Whaling Row Follows<IPS, May 3(2)
投稿者： tom44 投稿日時： 2002/05/09 00:36 投稿番号： [1651 / 62227]
"The proposed sanctuary would protect these (whale) populations and allow their recovery,'' the submission states. The proposed sanctuary would span from Papua New Guinea in the west to Pitcairn Island in the east and from Fiji and Tonga north to the equator.
In October 2001, a forum of South Pacific nation leaders backed the proposal for a South Pacific Whale Sanctuary. However, the proposal, rejected twice before by the IWC, is likely to fall just short of the required three-quarters of the votes of the 43 member nations.
As a fall back option, South Pacific nations have agreed to implement a ban on whaling within their 200-mile exclusive economic zones.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Sir Mekere Morauta, announced at the opening of conference on marine mammals in Port Moresby that PNG would declare all the oceans within its exclusive economic zone as a whale sanctuary.
"Recent research shows that Papua New Guinea's waters cover migratory routes and possibly contain important breeding grounds for certain whale species,'' he said.
''Our decisions will help protect some of the whale species that are at risk from commercial hunting. It will also help protect the marine environment,'' he added. In September 2001, the Cook Islands government announced they had declared a whale sanctuary within their exclusive economic zone.
The persistence of South Pacific nations in pressing the case for the South Pacific Whale Sanctuary irritates the Japanese Fisheries Agency, which argues that whales consume vast quantities of fish and should therefore be hunted to allow more productive fisheries.
"They should leave their frivolous proposal for the sanctuary at home", a senior official of the Fisheries Agency of Japan, Maseyuku Komatsu, said in a statement early in April.
The confidence of the Japanese government that the sanctuary proposal would be defeated is based on the unwavering support it gains from Caribbean countries it provides fisheries development aid to.
In an interview last year with Australian ABC TV, Komatsu said that the Japanese government used the "tools of diplomatic communications and promises of overseas development aid to influence members of the International Whaling Commission".
Greenpeace claims that the Fisheries Agency of Japan has now expanded its 'vote buying' efforts to countries in West Africa.
While the Japanese Fisheries Agency may be enlisting political support within the IWC, a survey of 3000 released in late March by the Japanese newspaper 'Asahi Shimbun' revealed that domestic support for whaling was waning.
While the poll revealed that 47 percent of those surveyed supported the continuation of whaling, opposition to whaling has risen by 7 percent since a similar survey in 1993.
While the South Pacific Whale Sanctuary proposal is likely to be a major source of conflict at the conference, the focus of Japan's lobbying efforts is on the adoption of the "Revised Management Scheme" (RMS).
The RMS is a set of rules that would govern any resumption of commercial whaling, without which the IWC moratorium on commercial whaling cannot be lifted.
Greenpeace is adamant that the efforts to develop the RMS should be abandoned. "We believe is it unnecessary and unwise to embark on development of a scheme whose only purpose is to allow for a resumption of commercial whaling", it argues.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/newstmpl=story&cid=655&655&e=4&u=/oneworld/20020503/wl_oneworld/13343_1020431780
In October 2001, a forum of South Pacific nation leaders backed the proposal for a South Pacific Whale Sanctuary. However, the proposal, rejected twice before by the IWC, is likely to fall just short of the required three-quarters of the votes of the 43 member nations.
As a fall back option, South Pacific nations have agreed to implement a ban on whaling within their 200-mile exclusive economic zones.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Sir Mekere Morauta, announced at the opening of conference on marine mammals in Port Moresby that PNG would declare all the oceans within its exclusive economic zone as a whale sanctuary.
"Recent research shows that Papua New Guinea's waters cover migratory routes and possibly contain important breeding grounds for certain whale species,'' he said.
''Our decisions will help protect some of the whale species that are at risk from commercial hunting. It will also help protect the marine environment,'' he added. In September 2001, the Cook Islands government announced they had declared a whale sanctuary within their exclusive economic zone.
The persistence of South Pacific nations in pressing the case for the South Pacific Whale Sanctuary irritates the Japanese Fisheries Agency, which argues that whales consume vast quantities of fish and should therefore be hunted to allow more productive fisheries.
"They should leave their frivolous proposal for the sanctuary at home", a senior official of the Fisheries Agency of Japan, Maseyuku Komatsu, said in a statement early in April.
The confidence of the Japanese government that the sanctuary proposal would be defeated is based on the unwavering support it gains from Caribbean countries it provides fisheries development aid to.
In an interview last year with Australian ABC TV, Komatsu said that the Japanese government used the "tools of diplomatic communications and promises of overseas development aid to influence members of the International Whaling Commission".
Greenpeace claims that the Fisheries Agency of Japan has now expanded its 'vote buying' efforts to countries in West Africa.
While the Japanese Fisheries Agency may be enlisting political support within the IWC, a survey of 3000 released in late March by the Japanese newspaper 'Asahi Shimbun' revealed that domestic support for whaling was waning.
While the poll revealed that 47 percent of those surveyed supported the continuation of whaling, opposition to whaling has risen by 7 percent since a similar survey in 1993.
While the South Pacific Whale Sanctuary proposal is likely to be a major source of conflict at the conference, the focus of Japan's lobbying efforts is on the adoption of the "Revised Management Scheme" (RMS).
The RMS is a set of rules that would govern any resumption of commercial whaling, without which the IWC moratorium on commercial whaling cannot be lifted.
Greenpeace is adamant that the efforts to develop the RMS should be abandoned. "We believe is it unnecessary and unwise to embark on development of a scheme whose only purpose is to allow for a resumption of commercial whaling", it argues.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/newstmpl=story&cid=655&655&e=4&u=/oneworld/20020503/wl_oneworld/13343_1020431780
これは メッセージ 1 (whale_ac さん)への返信です．
固定リンク：https://yarchive.emmanuelc.dix.asia/1834578/a45a4a2a1aabdt7afa1aaja7dfldbja4c0a1aa_1/1651.html