June 2006

Greenpeace vows to return to the Southern Ocean to oppose Japan's continued 'scientific hunt'

Japan and the whaling lobby have finally won a simple majority vote at the 58th meeting of International Whaling Commission (IWC), held on the Caribbean island of St Kitts in June. 33 countries voted in favour of a resolution called the "St Kitts declaration" claiming that the "IWC has failed to meet its obligations under the terms of the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW)" and declaring its commitment to "normalizing the functions of the IWC" - in other words, returning the organisation to its original hunting mandate.

Whalers poised to seize control of the International Whaling Commission

International Whaling Commission 58th meeting
St. Kitts & Nevis, June 16th-20th 2006

Greenpeace calls for global marine reserves on World Oceans Day

As the kick-off to the football world cup approaches, how's this for a key pre-match statistic? Every four seconds, marine life in an area of ocean floor the size of ten football fields is wiped out by high seas bottom trawlers.

In a verdict that will have far reaching implications for the international timber trade, a judge in The Hague has found a former timber trader and arms dealer guilty of breaking the UN arms embargo in Liberia and sentenced him to a maximum of eight years in prison.