Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2012)44 - Submission by the EU of an amendment of Appendix III to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2012)44 - Submission by the EU of an amendment of Appendix III to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild ... |
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| source | COM(2012)44  |
| date | 13-02-2012 |
Porbeagle (Lamna nasus) is distributed throughout the North Atlantic Ocean and in a broad circumglobal band in the Southern hemisphere. Lamna nasus is an active, warm-blooded, relatively slow growing and late maturing, long-lived species, which bears only small numbers of young. It falls into FAO’s lowest productivity category of most vulnerable aquatic species. Atlantic stock assessments describe marked historic and recent declines. Exploitation of stocks in other oceans of the Southern Hemisphere is largely unmanaged and unlikely to be sustainable. The species is particularly vulnerable to overfishing. It is very vulnerable to fishing pressure due to its low productivity. It has been experiencing steep decline in the North Atlantic over the last decades, especially in the North East Atlantic, which led the EU to prohibit fishing for this species. This prohibition applies to EU vessels as well as to foreign-flagged vessels carrying out their activities in EU waters. Fishing for porbeagle is also prohibited in the North East Atlantic Ocean through a decision by the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC). Fishing continues to occur in the North West Atlantic as well as in the Southern Hemisphere. Apart from NEAFC, there are currently no or very few measures adopted within Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) on the management and conservation of porbeagle, and there is limited information on the domestic legislation in place in other range States. It is also believed that a large number of catches for porbeagle remains unreported.
Against this background, the EU proposed in 2007 and 2010 that porbeagle be included in Appendix II of the CITES Convention. Those proposals were endorsed by a majority of CITES Parties but did not reach the 2/3 threshold required for their adoption. A proposal was also made by the EU to prohibit fishing within the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) in 2009 and 2010 but was rejected.
Available data on the extent of international trade in porbeagle and its impact on the status of the species are scarce. There is indeed currently no internationally-agreed specific data for porbeagle specimens, which would allow quantifying the volume of international trade in that species. There are however clear indications that porbeagle parts or derivatives enter international trade and that there is an important international market for products like meat or fins. The EU is thought to be one of the main markets for porbeagle specimens and has therefore a key responsibility in ensuring that such trade is sustainable.
Data on international trade in porbeagle are necessary to assess the impact of international trade on the conservation of the species. Gathering data on international trade requires international cooperation. The best way to ensure such cooperation is for the EU Member States to include the species in CITES Appendix III. This is also fully in line with the European Community Plan of Action for sharks adopted by the Commission in 2009.
According to Article XVI of the Convention any Party may at any time submit to the Secretariat a list of species for inclusion in Appendix III. An amendment to Appendix III takes effect automatically 90 days after the submission is communicated to the Parties by the Secretariat.
The effect of the inclusion of a species in Appendix III is that any export of porbeagle from the EU would have to be accompanied by an export permit attesting the legality of the catch. Other types of trade (export into the EU, or trade between non-EU Parties) would require that a certificate of origin be produced by the exporting country.
An Appendix III listing would provide all CITES Parties with (as a minimum) data on the origin and quantity of the specimens traded; this will improve the knowledge base on the factors affecting porbeagle conservation in view of any possible conservation and/or trade measures that States or international organisations might want to take in the future.
An Appendix III listing would make sure that CITES Parties pay special attention to the conditions under which porbeagle specimens are harvested and traded and might foster the adoption of conservation measures, where they are not yet in place, to ensure its sustainable exploitation.
Contents
The proposal to include porbeagle into CITES Appendix III has been discussed at numerous occasions with the EU Member States at meetings of the EU wildlife trade Committee on 11 June 2010, 15 September 2010, 6 December 2010, 22 March 2011 and 26 July 2011. Broad support was expressed at this Committee in favour of the inclusion of porbeagle into CITES Appendix III.
CITES Parties were also informed about the possible intention by the EU to include porbeagle into CITES Appendix III through a letter sent on 27 May 2011. Apart from Japan and China (which contest that marine species be dealt with in the CITES framework), the observations transmitted to the European Commission were rather supportive (especially from the USA, New Zealand, Turkey, Croatia, Montenegro, while Australia indicated that this inclusion could jeopardise the chance of success of a future proposal for inclusion into CITES Appendix II).
The consequences of the inclusion would be limited in terms of socio-economic and administrative costs: it would require that the EU Member States exporting porbeagle provide an export permit attesting that they have been harvested legally. Given that porbeagle fishing is prohibited in the vast majority of the EU waters, the volume concerned is likely to be limited. Other countries trading porbeagle would have to issue a certificate of origin.
The CITES Convention is implemented within the EU through Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97 of 9 December 1996 on the protection of species of wild fauna and flora by regulating trade therein i. The inclusion of porbeagle into CITES Appendix III will result in the inclusion of the species into Annex C of Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97, which shall apply as soon as the inclusion in Appendix III to the Convention takes effect. As this will impact both the EU environmental and trade policies, the substantive legal basis for the Council decision should be Article 192, paragraph 1, and Article 207 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The procedural legal basis should be Article 218, paragraph 9, as this Decision relates to the establishment of an EU position in view of the modification of an Annex of the CITES Convention which have legal effects.