International Whaling Commission (65th Meeting)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (George Eustice)
I was pleased to attend the first day of this year’s meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Slovenia (IWC65). I made very clear our commitment to maintaining the moratorium on commercial whaling and also to supporting ongoing work to strengthen IWC conservation and welfare initiatives.
I am happy to report that all UK objectives for this meeting were achieved. Most notable was the adoption of the UK-led welfare action plan, setting in train a programme of work to improve the IWC’s consideration of cetacean welfare. We worked hard with all IWC parties, including whaling nations such as Norway and Japan, to table a proposal that achieved consensus. This was a considerable achievement which demonstrates our strong leadership on such issues.
The UK-led recommendations to strengthen IWC conservation financing and improve financial governance and transparency were similarly adopted by consensus and praised. I was especially pleased at the significant floor time given to the conservation of small cetaceans by the IWC, with the UK raising our concerns about a number of species globally, including the Maui and Vaquita, as well as noting our concerns about ongoing hunts of small cetaceans. In addition, a resolution which sought to enhance international co-operation on highly migratory species, including small cetaceans, was adopted.
A number of other resolutions and schedule amendments were adopted at IWC65. This included a request from Denmark for an aboriginal subsistence whaling (ASW) quota for Greenland. This followed a controversial two year period where Greenland hunted in the absence of an IWC endorsed quota. In addition, an EU resolution on ASW, which seeks to improve IWC approaches to ASW, including the standardisation of needs statements, was also adopted as part of this package.
An important resolution that sought to incorporate the findings of the March 2014 judgment of the International Court of Justice on Japan’s scientific whaling in the southern ocean was adopted by a strong majority. Although it is disappointing that consensus could not be achieved, this ambitious resolution will still progress to the Scientific Committee and provide guidance in updating relevant processes for assessing scientific whaling permits.
I am especially pleased to note that the IWC has adopted measures to increase the participation of Civil Society in IWC meetings, as well as the improved consideration of conservation issues within the Scientific Committee. These two resolutions - agreed by consensus - were small but important steps forward, representing a significant achievement for the modernisation of IWC processes and continuing the work the UK began in 2011 to improve IWC governance.
A number of proposals were not successful. This included Japan’s long-standing request for a quota for “small-type coastal whaling”. In a change of approach, Japan now states that this is not a request for a new category of whaling, but a request for a quota for small scale commercial whaling. The proposal, which would undermine the moratorium on commercial whaling, was strongly defeated, but Japan will continue to pursue this issue intersessionally.
Although the UK voted in favour of establishing a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary, unfortunately the proposal narrowly missed the three-quarters majority required to be adopted. The proponents will progress this through the Scientific Committee in 2015. Another proposal we might expect to see return to the next meeting is a resolution on food security. Although all parties noted the importance of food security, a number of countries - including the UK - had concerns about the scope of the resolution and the competence of the IWC in relation to actions proposed. While the IWC can recognise the work done by organisations such as the FAO on the “right to food”, the IWC is not itself the forum for making resolutions on human rights. As no consensus was reached, the resolution was withdrawn and will be progressed intersessionally.
Finally, an EU led demarche to Iceland concerning continuing commercial whaling and international trade in whale products was delivered in Reykjavik on 15 September. Many countries drew attention to the demarche during the IWC meeting and requested that Iceland consider more profitable and sustainable alternatives like well managed whale watching.