Cuba shelves turtle trade proposal, trashing Japan's 875 million yen effort

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Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007

 

Cuba shelves turtle trade proposal, trashing Japan's

875 million yen effort

 

Kyodo News

 

Cuba will put off a proposal to resume trade in sea

turtles at an international meeting in June, meaning

the 875 million yen the Japanese government has spent

trying to restart the business has been wasted, a

conservation group said Wednesday.

 

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry confirmed

that Cuba will defer making the proposal at the

meeting of signatories to the Convention on

International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild

Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington

Convention. The ministry said it " will examine whether

it is appropriate " to continue funding the projects.

 

The ministry has been seeking resumption of

international trade in hawksbills, calling the ban on

trading in the species a blow to domestic tortoise

shell product makers, according to the Japan Wildlife

Conservation Society.

 

From 1991 to 2006, METI provided 735 million yen in

subsidies to the Japan Bekko Association, based in

Nagasaki Prefecture, to research hawksbill resources

in countries where the turtle originates, including

Cuba, and 140 million yen for its project to seek

resumption of international trade in hawksbills and

ivory, the JWCS said.

 

Trade in hawksbills is banned under the Washington

Convention because the species was listed in the

convention's Appendix I in 1975. The World

Conservation Union classifies the species as

critically endangered.

 

But Japan has been aiming to have hawksbills listed in

the convention's Appendix II, which would enable

international trade in the turtle with the permission

of countries of origin, according to the JWCS.

 

Kumi Togawa of the JWCS said moving the turtle to

Appendix II " has not been proposed since it was

rejected in the 2000 meeting, and there is almost no

chance for it being accepted. "

 

" The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry has said it

will continue the subsidized project for five years

from fiscal 2007, but it is nothing but a waste of tax

money, " she added.