In an effort to stop the depletion of fish stocks in the Mediterranean Sea, where catches of blue-fin tuna plunged by almost half from 1994 to 2002, a group of over 50 countries have agreed at a United Nations conference on a raft of protection measures – from more selective types of netting to six-month off-seasons.

An indefinite European Union (EU) ban on wild bird imports, adopted to prevent the spread of bird flu to humans, risks creating black markets by ending a legal and tightly managed trade and undermining poor African communities who depend on it, according to a United Nations-backed body dealing with trade in endangered species.