Timber Neutral director Jonathan Kitzen spoke out following CITES‘ recent agreement to extend protection to brazilwood, but not to protect Spanish cedar due to objections from South American delegates at the 55th meeting of the organisation’s standing committee.
Mr Kitzen claimed this underlined the problem with CITES whose “decisions are based on economics and social pressure rather than reality”
He said a species “goes onto [the CITES list] because it has no commercial value”, and added that brazilwood was “no longer much of a commercial species except for bow makers, who consume very little”.
“It’s kind of like protecting a parrot once no one wants it anymore and Western demand has evaporated,” he said.
Mr Kitzen said Spanish cedar had been left out of CITES as it was “a commercial species [and] there is less of an incentive for governments to hurt their voters and/or donors”.
“Just as most of the rainforest is destoryed to make way for cattle and soya, I don’t see any movement on behalf of the EU to regulate the beef and tofu industry and make them stop doing what they do.”
He said species covered by the convention were given little extra protection as there were so many “loopholes” to obtaining permits.
