropriate management tools, in order to ensure the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable management and use of oceans;

RECOGNIZING that the biodiversity of the marine environment, both within coastal State jurisdictions and on the high seas, as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982, is an integral part of the natural and cultural heritage of the world;

FURTHER RECOGNIZING that recent discoveries have demonstrated that seamounts support highly diverse fauna with a high degree of endemism, and that these faunas are little known and may be threatened;

CONCERNED that many marine ecosystems both within coastal State jurisdictions and on the high seas have become seriously degraded as a result of human activities and that the rate of degradation continues to increase;

ACKNOWLEDGING that the biodiversity of the oceans is extensive, including phyla not found on land, and that a significant portion of the oceans’ biodiversity can be found in areas far from shallow coastal waters and beyond the jurisdictional limits of coastal States;

RECOGNIZING that while knowledge of the resources of the high seas is limited, increasingly areas with significant biodiversity values and potential economic value are being identified that would benefit from a conservation approach, whereby any use must be ecologically sustainable, and based on a precautionary approach to initial exploration and potential use, consistent with Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development;

CONCERNED that there are limited international mechanisms to ensure sustainable management of living and non-living marine resources that straddle coastal State jurisdictions and the high seas, or that they are restricted entirely to the high seas;

OBSERVING that technology and capacity are rapidly developing to facilitate increased extraction of living and non-living marine resources;

BELIEVING that the marine environment of the high seas, including all living and non-living resources, is the common heritage of all people, to be used with judgement, and not to excess;

BELIEVING that, linked with common ownership, is a common responsibility to ensure the maintenance of marine resources for the direct benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations and to ensure that any use of marine resources is appropriate; and

RECOGNIZING that Marine Protected Areas, covering the full range of IUCN categories and providing for ‘multiple use’, can be valuable tools for integrating biodiversity conservation, responsible fisheries, mineral exploration and extraction, particularly sensitive sea areas, tourism, and scientific research in a sustainable manner;

The World Conservation Congress at its 2^nd Session in Amman, Jordan, 4-11 October 2000:

1. URGES all countries that have not already done so to sign and ratify the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 and the UN Fish Stock Agreement, 1995;

2. REAFFIRMS IUCN’s commitment to the creation of a representative system of Marine Protected Areas at regional and global scales to provide for the protection, restoration, sustainable use, understanding, and enjoyment of the marine heritage of the world in perpetuity;

3. RENEWS IUCN’s recommendation that each national government should seek cooperative action between the public and all levels of government for the development and management of a national system of Marine Protected Areas;

4. CALLS ON the Director General to work with IUCN members and multilateral agencies to explore an appropriate range of tools, including high seas Marine Protected Areas, with the objective of implementing effective protection, restoration, and sustainable use of biological diversity and ecosystem processes on the high seas;

5. CALLS ON national governments, international agencies, and the non-governmental community to better integrate established multilateral agencies and existing legal mechanisms to identify areas of the high seas suitable for collaborative management action, and to reach agreement by consensus on regimes for their conservation and management.

This Resolution was adopted by consensus. The delegation of the State member United States indicated that had there been a vote the delegation would have abstained.

2.25 Conservation of plants

RECOGNIZING the fundamental importance of plants for the maintenance of all other forms of life;

ALARMED at the massive extinction crisis affecting plant species;

NOTING the Plant Conservation Programme that has been developed by the Species Survival Commission (SSC) to address this crisis;

RECOGNIZING the Gran Canaria Declaration on the Need for a Global Programme for Plant Conservation issued by 16 of the world’s leading botanists, including eight members of the SSC Plant Conservation Committee, on 4 April 2000; and

FURTHER NOTING Decision V/10 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that agrees to consider the establishment of a global strategy for plant conservation at the 6^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD;

The World Conservation Congress at its 2^nd Session in Amman, Jordan, 4-11 October 2000:

1. COMMENDS the Species Survival Commission for its work in developing the Plant Conservation Programme, and calls for the rapid implementation of this Component Programme within the context of IUCN’s Overall Programme;

2. ENDORSES the Gran Canaria Declaration on the Need for a Global Programme for Plant Conservation;

3. URGES Parties to the CBD to consider the establishment of a global strategy for plant conservation at the 6^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD;

4. REQUESTS the Director General and the Species Survival Commission to provide technical and scientific assistance to the CBD in the development of a global plant conservation strategy;

5. AGREES to assist and promote the development and implementation of a global plant conservation strategy under the auspices of the CBD (Key Result Area 2, Result 6) in IUCN’s Overall Programme.

2.29 IUCN Policy Statement on Sustainable Use of Wild Living Resources

RECALLING Resolution 1.39 Sustainable Use Initiative adopted by the 1^st Session of the World Conservation Congress, requested the Species Survival Commission’s (SSC) Sustainable Use Specialist Group (SUSG) to develop urgently a short policy paper on sustainable use for written comment from IUCN members, and for SSC to take these comments into account in preparing a final draft for presentation at the next World Conservation Congress;

ACKNOWLEDGING that, in accordance with Resolution 1.39, the Steering Committee of the SUSG drafted the Policy Statement on Sustainable Use of Wild Living Resources, the final version of which is attached as an Annex to this Resolution;

ALSO ACKNOWLEDGING that successive drafts of this statement were reviewed by members of 14 regional SUSGs, Chairs and members of the SSC Specialist Groups, the SSC Steering Committee, Chairs of other Commissions, heads of IUCN’s Thematic and Regional Component Programmes, and IUCN’s members;

RECOGNIZING that sustainable use is one of the three components of the objective of the Convention on Biological Diversity and that the Convention provides a definition of ‘sustainable use’;

NOTING that Article 3 of the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar Convention) obliges its Contracting Parties to implement wise use approaches and that, in particular, the Convention has recently produced a series of Wise Use Handbooks;

ALSO NOTING that the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) have endorsed the principle of sustainable use in Resolution Conf. 8.3;

RECOGNIZING that sustainability and sustainable use are concepts that are now being applied to sectors beyond the scope of this policy statement per se, e.g. water, agriculture, soils; and

NOTING that most Component Programmes of IUCN work on sustainable use and that there is a need for the principles of sustainable use to be mainstreamed in all pertinent IUCN technical, regional, national, project, and Commission activities;

The World Conservation Congress at its 2^nd Session in Amman, Jordan, 4-11 October 2000:

1. ADOPTS the Policy Statement attached herewith and commends the policy to IUCN’s members, Commissions, and Secretariat for implementation in the context of its Overall Programme, and in accordance with the objectives of IUCN;

2. CALLS ON the Secretariat to report on the progress achieved in implementing the terms of the Policy Statement at the 3^rd World Conservation Congress.

This Resolution was adopted by a show of hands. The delegation of the State member United States indicated that it had abstained.

Policy Statement on Sustainable Use of Wild Living Resources (Annex to Resolution 2.29)

1. Conservation of biological diversity is central to the mission of IUCN, and accordingly IUCN recommends that decisions of whether to use, or not to use, wild living resources should be consistent with this aim.

2. Both consumptive and non-consumptive use of biological diversity are fundamental to the economies, cultures, and well-being of all nations and peoples.

3. Use, if sustainable, can serve human needs on an ongoing basis while contributing to the conservation of biological diversity.

4. In Recommendation 18.24, adopted by the 18^th Session of the General Assembly (Perth, 1990), IUCN – The World Conservation Union recognized that “the ethical, wise and sustainable use of some wildlife can provide an alternative or supplementary means of productive land use, and can be consistent with and encourage conservation, where such use is in accordance with appropriate safeguards”.

5. This position was reaffirmed in Recommendation 19.54 at the following session of the Union’s General Assembly in 1994 and subsequently in Resolution 1.39 at the 1^st Session of the World Conservation Congress in 1996.

6. Analyses of uses of wild living resources in a number of different contexts demonstrate that there are many biological, social, cultural, and economic factors, which combine in a variety of configurations to affect the likelihood that a particular use may be sustainable.

7. On the basis of these analyses, IUCN concludes that:

(a) Use of wild living resources, IF sustainable, is an important conservation tool because the social and economic benefits derived from such use provide incentives for people to conserve them;

(b) When using wild living resources, people should seek to minimize losses of biological diversity;

(c) Enhancing the sustainability of uses of wild living resources involves an ongoing process of improved management of those resources; and

(d) Such management should be adaptive, incorporating monitoring and the ability to modify management to take account of risk and uncertainty.

8. To increase the likelihood that any use of a wild living resource will be sustainable requires consideration of the following:

(a) The supply of biological products and ecological services available for use is limited by intrinsic biological characteristics of both species and ecosystems, including productivity, resilience, and stability, which themselves are subject to extrinsic environmental change;

(b) Institutional structures of management and control require both positive incentives and negative sanctions, good governance, and implementation at an appropriate scale. Such structures should include participation of relevant stake-holders and take account of land tenure, access rights, regulatory systems, traditional knowledge, and customary law;

(c) Wild living resources have many cultural, ethical, ecological and economic values, which can provide incentives for conservation. Where an economic value can be attached to a wild living resource, perverse incentives removed, and costs and benefits internalized, favourable conditions can be created for investment in the conservation and the sustainable use of the resource, thus reducing the risk of resource degradation, depletion, and habitat conversion; and

(d) Levels and fluctuations of demand for wild living resources are affected by a complex array of social, demographic, and economic factors, and are likely to increase in coming years. Thus attention to both demand and supply is necessary to promote sustainability of uses.

9. IUCN is committed to ensuring any uses of wild living resources are equitable and ecologically sustainable, and to this end it has established the Sustainable Use Initiative which incorporates regionally structured Specialist Groups of the Species Survival Commission to:

(a) Identify, evaluate, and promote the principles of management that contribute to sustainability and enhanced efficiency in the use of wild living resources; and

(b) Regularly communicate their findings to members and the broader community.

2.31 Genetically Modified Organisms and biodiversity

WHEREAS there is widespread concern that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could have potentially dangerous effects on living organisms and their ecosystems;

AWARE of the growing movements throughout the world opposing genetic modification and aware of rejections of genetic modification in agriculture and food production;

WHEREAS, in particular, releasing genetically modified organisms into the environment may pose a threat of significant reduction or loss of biological diversity;

MINDFUL of the obligations undertaken by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and welcoming the adoption of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity and calling for its early ratification and implementation;

NOTING that potential effects of GMOs for achieving global food security have not been adequately demonstrated so far;

RECALLING the principles expressed in Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living published jointly by IUCN, WWF, and UNEP in 1991; and

RECOGNIZING the lack of knowledge on the effects on biodiversity of GMOs and the consequent importance of applying the precautionary approach as set out in Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and as reflected in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and in numerous international treaties;

The World Conservation Congress at its 2^nd Session in Amman, Jordan, 4-11 October 2000:

1. URGES IUCN’s members to apply the precautionary principle in their respective regions regarding further releases of genetically modified organisms into the environment;

2. REQUESTS the Director General to

(a) support initiatives to implement the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety; and

(b) propose to Council options for an IUCN contribution that will advance leadership, research, analysis, and the dissemination of knowledge regarding the potential ecological impact of the release of genetically modified organisms into the environment, focusing especially on biodiversity, socio-economic impact, and food security.

This Resolution was adopted by a show of hands. The delegations of the State members Australia, Canada, New Zealand and United States indicated that had there been a vote they would have abstained. The delegation of Canada provided a formal Statement for the Record indicating that the delegation had formally objected to an amendment changing the words “precautionary approach” to “precautionary principle”. The full statement of the Canadian delegation is contained in the Congress Proceedings. The delegation of the United States provided a formal Statement for the Record indicating inter alia that “the Resolution taken as a whole still appears to prejudge, in a negative and unbalanced manner, the question of the potential risks and benefits of biotechnology”. The full statement of the US delegation is contained in the Congress Proceedings.

2.64 The unsustainable commercial trade in wild meat

RECOGNIZING that wildlife is essential to both ecological systems and human cultures;

ACKNOWLEDGING the importance of wildlife to the well-being of human communities in many countries;

NOTING that despite the potential for sustainable exploitation of wildlife for commercial and subsistence purposes, there is an increasing unsustainable, and often illegal commercial trade in ‘meat and other products derived from wild animals for human consumption’ (in parts of Africa known as ‘bushmeat’, hereafter referred to as ‘wild meat’);

UNDERSTANDING that:

(a) this trade is a significant immediate threat to wildlife populations particularly in forest and grassland ecosystems throughout the world;

(b) a very wide range of species, even those not currently identified as threatened, are at risk of local extinction across wide areas;

(d) several species are already presumed extinct as a result of this trade;

CONCERNED that an unintended consequence of some international and national development programmes and resource extraction activities has contributed to the magnitude of the problem;

AWARE that political instability and deteriorating economic conditions in many countries also contribute to the magnitude of the problem;

CONCERNED that depletion of wildlife in many areas will have a substantial negative effect on the livelihoods and nutritional status of local human communities; and

CONSIDERING the complex relationship of the economic, cultural, ecological, and nutritional importance of this resource to local, national, and international stakeholders;

The World Conservation Congress at its 2^nd Session in Amman, Jordan, 4-11 October 2000:

1. ADVOCATES an immediate, collective global response to develop a clear understanding of the causes of, and to identify the most appropriate solutions to, the unsustainable commercial trade in wild meat;

2. URGES governments of all affected nations to recognize the socio-economic value of meat and other products derived from wild animals, and the increasing impact of the unsustainable commercial trade on long-term food security and national development;

3. URGES all States to adopt or strengthen legislation, where appropriate, and to enforce legislation, to control the unsustainable commercial trade in wild meat;

4. URGES all members and States to collaborate towards establishing appropriate information exchange regarding the sustainability of harvest and trade in wild meat, and to use that information to formulate and implement action programmes where needed;

5. URGES donor and lending organizations to provide additional resources to support appropriate and necessary programmes to control the unsustainable commercial trade in wild meat and address its root causes;

6. REQUESTS the Director General, the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC), and the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), in collaboration with relevant State members, agencies, organizations, and local stakeholders to:

(a) coordinate information and resources to identify and increase awareness of the root causes of unsustainable commercial trade in wild meat and contribute to solutions;

(b) urge international financing and donor organizations, national agencies, and the private sector to mitigate against the unintended consequences of development programmes and resource extraction activities on the unsustainable commercial trade in wild meat;

(c) urge natural resource extraction and infrastructure development companies and agencies to control hunting and trade in wild meat associated with their operations;

(d) urge timber-certifying entities to include into their certification processes criteria requiring the control of hunting and commercial trade in wild meat associated with logging operations;

(e) strengthen the management of protected areas to control the impact of unsustainable commercial trade in wild meat;

(f) identify existing resources, develop new financing mechanisms, and build capacity to develop and implement strategies and actions to address the problems of the unsustainable commercial trade in wild meat;

(g) involve all relevant regional and global IUCN programmes in efforts to develop other solutions to the problem of unsustainable commercial trade in wild meat, through dialogue with affected States and communities; and

(h) engage in existing and possible future dialogues with interested parties at the international level, including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Working Group on Bushmeat Issues established under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

This Resolution was adopted by consensus. The delegation of the State member United States provided a formal Statement for the Record indicating support for the Resolution and outlining a number of relevant US initiatives. The Statement is reproduced in full in the Congress Proceedings.

2.65 Incidental capture of marine turtles by pelagic longline fisheries

RECALLING Resolution 1.16 Fisheries by-catch, which was adopted by the 1^st Session of the World Conservation Congress (Montreal, 1996) and Recommendation 19.61 By-catch of non-target species, which was adopted by the 19^th Session of the IUCN General Assembly (Buenos Aires, 1994);

ACKNOWLEDGING the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 10 December 1982, including:

(a) Part V, Article 61, paragraph 4, relating to the obligations of States to consider the effects of fishing operations on “...species associated with or dependent upon harvested species with a view to maintaining or restoring populations of such associated or dependent species above levels at which their reproduction may become seriously threatened”;

(b) Part V, Article 63, paragraphs 1 and 2, which instruct States to cooperate in the conservation of the same stock or stocks of associated species occurring within the exclusive economic zones of two or more coastal States or both within the exclusive economic zone and in an area beyond and adjacent to it; and

(c) Part VII, Section 2,1 Articles 116 through 119 which provide obligations to States in relation to Conservation and Management of the Living Resources of the High Seas;

RECOGNIZING Article 8(c) of the Convention on Biological Diversity which instructs Parties to:

“Regulate or manage biological resources important for the conservation of biological diversity whether within or outside protected areas, with a view to ensuring their conservation and sustainable use”, and Article 8(f) which impels parties to “promote the recovery of threatened species, inter alia, through the development and implementation of plans or other management strategies”;

NOTING that the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) states in Article II, paragraph 1 that:

“Parties acknowledge the importance of migratory species being conserved and of Range States agreeing to take action to this end whenever possible and appropriate, paying special attention to migratory species the conservation status of which is unfavourable, and taking individually or in cooperation appropriate and necessary steps to conserve such species and their habitat”;

FURTHER NOTING that the 6^th Conference of Parties to CMS, in Resolution 6.2 (By-catch), inter alia:

“Requests all Parties, as a matter of gravity, to continue and strengthen measures with fisheries under their control, to minimize as far as possible the incidental mortality of migratory species listed in Appendices I and II, including sea birds, marine turtles, and cetaceans”;

AWARE of the UN Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 Relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, that requires (according to Article 5, paragraph f) coastal States and States fishing on the high seas to:

“minimize pollution, waste, discards, catch by lost or abandoned gear, catch of non-target species, both fish and non-fish species ... and impacts on associated or dependent species, in particular endangered species, through measures including, to the extent practicable, the development and use of selective, environmentally safe and cost-effective fishing gear and techniques”;

RECOGNIZING the endangered status of marine turtles, as listed in CITES and the IUCN Red List, and the broad range of threats, which include overexploitation, habitat loss, and fisheries by-catch;

ACKNOWLEDGING that marine turtles are slow-growing, slow-to-mature, long-lived, have low juvenile survival and thus may take decades to recover once human-induced sources of mortality are significantly reduced;

CONSIDERING that pelagic longline fishing has been shown to cause long-term harm to populations of some non-target species, especially marine turtles;

OBSERVING that marine turtles are captured worldwide in the lines and hooks of pelagic longlines and this number has not been adequately quantified, but is estimated to be at least tens of thousands of turtles annually;

RECOGNIZING that the incidental hooking or entanglement of marine turtles by pelagic longlines routinely results in their injury and subsequent death, either immediately observed or after release;

GREATLY CONCERNED that the incidental capture of marine turtles by pelagic longline fisheries has contributed significantly to the decline and near-extinction of several populations (e.g. Pacific populations of Leatherback Turtle Dermochelys coriacea) and is impeding the recovery of marine turtle populations worldwide, and thus undermines decades of conservation efforts and investments undertaken by many nations, organizations, and individuals;

APPLAUDING the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Committee on Fisheries (COFI) for recognizing the adverse impact of pelagic longline fishing on seabirds worldwide and for developing, under the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, and International Plan of Action for Reducing Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries (IPOA–Seabirds);

NOTING that each member State of COFI has agreed to develop a National Plan of Action for Reducing Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries (NPOA–Seabirds) that will require mitigation measures to decrease the incidental catch of seabirds;

NOTING that mitigation measures have been developed and proposed to reduce seabird by-catch in longline fisheries, and emphasizing that such measures should not adversely affect marine turtles;

AWARE that no gear/technological solution currently exists to mitigate the incidental capture of marine turtles by pelagic longline fisheries;

NOTING that the impact of Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing on marine turtles is not known; and

ALSO NOTING that the incidental catch of marine turtles may have an adverse impact on fishing activities;

The World Conservation Congress at its 2^nd Session in Amman, Jordan, 4-11 October 2000:

1. IMPLORES the FAO, in cooperation with IUCN members, States and regional fisheries bodies, to conduct a technical consultation to assess the magnitude of the incidental catch and mortality of marine turtles in pelagic longline fisheries worldwide;

2. URGES the FAO–COFI:

(a) to advise forthwith all nations and agencies involved in developing NPOA–Seabirds and similar initiatives that the incidental capture of marine turtles by longline fisheries is a serious threat to the survival of some populations of these reptiles in our world’s oceans, and thus the FAO, and all States and regional fishery organizations should develop collaborative and integrated efforts to ensure that such initiatives are consistent with each other and mitigation measures for some species do not negatively impact other species; and

(b) in cooperation with IUCN members, States, regional fishery organizations and other relevant intergovernmental organizations, to develop expeditiously an International Plan of Action for Reducing Incidental Catch of Marine Turtles in Longline Fisheries based on the assessment advocated in paragraph 1 which should be integrated fully with similar initiatives focused on other species, including the IPOA–Seabirds;

3. CALLS UPON States and other interested parties to support FAO in undertaking these initiatives;

4. EXHORTS, in accordance with the legal obligations derived from the instruments mentioned herein, all States and regional fishery bodies to take all possible measures to immediately assess the magnitude of the incidental capture of marine turtles in pelagic longline fisheries worldwide and to reduce the capture of marine turtles to the lowest possible levels;

5. REQUESTS that the FAO and IUCN members inform the Director General prior to, or at, the 3^rd Session of the World Conservation Congress on progress made toward evaluating and reducing incidental marine turtle mortality;

6. CALLS ON the Director General to report on the progress made toward implementing this resolution at the 3^rd Session of the World Conservation Congress and make further recommendations, as appropriate and necessary, to implement fully this Resolution.