Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate:

(a)

notes with grave concern:

(i)

the deteriorating state of conservation in the five World Heritage sites in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including the Virunga National Park, home to more than half of the 700 mountain gorillas remaining on the planet,

(ii)

the occupation of the Virunga National Park by militia, resulting in the slaughter of large numbers of wild animals for bushmeat,

(iii)

the recent execution-style killing of four mountain gorillas, shot in the head and the hand, in Virunga National Park as payback for the crackdown on the militia occupying the park, and

(iv)

the decision of the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand in July 2007, to request the Director-General of UNESCO and the Director of the World Heritage Centre to convene a meeting with the President of the World Conservation Union and representatives of the African Union to address the rapidly deteriorating state of conservation of the World Heritage sites in the DRC; and

(b)

calls on the Government:

(i)

to convey to the DRC Government, Australia’s concern at the destruction of wildlife, and in particular the mountain gorillas, in the World Heritage sites and Australia’s willingness to assist in bringing about a solution, and

(ii)

as a state party to the World Heritage Convention, to do all it can to support international efforts within the convention to urgently address the issue, and to use its good offices to urge the Director-General of UNESCO to step up efforts to bring all parties together in order to secure the World Heritage sites and their wildlife.

Question agreed to.