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July 2008 UPDATE: |
CMS can talk the talk, but can they walk the walk? No! The latest spanner that UN regulations have thrown into the works is to annul the election of the Coalition Clean Baltic NGO representative to chair the Jastarnia Group, an ad hoc arrangement devised by the Baltic countries to elaborate a recovery plan for the harbour porpoise, on the grounds that only a national representative can chair a UN working group...From an inside ASCOBANS anonymous source (original language version):
The plight of the harbour porpoise, and especially its much depleted Baltic population thought to have been reduced to just 500 individuals, is well recognised. All the key international bodies charged with protecting endangered wildlife accord it the appropriate status – the IUCN Red List and the Annexes of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). Half the battle won, one might hope. The first step is to recognise the problem, drawing up lists and negotiating Agreements (and CMS has done this in the form of ASCOBANS, the Agreement on Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas) are important in providing the mechanisms. The second step is action, developing and implementing appropriate policies. This is usually where the difficulties arise. ASCOBANS has never been adequately financed. First run through the Sea Mammal Research Unit in Cambridge and then by the German Federal nature Conservation Agency (BfN) it muddled on, never on the cutting edge or forefront of conservation policy and rarely in the limelight. The European Union has exclusive competence for fisheries and a considerable say on the environment, but chose to ignore, even cold shoulder, ASCOBANS. To give ASCOBANS added political and diplomatic weight, its Parties decided to bring the agreement under the administration of UNEP. As far as one can tell, the most significant results of this move have been to add dramatically to the secretariat’s salary bill and mire the agreement down in a remote, unresponsive and inefficient bureaucracy based in UNEP HQ in Nairobi. The move from the Deutsche Mark, which was later replaced by the Euro, to the US Dollar (the principal accounting currency used by UNEP) coupled with the unfavourable Euro-Dollar Exchange rate, was one of the main contributing factors in a financial crisis which struck ASCOBANS (and to a lesser extent the parent Convention and the European Bats Agreement) in 2006, leading to the abolition of ASCOBANS’ independent secretariat at the reconvened Meeting of Parties in The Hague. Parties were promised that once the ASCOBANS Secretariat was merged with the CMS Secretariat they would see the dawning of a new era of efficiency and effectiveness as ASCOBANS would be able to draw on the knowledge and expertise of CMS’s broader base of professional staff. No-one was at all suspicious of the over frequent use of vacuous “management speak” terms like “synergies” and took assurances that the professionalism of the secretariat could be relied on and that under the new arrangements, the work plan could be delivered at least as well if not better. Memories must be short. Similar assurances had been given when ASCOBANS joined UNEP. Then, Parties were told that while clearly UN salary scales were more generous than those paid by BfN and that UN levied a 13% administrative surcharge, ASCOBANS would benefit from the services of CMS’s Administrative and Fund Management Unit. ASCOBANS’ two dedicated members of staff could then concentrate on the Agreement’s real work, cetacean conservation. That was the theory, the practice was rather different. Preparing the paperwork required by the UN administration was far more time consuming than simply paying bills under the BfN. And the management’s first decision after the merger with CMS was to postpone two scientific workshops on the dubious grounds that the secretariat would be better placed to service the meetings later in the year. As the secretariat’s sole role is to provide a venue and refreshments, one wonders what improved service was meant to be achieved. But now CMS is surpassing itself. The Secretariat proudly announces its partnership relationships with other UN bodies, NGOs, like the World Association of Zoos and Aquaria (WAZA), the International Hunters’ Association (CIC), the Whale and dolphin Conservation Society and their prize corporate supporter, TUI, the German travel firm, a not uncontroversial choice given that their catalogues promote some dubious dolphinaria.
Time is pressing for the Baltic harbour porpoise and it is vital that the Parties finalise the details of the recovery plan. With apparently no national representative willing to take over the chairmanship of the group, why has the CMS secretariat gone running to the rule book to block CCB’s election. And this is also potentially bad news for the ASCOBANS pollution and acoustic disturbance working groups. The German head of delegation to the 5th MOP said, as a justification for voting for the merger with CMS, “we are here to save cetaceans not protect posts”. Hear, hear to that. Maybe the time has come for the ASCOBANS to decide whether UNEP really is the right route for practical conservation work. While they might be able to afford ASCOBANS under UNEP, there must be growing doubt whether the Baltic harbour porpoise can.
February 2008 UPDATE:
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How it all started... |
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 Spring 2007: Year of the Dolphin starts out with a scandal: Agreement on the conservation of endangered harbour porpoises made toothlessThe prestigious "Year of the Dolphin 2007" declared by the UN has hardly started, but the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas (ASCOBANS) has already been made toothless. The Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) has closed operations of the ASCOBANS Secretariat, a step initiated by the German Federal Environment Ministry. Only Poland and Lithuania were not in favour of this drastic measure. The tasks previously performed by the ASCOBANS Secretariat have been assigned to a so-called CMS "focal point". Gesellschaft zur Rettung der Delphine (Society for Dolphin Conservation/GRD) criticises this step as a serious setback for the conservation of small cetaceans in the Baltic and North Seas. The abolition of the ASCOBANS Secretariat was allegedly driven by budget considerations and there was no way around it, according to the Ministry. The ASCOBANS re-structuring is meant as a way to increase efficiency, they go on to say. We would like to quote a few lines from the Environment Ministry’s letter in which they justify their decision:
Maybe the Ministry and CMS would have been better advised to listen to Bert Brecht:
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The silence of the CMS | ASCOBANS |
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Holding workshops and producing nice flyers is certainly important. However, it is disquieting to note the silence of the CMS/ASCOBANS regarding the situation of cetaceans in the North and Baltic Seas, where they face a number of serious threats:
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Conservationists could easily argue for hours about the worst threats facing the Harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). Top of any list would probably be bycatch and EC Fisheries regulations have introduced the requirement for larger vessels to report levels of take of non target species and deploy cetacean deterrent devices (so-called “pingers”). Too little, too late? Maybe, but at least it is something. Other threats that would feature might well include entanglement in discarded gear, ingestion of plastic bags, acoustic disturbance from engine noise, military sonar and seismic surveys by the oil and gas industry and ship-strikes these are the usual suspects. But perhaps we need to add another: red tape.
CMS can talk the talk, but can they walk the walk? No. The latest spanner that UN regulations have thrown into the works is to annul the election of the Coalition Clean Baltic NGO representative to chair the Jastarnia Group, an ad hoc arrangement devised by the Baltic countries to elaborate a recovery plan for the harbour porpoise, on the grounds that only a national representative can chair a UN working group.
Rob Hepworth (the new Acting Executive Secretary of ASCOBANS) does not seem to have costs under control. There are noticeable discrepancies in the current budget, as evidenced by item 14.1 (see page 17) of the Report of the 14th Meeting of the Advisory Committee (AC Meeting of 19 – 21 April 2007 in San Sebastian).
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