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| Panama Declaration on the Reduction of Dolphin Mortality in the Eastern Pacific Ocean | ||||||
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Link
to text of agreement
Status of agreement
| Basic information |
| Date of adoption |
4 October 1995 |
| Place of adoption | Panama City, Panama |
| Entry into force | n/a |
| Authentic text(s) | English |
| Summary of instrument |
The Panama Declaration was adopted in October 1995 by the following States: Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, United States, Vanuatu, Venezuela and (with certain reservations) France and Spain. The Declaration built on the La Jolla Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Program, which was a voluntary instrument designed to reduce the take of dolphins to levels approaching zero by establishing a schedule of dolphin mortality limits which progressively reduced the limits on the number of dolphins which could be caught in the Eastern Pacific yellowfin tuna fisheries. The purpose was to resolve political problems in relation to the implementation of the La Jolla Agreement - in particular, the maintenance of import restrictions by the United States on tuna caught in the fisheries and the threat of the Latin American signatories to the agreement to withdraw from the IDCP unless significant changes to United States legislation were made. Thus, partly to avert the defections of the dissatisfied Latin American States and partly also because of a general desire to further strengthen cooperation on dolphin protection, the interested States came to a compromise in 1995 in the form of the Panama Declaration. The basic bargain struck in that Declaration was an undertaking on behalf of the United States to modify its legislation regarding the imposition of embargoes and the marketing of dolphin-safe tuna in exchange for the modification and formalization of the La Jolla Agreement as a legally binding instrument. Although the Panama Declaration was not implemented to the letter, it did provide renewed impetus to the IDCP process and in October 1997 a special session of the interested States was hosted by IATTC, with further negotiations in 1998. These meetings led eventually to the adoption of the 1998 Agreement on the International Dolphin Protection Program, which is a binding international agreement based on the two earlier instruments.
| Further information and references |
- Internet sources
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IDCP documents |
- Bibliographic references
C. Hedley, 'The 1998 Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Program: Recent Developments in the Tuna-Dolphin Controversy in the Eastern Pacific Ocean', (2001) 32 Ocean Development and International Law pp. 71-92 [View text]
- Associated instruments
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