It is not appropriate to use the IUCN Sustainable Use Policy as a reason to continue hunting of this specie
BANGKOK: A news report in The Express Tribune on November 2 highlighted the fact that the Punjab government’s review petition to the Supreme Court on the houbara bustard claims that “the survey conducted and data collected by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) did not recommend a complete ban on the hunting of the houbara bustard”.
The IUCN would like to clarify that it does, in fact, support the Supreme Court’s ban on hunting of the Asian houbara bustard or MacQueen’s Bustard Chlamydotis macqueenii. The IUCN’s position on this matter is guided by its Sustainable Use Policy, which explicitly states that “IUCN is committed to ensuring that any uses of wild living resources are equitable and ecologically sustainable”. This is clearly not the case for the Asian houbara bustard, which is listed as “vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List, due in large part, to unsustainable hunting levels across its range leading to population decline. It is not appropriate to use the IUCN Sustainable Use Policy as a reason to continue hunting of this species because recent levels of hunting have not been demonstrated to be sustainable.
The IUCN’s position that the hunting of the Asian houbara bustard in Pakistan is unsustainable has already been stated before the Balochistan High Court on December 5, 2012, as well as before the Lahore High Court on June 4, 2014. Rates of population decline in the species are likely to be very rapid, and if hunting pressure is not reduced, the species could soon warrant moving up to a higher threat category on the IUCN Red List.
Because the species is listed in Appendix I of CITES, to which Pakistan is a signatory, it is not permitted to take any birds hunted in Pakistan, living or dead, out of the country without the necessary CITES permits, which would only be authorised under exceptional circumstances.
The houbara is listed in Appendix II of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) of Wild Animals, to which the Pakistan government is a signatory. CMS parties strive towards the protection of all species on the CMS Appendix II, including conservation and restoration of their habitats, mitigation of obstacles to migration and control of other factors (such as hunting) that might endanger them.
The Asian houbara bustard is a migratory bird which breeds in Central Asian states during February and March and migrates to the arid and semi-arid desert areas of Pakistan (Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab), Iran, the Arabian Peninsula, Afghanistan and India during winter. Hunting and poaching by falconers in the bird’s wintering grounds are the major threats facing the wild population of the Asian houbara bustard.
Regional Director Asia
IUCN
Published in The Express Tribune, November 5th, 2015.
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