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  Yahoo News 13 Jun 07
Sharp limits imposed on global trade in coral

Yahoo News 14 Jun 07
Red and Pink Corals Get UN Trade Protection
Story by Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

THE HAGUE - Trade in red and pink corals prized as jewellery for 5,000 years will be restricted to try to help the species recover after drastic over-exploitation, a UN wildlife conference agreed on Wednesday.

Countries at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted 62 to 28 to start regulating export of corals, now harvested mainly in the Mediterranean and Western Pacific in a business worth millions of dollars.

"Regulation of trade is necessary to ensure they do not become threatened with extinction," said Andrew Bruckner, a US official who authored the proposal at the June 3-15 talks. He said that current harvesting was depleting stocks. Necklaces made of the red and pink corals, collectively known as Corallium, can cost up to US$20,000. Many other species of coral are already protected by CITES.

"Corallium, the most valuable of the precious corals, has been fished for over 5,000 years," the US proposal said, adding that millions of items and thousands of kilos (pounds) a year were traded internationally.

The decision, imposing restrictions on international trade, will take effect in 18 months' time partly because of worries by southern European producers that they would need time to adapt to new trade rules.

Over-harvesting and other threats including pollution, trawling of the seabed by fishing vessels and global warming are among threats to the corals, found from the tropics to temperate waters. Conservationists hailed the decision.

"This is the best possible decision to start getting the trade in these corals under some form of international control," said Ernie Cooper, a coral trade expert from TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network.

Seaweb, a conservation group, also applauded the decision and said that raw red coral sold for US$100 to $900 per kg at auction. It said the Italian town of Torre del Greco, a centre of the trade, made coral profits of US$174 million in 1999 alone.

CITES is one part of a global drive to help protect species, and is increasingly looking at commercial types such as corals, fish and timber alongside efforts to safeguard iconic animals such as tigers and elephants.

Yahoo News 13 Jun 07
Sharp limits imposed on global trade in coral

The UN wildlife trade organisation imposed strict limits Wednesday on the global trade of pink and red coral, severely depleted by commercial exploitation.

With a finished necklace retailing for up to 20,000 dollars (15,000 euros), red corals are among the worlds most expensive wildlife commodities. But destructive fishing methods and over-harvesting have reduced worldwide catches by 90 percent in the past two decades, scientists say.

"This is the best possible decision to start getting the trade in these corals under some form of international control," said Ernie Cooper, a coral trade expert from TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network.

"Until now most species of Corallium have been over-harvested as a result of a free-for-all situation."

All 26 species in the Corallium genus will now be protected by the 171-nation Conference on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which regulates the world trade in wildlife.

But the ones most often exploited to make jewelry and art objects are red and pink coral, found throughout the world's tropical and temperate seas but harvested mainly in the Mediterranean and Western Pacific.

Stocks off the coasts of Spain, Italy and France have already been commercially depleted, experts say. Several major retailers have supported the new restrictions.

"We believe that coral harvesting as currently practiced is not sustainable and threatens marine ecosystems," said Fernanda Kellogg, senior vice president of Tiffany and Co. "We will not use this precious material in our jewelry until harvesting methods have been adopted that ensure the sustainability of coral reefs," she told Sea Web, an ocean conservation group that works with the international jeweler.



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