Speech at the opening of the Conference of Parties (CITES)
Speech by Gerda Verburg, Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality at the Opening of the Conference of Parties (CITES) on 4 June 2007 in The Hague
Distinguished delegates, At the outset, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the Conference of the Parties for the honour it has granted to me and to the Netherlands by electing me as Chair of its fourteenth session. I am pleased to welcome all of you here again. I would particularly like to welcome Ambassador Cristian Maquieira, Chair of the Standing Committee, who played a major role in preparing this Conference. I would also like to thank the Secretariat for the excellent collaboration with my Ministry in organising this Conference.
We have two very busy weeks ahead of us, weeks in which we have to take important decisions. The decisions we take may determine a healthy future for plant and animal species and for their habitats. As I said yesterday at the official opening of the Conference, CITES is not just about and animals and plants, it is also about people. There are many situations where the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, including international trade, goes hand in hand with improving people’s livelihoods, here and elsewhere, now and in future. We cannot separate ourselves from our environment. Our living conditions, our food, our safety depend on it. As international community we have committed ourselves to the goal of putting a halt to the loss of biodiversity worldwide by 2010. In addition, we have promised to make real progress to combat poverty around the world by 2015. CITES can and should be a great help to us here in also achieving these broader goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.
Distinguished delegates, The days ahead will not be easy. Debates will be tough from time to time. We have all come here from different regions and from different backgrounds. Our interests will not always be the same. Some of you represent the countries of origin, others the importing countries. And we all know our own specific situations, our own possibilities and problems, and this will determine the positions we will take here in The Hague. But fortunately we have much in common and I will encourage you to seek those commonalities. We all have to make an effort to ensure that species do not go extinct as a result of international trade. CITES plays a crucial role in all this.
This is why I am so pleased to see so many people here, from all corners of the world. You are here in The Hague to represent governments, international organisations and other interest groups. And this is important. I am pleased to see so many NGOs here. They are important to create the necessary base of support to make CITES really work.
Let me, in conclusion, appeal to all of you to help make this Conference a major success. This can be done if we make a combined effort and work together, shoulder to shoulder. I hope that the outcome of this Conference will be something that we can be proud of. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, here and elsewhere in the world. I wish you a very inspiring two weeks. Let us all make this Conference a great success.
Thank you.