IWC/70, Hobart Tasmania
After a somewhat clarifying discussion with the US delegation, alongside other US organisations, in the early morning, we took our seats in the Plenary to hear the Chair’s report. The drafting team working on the finer details and compromises to Quorum still had work to do (and they continued to work on it at every opportunity throughout the day). Finding a solution to the quorum dilemma is essential and consensus as to what a proper quorum should be has eluded the Commission for decades. The IWC has long been vulnerable to the threat of the “Walk-out”, where delegates ignore their commitment to respect the time and effort of other countries and by walking out, prevent proposals being voted on.
The United States has been successfully taking the wording “climate change” out of existing workplans for the Conservation Committee work portfolios and watering the language down to terms like “climate and other environmental changes”, so we wanted to press the American delegation on this effort. Often in multilateral policy spaces individuals representing member nations will be kind and relatable people, who carry directives from higher powers within their own governments. The Americans here at the IWC are no different, therefore the long arm of Donald Trump’s climate denialism has seemingly muzzled the US delegation’s best intentions. The USA morning meeting helped clarify this as we read between the lines and sought to understand the challenging position the US delegation must navigate.
The Scientific Committee Report followed the Chair’s. Given its very small budget within the IWC it achieves a very impressive range and breadth of work. We wonder how much more could be done with more money in the coffers.
Paul has been leading our team in lobbying and advocating for the creation of an IWC Endowment Fund, so we have been busily seeding the idea and sharing reflections with non-profit leaders and delegation representatives including the chair of the fundraising committee in hopes that the committee will adopt the creation of an endowment as part of their work plan. Paul will present an intervention on this topic when the Finance and Administration report is tabled on Day 3. The IWC does incredible work in research, conservation and diplomacy globally but has long suffered from budgetary cuts, lean operating funds and limited income. This has led to precarious programmatic stability fundamentally leaving the IWC on rickety legs. Paul has witnessed this effect for decades and sees a solution in stabilising the budgets with $100million USD initial capital input, that could offer a range of $3-5 million USD per annum.
The rest of the day was spent on discussions of each of the Proposals and Resolutions, the “real” work of the Commission. Starting with the Proposal tabled by Brazil on behalf of the Buenos Aires Group and with important support by Gabon, to designate much of the South Atlantic as a Sanctuary for Whales. This South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary would be a historic and long fought win for cetaceans and provide clear benefits for all of humanity. For twenty years these dedicated nations have tabled this resolution and argued the case for the whales who migrate along the coast to breed and feed.
The proposal provides a dedicated framework to bolster whale recovery and because the proposed sanctuary borders the existing Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuary it has the real potential to consolidate and safeguard the recovery of many whale species. A number of nations support this proposal including the host of this year’s meeting, Australia as well as Chile, India, Mexico, New Zealand, Panama, Ireland on behalf of the member states of the European Union, Monaco and the Dominican Republic who offered particularly stirring words of support. Both the Scientific and Conservation Committees support this resolution with unfortunate but unsurprising rejection by Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada and Norway.
There are ongoing work portfolios within the Conservation Committee’s Working Group on Cetaceans and Ecosystem Functioning (WGCEF) where researchers are piloting projects and establishing the Terms of Reference for Work Plans to develop a Theoretical Framework on “Natural Capital” and Ecosystem Health Services as a means to measure the ecosystem function of whales in terms of how much carbon they sequester when they die and sink to the ocean floor. All this demonstrates that whales have multiple significant roles in the health our planet.
In the evening, during a very welcoming NGO reception, Mick Mctinyre, founder of Australian organization Whales Alive asked those gathered to raise a toast and honour Paul for all his valued work over the decades. It was wonderful to see such a heartfelt tribute to Paul and Helena’s work throughout the years, especially surrounded by so many of their long standing friends.
Shari Manning, Mark Worthing
