Washington, DC, 30 April 2003: Leading international conservationist and former Secretary-General of CITES, Eugene Lapointe, cautioned the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia today against joining the International Whaling Commission (IWC) unless they are fully committed to abide by its rules.

The global campaign group Greenpeace has refocused its international fundraising this year by targeting Central European nations. As part of a publicity drive, it has lobbied nations, most recently at the Visegrad Four meeting in Kosice, Slovakia, to join the IWC to vote against Japan.

Responding to the campaign, Mr. Lapointe, President of IWMC World Conservation Trust, said: "Membership of the IWC obliges countries to base their positions on science when voting on whale catch quotas. If the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are serious about joining the IWC, they should affirm their intention to promote the use of science, and not simply act as Greenpeace’s poodles."

In the 1980s Greenpeace persuaded up to a dozen countries to join the IWC – in some cases by paying their membership fees – giving those opposed to whaling the three-quarters majority necessary to establish a moratorium on commercial whaling. Since then, in defiance of evidence from the organization’s Scientific Committee that most whale species are abundant, this voting block has maintained the ban.

With some of the countries originally recruited by Greenpeace switching sides, and additional countries joining that support the sustainable use of marine resources, the balance of power within the IWC is changing back towards those who favor limited whale harvesting. Greenpeace is now trying to regain control for the anti-whaling block by delivering new whaling opponents.

Mr. Lapointe added: "What is particularly troubling is that Greenpeace has framed the debate in Central Europe in a purely racist, anti-Japanese manner. It has ignored other whaling nations, such as Norway, Iceland, Denmark (Greenland), Russia and the USA, and inaccurately portrayed Japan as some sort of maverick nation defying international law. The truth is that Japan’s research whaling is legal and the desire of approximately half of the IWC’s membership to set sustainable catch quotas demonstrates broad support for the carefully managed harvesting of whales."

Last year, for the first time, the United States voted in favor of a Japanese resolution supporting a quota for its coastal whalers under specific conditions, suggesting it is finally moving away from its hardline anti-whaling past. With Japan providing strong support for the U.S. in its war against terrorism, and Prime Minister Koizumi backing the war in Iraq, the U.S. is expected to be more responsive to Japan’s position on whaling in the future.

Mr. Lapointe said: "If the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are going to dive into the IWC controversy, they should first be fully aware of the stakes involved. The IWC is dysfunctional and dominated by outside pressure from radical animal rights groups. It is a forum that promotes discord, undermines international regulation and breeds resentment. If they are going to join, they should help to fix the way the IWC operates rather than adding to its problems."

The IWC was set up by the 1946 International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling " to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry." The moratorium was legally tied to a comprehensive assessment of whale stocks, due by 1990, to evaluate its impact and consider revised catch limits. Anti-whaling countries have prevented this review from being concluded and also stalled the completion of a Revised Management Scheme (RMS), the system under which whale harvesting would be regulated.

IWMC believes that it is only by establishing an agreed international framework for commercial whaling that whale species will be protected in the long-term. Whaling bans for abundant species like the minke whale cannot be justified and are likely to lead to the collapse of the IWC and all international controls on whale hunting.