Word: secretariats
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...Those countries say a ban would punish them for the corruption and inefficiency of other nations. Ivory traders and retailers, of course, also oppose a comprehensive ban, hoping to save an industry with annual revenues estimated at $500 million to $1 billion worldwide. They are joined by the CITES secretariat, a Lausanne- based bureaucracy that monitors the ivory trade. Together, the industry and regulators argue that a legal trade based on ivory from natural elephant mortality and culling produces revenues for wildlife management and for the benefit of local African communities as an incentive to protect the herds...
Until now, the ivory trail has flourished under the less than watchful eye of the CITES secretariat. In 1985 when the organization announced its plan to register all tusks as part of an ivory-control system, conservationists hoped the illegal trade would be curbed. But the deals that CITES officials struck with Singapore, Burundi and other nations, under which undocumented ivory could be registered, moved a mountain of ill-gotten ivory into the marketplace...
...name it -- stacked with ivory to the roof." But Burundi did not keep its promise to get out of the business; instead it accumulated another 90 tons. Says Joe Yovino, former head of the CITES ivory unit: "No question, we got snookered." Yet four months ago, the CITES secretariat agreed to arrange for the sale of about 28 tons that had been seized by Burundi authorities. Jacques Berney, the deputy secretary-general of CITES, says he is convinced that the new Burundi government, which came to power in a 1987 coup, is sincere about keeping the agreement to halt additional...
Conservationists suggest that the secretariat's protrade policies may have something to do with its source of funding. Since its founding in 1985, CITES' ivory unit has received two-thirds of its budget -- some $237,468 -- in contributions from ivory traders. Japan's trade association has contributed $139,701 to CITES' ivory unit, making it the largest single contributor. After CITES registered the Singapore ivory, much of which belonged to Hong Kong's Wang, he contributed $10,000 to the organization. "When I saw my salary was coming from K.T. Wang, that just did it," said Yovino, then head...
Undersecretary-General Joseph Verner Reed said the U.N. Secretariat was making plans to move to Geneva in mid-December to hear Arafat explain the November 15 declaration of an independent Palestinian state and PLO plans for a Middle East peace settlement...