Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 11:24 am Posts: 7523 Location: Rome, Italy
hi,
just an heads up about a new Facebook group created to support italian coral workmanship against the decision of CITES to include corallium Rubrum in the protected species:
" The American proposal is to include all species in genus Corallium in appendix II Cites (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) , despite the fact that all the main biologists who have really studied Corallium rubrum declared that ...there is NO RISK of EXTINCTION for this species. The unnecessary listing of red coral in App. II will generate an unnecessary bureaucratic burden which will force the about 300 coral factories of Torre del Greco to close down. Coral workmanship will disappear and about 5000 people will lose their jobs. As assocoral, we believe that a sustainable management of the resources is possible –following the example of Sardinia region in Italy- , for this reason we have proposed several laws on coral fishing, we also offered the USA a protagonist role in a management process, together with other Mediterranean Countries and FAO . To sum up, we say NO to the American proposal! "
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2009 9:00 am Posts: 545 Location: new york
Alberto,
Thank you for the information about the coral listing proposal as a protected spicies.
It would be sad and such a loss for the trade and it would mean the death of a beautiful "endangered" craft as well.
I am very much for protecting the environment and spicies in general, but I am sure that you made your research when you said that there is no risk of extinction for the red coral in Italy.
I also beleive that the main culprit when it comes to the marine flora extinction is mostly pollution anyway. Are we doing anything about that before banning collecting coral for instance? I can't help but ask myself the question.
Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 11:24 am Posts: 7523 Location: Rome, Italy
Hi Lyric,
lyric wrote:
I am very much for protecting the environment and spicies in general
yep, me too. I'm a scuba diver and i don't touch anything underwater, my handss are my camera
Quote:
but I am sure that you made your research when you said that there is no risk of extinction for the red coral in Italy.
luckily the extensive research supporting the no-extinction wasn't made by me . Many knowledgeable and deeply concerned scientist presented several studies in that direction.
The main issue is about the study presented supporting the ban. they're about low depth reefs (15/20 mt) corals, Corallium rubrum is fished nowadays at 90/100 mt depth BY HAND in Italy and the quantity is strictly regulated by italian severe rules. NO study regarding corals at that depth was released in support of the ban.
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2009 9:00 am Posts: 545 Location: new york
Hi Alberto,
Thank you for the information about deep level coral.
I think that sometimes people tend to lump all of it in the same basket.
I appreciated your last information.
I think that we should suggest a "endengered spiecies for vanishing craftpeople" as well before it is too late.
Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 11:24 am Posts: 7523 Location: Rome, Italy
lyric wrote:
I think that we should suggest a "endengered spiecies for vanishing craftpeople" as well before it is too late.
we are witnessing in Italy to a continuous and unstoppable vanishing of craftpeople...... chiselers, embossers, engravers.....one by one the masters give up in many cases without passing their skills to the new generations......for sure italian coral workmanship could be the next one if the corallium rubrum will be added to the appendix...
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2009 9:00 am Posts: 545 Location: new york
Alberto,
You are welcome for the support.
As a craftsman, I certainly sympathize with the artists of Torre del Greco
and feel sad to hear the potential of an end to the coral craft.
Once it is gone there is rarely any possibility of come back.
Like you, I have witnessed the disapearance of craftspeople, tools and knowhow in cities that I have worked in such as Paris, Geneva and now New York.
As you have mentioned, chiselers, embossers and engravers seem to vanish first but it is also true of good enamelers, guilloche artists that used to prepare background for enamel frame, bracelets etc...
I am thinking of one old workshop in Paris that had worked closely with Faberge preparing a lot of their guilloche backgrounds to receive enamel.
When the owner died, his heirs sold all these precious equipment to a steel manufacturer as scrap metal. All the equipment was melted and recycled. It happened while I was in California taking my GG in 1982.
When I came back I was devastated.
Because of Italy's very rich and old tradition in the arts, you are unfortunately among the most stongly hit and must often hear similar stories.
I hope that the ban of the corallium rubrum will not pass as it would be a catastrophe.
Some of the articles on the link were elucidating and so interesting.
Thank you for posting the link.
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:42 pm Posts: 2846 Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
I'm actually planning on doing my Diploma project on Mediterranean coral, or more specifically the industry in Corsica and how it's changed over the past 20 or 30 years. We have a friend who is a former coral diver and he has very nicely offered to not only let me pick his brain, but introduce me to a couple of the few remaining coral divers in Corsica (I think there are only 3 or 4 left).
If I get a good grade on it, maybe it might end up on the Gemology Project as the coral section is a bit sparse.
"Considerable emphasis is given to historical harvest methods and quantities in selected locations in the Mediterranean Sea to demonstrate sequential depletion of shallow water colonies of C. rubrum. This is extrapolated to the same and other species in other locations in the Mediterranean and Pacific with limited supporting data. The proposal fails to acknowledge that the management and regulation of C. rubrum harvests in the Mediterranean Sea have undergone significant changes over the past 30 years. Reduced harvest levels in the 1990s (Figure 3 in the supporting statement) do not reflect declining numbers of colonies, but rather the use of more selective harvest methods (egSCUBA). The use of dredges to harvest red coral in the Mediterranean Sea has been banned since 1989."
this is an abstract from the document which can be read &/or downloaded at the bottom page of the SMS home page (proposal 21, page 17)
Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 11:24 am Posts: 7523 Location: Rome, Italy
Thank you for posting that Jason,
the first vote went good for our battle but we must wait for the plenum, proposers could ask for a second vote....
finger crossed....
Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 11:24 am Posts: 7523 Location: Rome, Italy
Just received a message from the FB group founder:
We won our battle : Coral is NOT in CITES ! This is just the first step for us, Assocoral will meet the Minister of the Environment today to define the future strategy to make coral harvesting more and more sustainable . This group will remain active for those who love coral and want to be updated. I thank you all for your support. Gioia
Thank you very much to you all for have been supported the cause!
ciao
alberto
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