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IWC meeting opens with agreement on
next steps for IWC Governance Review

The Plenary session of the IWC biennial meeting opened today in Florianopolis, Brazil.  Over 400 delegates from member governments, other inter-governmental organisations, and non-governmental organisations will spend the next five days discussing a wide range of issues related to regulation of whaling and conservation of whales.  

The meeting was opened by the Brazilian Environment Minister, Edson Duarte, who welcomed everyone to Florianopolis and highlighted the importance of multilateral conservation efforts.  IWC Chair, Joji Morishita of Japan, thanked the Government of Brazil for providing such a beautiful location, and looked forward to a positive and constructive meeting.  New member governments, Liberia and Sao Tome and Principe, were welcomed and invited to give opening statements.

The meeting will tackle a busy and challenging agenda including three proposed amendments to the IWC Schedule and eight proposed Resolutions. The Schedule is the detailed, legally-binding framework of the Convention, and Resolutions are formal statements of the Commission.

Marking a very positive start, the first of these Resolutions was adopted today and by consensus.  This Resolution sets out a response and handling of the IWC Governance Review.  The Review was completed by a panel of experts earlier this year, and made wide-ranging recommendations on future governance of the IWC. 

Meeting documents are publicly available by registering on the meeting portal here.

You can watch live coverage of the meeting between 9am and 5.30pm local time here.