Santiago - Latin American countries agreed on Thursday to launch a diplomatic campaign to get the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to ban in 2009 the hunting of cetaceans in the southern hemisphere. The decision was adopted during the 60th IWC meeting, which is set to end Friday in Santiago, said Chilean delegate Ambassador Cristian Maqueira.
At the Chilean capital, members of the IWC decided to launch negotiations with a view to reaching decisions on the future of whales at a meeting in Portugal in 2009.
A 21-nation commission - including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand and Britain, on the side of conservationists, and Japan, Cameroon, Benin and Norway, on the pro-hunting side - has been charged with negotiations ahead of the 2009 meeting.
This taskforce can tackle all issues that were not taken to a vote in Santiago, including a moratorium on commercial whale hunting, new rules for scientific whaling and administrative modernization at the IWC.
The idea in Chile has been to avoid confrontation, given the lack of sufficient majorities on either side of the debate.
