China is using its influence in the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to sway conservation decisions made by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), according to a new academic research paper.
Titled “Seizing A Venue-Linking Opportunity: China’s Strategy To Advance Its Sea Cucumber Interests In Global Environmental Governance,” the paper suggests that China is “venue linking,” or using its clout in one international body to influence procedures in a related body.
In this case, it asserts the nation is making inroads at FAO, which is led by Qu Dongyu, formerly a senior official at China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, to play a leading role in environmental governance across the globe.
The paper points toward Chinese commercial fishing objectives and ambitious plans for aquaculture growth as reasons why it would want to impede efforts to add endangered species to the CITES list.
For instance, the paper cited a recent example of China effectively quashing CITES efforts to add the Apostichopus japonicus species of sea cucumber to its endangered species list.
China has significant commercial interests in sea cucumber production, for which the government has issued national standards regarding its cultivation and processing.
According to the latest edition of the China fishery yearbook published by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Chinese sea cucumber output grew from 174,340 metric tons (MT) in 2018 to 248,500 MT by 2022 – a trend that would be stymied by a CITES designation.
This was achieved via aggressive targets for aquaculture expansion set by Beijing officials, such as China’s 14th National Agricultural and Rural Science and Technology Plan, which aims to, among other goals, enhance technology used on the nation’s aquaculture farms to dramatically increase output.
“Given the commercial interests at stake, China attempts to advance its interests through strategic engagement with different global environmental governance venues,” the paper said.
China is not seeking to replace CITES, the researchers stress, but is rather seeking to use the relationship between CITES and FAO, the latter of which has a role in revising and implementing CITES, to influence decisions.
While China’s goals for spurring CITES designations relate to fishing and aquaculture growth, developing countries have aligned with China for separate reasons. Nations like Papua New Guinea have said they feel overburdened by the costs of protecting endangered species, which they said have jeopardized the livelihoods of fishermen harvesting sea cucumbers and other valuable species.
FAO’s emphasis on improving food security around the globe has traditionally aligned it to China’s stance of increased production, but the influence Beijing may still have on Qu Dongyu in his role as FAO chief has only strengthened that alignment, according to several media outlets. A report by Deutsche Welle pointed out that Qu had put more Chinese personnel into senior management positions.
Daniel Runde, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), described Qu’s head job at FAO as representing “an important outpost of Chinese influence in the multilateral system.”
“Chinese appointees in the UN system take direct guidance from Beijing as part of the Chinese public diplomacy operation,” Runde said, adding that China sees the FAO as “a repository of agricultural intellectual property and a sponsor of research on land productivity” that’s useful in advancing its food security.
