Some of the six hundred children from Santiago joining in a Walk for Endangered Species held in the city today.
Over six hundred children from Santiago today held a Walk for
Endangered Species to send a message to the world governments,
meeting in this city for the 12th Conference of Parties to the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES),
about their concern for the Earth's endangered plants and
animals.
Children ranging in ages from 10 to 17 held a symbolic march
along one of Santiago's main streets and congregated in front of
the Diego Portales Convention Centre where CITES delegates from 160
countries are meeting to discuss international trade and endangered
wildlife.
Participants were met at the entrance to the meeting hall by the
Secretary General of CITES, Wijnsteecker, and the current CITES
chairperson, Sergio Bittar from Chile and the Head of the Chilean
Delegation, Jaime Campos, to whom the children expressed their
concerns:
"We believe the world belongs to all living things, not only to
those with the money. We want whales and elephants and mahogany
trees to be protected from abuse by human beings," reads the
children's written statement (1).
The march was accompanied by large inflatable animals
representing several of the world's endangered species: an
elephant, a whale, a jaguar and a huemuel-a deer from the Chilean
Andean region. A banner reading "Don't sell the planet" was also
displayed. The 400 metre long banner that covered the length of the
parade was made by attaching together smaller flags made by
children from France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, The
Netherlands, the United Kingdom and from various regions of
Chile.
Greenpeace activists and volunteers also joined the march. Music
from the world's oceans and forests provided the background.
Last April, hundreds of children from over 17 countries raised
their fears about the world's rapidly disappearing ancient forests
at the Convention on Biological Diversity held in The Hague, The
Netherlands.
"It's time governments realised that the children of the world,
those who are to inherit this planet in a few years are not going
to let us get away with destroying it today," said Gina Sanchez of
Greenpeace, speaking from the CITES meeting. "We must all do
everything we can to ensure that our children's natural heritage is
not traded away to extinction."
CITES will be discussing over 50 proposals to increase or
decrease the protection status of a wide group of species. In many
cases, this will mean deciding whether to put a particular species
at risk for short-term economic gain or to protect their long-term
survival.
Greenpeace is supporting numerous initiatives at CITES, in
particular proposals to protect mahogany, toothfish and sharks and
strongly opposing proposals that would undermine the protection of
whales and elephants (2).
VVPR info: For photos: John Novis, ++31-653819121
Notes: (1) Children's statement available upon request.(2) Greenpeace is calling for support of the proposals to list Big Leaf Mahogany and Patagonian Toothfish to Appendix II of the Convention. Greenpeace strongly opposes the two proposals to downlist Minke and Bryde's Whales from Appendix I to Appendix II, paving the way to a resumption of commercial whaling.