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Tiger Enforcement Task Force Passes
COP 11 opened with a controversial and unprecedented recommendation of sanctions to be levied against India for apparent failures within its tiger conservation program. Under the auspices of the Secretariat and the Standing Committee a political mission set off to follow the COP 9 mandate to take "bold and unprecedented actions" on behalf of the tiger. As reported in earlier editions of the Conservation Tribune, the Mission recommended that the world withhold funding and that CITES bring sanctions against India for failing to take adequate enforcement steps in protecting its tigers. What began as a "big stick" turned into a dangled carrot with the creation of a CITES Tiger Enforcement Task Force (CTETF). The CTETF raises certain questions among delegates. A bid to create a more universal "enforcement taskforce" was rejected at COP 9 and again at COP 10. This effort is species specific to the tiger. Balancing the preservation of national sovereignty over the management of its resources with the issue of enforcement is delicate and frustrating. NGOs literally salivate at the power of such a global enforcement office. The tiger working group created at COP 11 hoped to stifle any perception that the tiger unit was a backdoor attempt to reinstate the previously rejected unit by making it tiger specific and a conduit for information on wildlife crime and criminals as well as source for technical assistance to range states. Only time will tell if it proves a useful model for other species or yet another bureaucratic mechanism left to languish from neglect. |
