28. IWC HEADQUARTERS BUILDING

(from "Chairman's Report of the Forty-Eighth Annual Meeting")


The Secretariat presented a thorough report on its investigation of the financial advantages of building/purchasing new offices for the IWC. In general, there was broad support for the idea of purchasing offices rather than continuing to pay rent in the amount of 7,000 per year (not including any expenses for maintenance, insurance, etc.). The Secretariat found that the IWC could finance such a purchase by taking out loans to be paid back over a period of 10-20 years which would average per year roughly around the amount currently paid in rent, and gain an asset. One delegation pointed out that, in fact, the budget reflected that the IWC has enough funds in reserve (both for severance payments and in the general reserves) to pay the total cost of the purchase. The Secretariat confirmed this statement and agreed that it was an option which could be considered with professional financial advisers.

In addition to examining the costs associated with the purchase of an office building, the Secretariat examined a proposal to join a number of other 'environmental' agencies in establishing a centre of environmentally sustainable development provisionally named the Cambridge Environmental Park. The concept would be to co-locate a number of international environmental agencies in separate buildings within a single site which would assist all of them to develop their individual areas of interests. The proposal is a joint initiative from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Birdlife International, and Fauna and Flora International. One delegation raised a strong concern that if this co-location was undertaken, the IWC's philosophical independence from other environmental organisations could be compromised. The Secretariat noted that it would continue to bear this in mind.

Many question were raised by delegations regarding this co-location proposal and based on the Secretariat's presentation, the Finance and Administration Committee recommended that the Commission endorse, in principle, the concept of purchase instead of rent. The Finance and Administration Committee noted that the budget for 1996/97 already includes an amount of 」4,000 to allow the Secretariat to continue to explore these options and report back to the 49th IWC Annual Meeting.

In the Commission, the Russian Federation stated its view that international organisations should not take out loans but base budgets on contributions from member governments. It also did not favour cooperatives. Similarly, Japan supported the general principle of owning rather than renting but suggested that other venues might be considered at the same time.

The Commission endorsed the proposal for the Secretariat to examine further the concept of purchase and to report back next year.

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