Recommendations approved by the Congress recognized the value of consumptive
use and promoted the application of the precautionary principle, besides covering
a range of site and species-specific topics. These included a recommendation
to strengthen and enforce legislation to conserve the saiga antelope in Central
Asia. The latter arose from an informal dialogue on saiga conservation among
the four main range states and the Chinese government earlier in the Congress.
A status report confirmed that Saiga population numbers had plummeted from 1
million in 1990 to some 31,000 individuals by 2003 (see Oryx, 38, 250-251),
and those at the dialogue meeting pledged to cooperate to tackle the illegal
trade in saiga horn.
