POLAND - RESPONSE TO CITES DEMARCHES

UNCLAS WARSAW 001178 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EOS/ETC AND EUR/NCE OES/ETC FOR R WATSON EUR/NCE FOR B PUTNEY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV ETRD KSCA ECON PL SUBJECT: POLAND - RESPONSE TO CITES DEMARCHES REF: A. STATE 59536 ¶B. STATE 57912 ¶C. WARSAW 1072 ¶1. Per ref C, Econoff delivered reftel demarches on the upcoming CITES COP 14 to the Department of the Washington Conference in the Ministry of Environment. A written response was received on May 18 from Krzysztof Lissowski, Deputy Director of the Department of Forestry, Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection in the Ministry of Environment. Text of the response follows. ¶2. BEGIN TEXT OF RESPONSE Since Poland joined the European Union in 2004, the evaluation of CoP proposals and establishing final position is made in cooperation with other EU member states and our final attitude towards certain proposals is dependant on the EU position. As far as certain US proposals are concerned, CITES Management Authority of Poland fully supports the idea of inclusion of all species of the sawfish (Pristide spp.) in Appendix I and inclusion of Pterapogon kauderni in App. II of CITES. As for the proposal regarding Corallium spp., we believe it is worth consideration, but for now our position in this respect is open. Referring to exclusion of bobcat (Lynx rufus) from App. II, we are not in favor of this proposal. Moreover, we give our support to both proposals on Lamna nasus and Squalas acanthias submitted by Germany on behalf of the European Community. Documents concerning Addis Ababa Principles and Guidelines for the Sustainable Use of Biodiversity and Management of annual export quotas are worth supporting and we are in favor of them. As for documents on Asian Big Cats, our position for now is open. END TEXT OF RESPONSE ASHE