A United Nations agency has placed a short-term ban on caviar exports. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has said it will not allow exports from the Caspian Sea area until it receives more information from exporters. CITES wants figures on illegal sales and the numbers of the endangered wild sturgeon, the fish that provides caviar. An official said he was worried about poaching and the future of the fish. Sturgeon species are currently suffering serious population declines. The ban affects Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran and Kazakhstan – the world’s primary caviar exporters.

The 169 CITES member countries have very strict conditions that control caviar exports. Exporters must agree on data for all catches and stick to a shared management plan. They must also give scientific evidence of the size of sturgeon populations. Importing countries must also take responsibility to make sure sturgeon is not being over-fished. Importers such as the European Union have a legal duty to check that all the caviar it imports has been legally caught. A CITES official said he is worried that importers are breaking the rules. He said: “Many key importing countries have still not put these measures in place.”

WARM-UPS

1. CAVIAR SEARCH: Talk to other students to find out what they know about caviar. After you have talked to lots of students, sit down with your partner(s) and share your information. Tell each other what you thought was interesting or surprising. Have you ever eaten caviar?

2. ENDANGERED SPECIES: How much do you care about endangered species? Do you do anything to help protect them? In pairs / groups, talk about the following endangered species. Which ones are most important?

Sturgeon Giant Panda Mountain yellow-legged frog Honest politicians Cuban crocodile

Snow leopard Kiwi Leatherback sea turtle Tooth cave spider Blue Whale

3. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.

United Nations / international trade / caviar / endangered species / Caspian Sea / sturgeon / poaching / export bans / scientific data / taking responsibility / rules

Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

4. EXPENSIVE FOOD: Do you eat expensive or exotic food? What strange food have you tried? Would you try any of the food below? How much would you pay for them?

Caviar Truffles Whale meat Shark’s fin soup

Kobe beef Cobra blood Blue crab Other __________________

5. POACHING OPINIONS: Do you agree with these opinions?

1. It isn’t a major global disaster if all sturgeon disappears from the Caspian Sea.
2. Poaching is one of the biggest and most dangerous crimes in the world.
3. Poachers steal from our children.
4. Many people poach to be able to feed their family.
5. All of the world’s children should receive weekly school lessons on conservation.
6. It’s easy to breed enough animals on farms to stop poachers in the wild.
7. I would love to buy a snow leopard fur coat or an ivory ornament.
8. People who buy products from endangered species should die.
9. The world doesn’t really care about poaching

6. BAN: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word “ban”. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	The UN has banned the export of caviar forever.	T / F
b.	A UN agency wants information on the poaching of sturgeon.	T / F
c.	Numbers of sturgeon populations have increased a lot.	T / F
d.	The world’s primary caviar exporters are in Central America.	T / F
e.	Only 16 countries have signed a UN caviar exports agreement.	T / F
f.	Caviar-importing countries do not have to check their imports.	T / F
g.	A CITES official is worried about caviar importers breaking the rules.	T / F
h.	Most major caviar importers have strict measures in place.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

a.	placed	important
b.	short-term	concerned
c.	endangered	falls
d.	worried	govern
e.	declines	responsibility
f.	control	threatened
g.	data	put
h.	duty	regulations
i.	key	information
j.	measures	temporary

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	a short-term ban	caviar exporters
b.	CITES wants figures on illegal	a shared management plan
c.	worried about poaching and	sales
d.	species are currently suffering	on caviar exports
e.	the world’s primary	responsibility
f.	have very strict conditions	on data for all catches
g.	agree	are breaking the rules
h.	stick to	serious population declines
i.	countries must also take	the future of the fish
j.	he is worried that importers	that control caviar exports

WHILE READING / LISTENING

WRONG WORD: Delete the incorrect or least likely word from the pairs in italics.

UN suspends international trade in caviar

A United Nations agency / shop has placed a short-term ban on caviar exports. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has said it will not allow / follow exports from the Caspian Sea area until it deceives / receives more information from exporters. CITES wants figures on illegal sales and the numbers of the endangered wild sturgeon, the fish that provides / consumes caviar. An official said he was worried about poaching and the future of the fish. Sturgeon species / specials are currently suffering serious population declines. The ban affects Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran and Kazakhstan – the world’s primitive / primary caviar exporters.

The 169 CITES member countries have very slick / strict conditions that control caviar exports. Exporters must agree on data for all throws / catches and stick to a shared management plan. They must also give scientific evidence / residence of the size of sturgeon populations. Importing countries must also take responsibility to make sure sturgeon is not being under / over-fished. Importers such as the European Union have a legal duty to check / tick that all the caviar it imports has been legally caught. A CITES official said he is worried that importers are breaking the rules. He said: “Many key / lock importing countries have still not put these measures in place.”

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

UN suspends international trade in caviar

A United Nations agency has placed a short-______ ban on caviar exports. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has said it will not ______ exports from the Caspian Sea area until it receives more information from exporters. CITES wants ______ on illegal sales and the numbers of the endangered wild sturgeon, the fish that ______ caviar. An official said he was worried about poaching and the future of the fish. Sturgeon ______ are currently suffering serious population declines. The ban ______ Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran and Kazakhstan – the world’s ______ caviar exporters.

The 169 CITES member countries have very ______ conditions that control caviar exports. Exporters must agree on data for all catches and ______ to a shared management plan. They must also give scientific evidence of the ______ of sturgeon populations. Importing countries must also ______ responsibility to make sure sturgeon is not being ______-fished. Importers such as the European Union have a legal ______ to check that all the caviar it imports has been legally caught. A CITES official said he is worried that importers are breaking the rules. He said: “Many key importing countries have still not put these measures in ______.”

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘united’ and ‘nation’.

• Share your findings with your partners.
• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. WRONG WORD: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…?

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. STUDENT “POACHING” SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about poaching endangered species and the future of the sturgeon.

• Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
• Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:

term allow information worried declines primary

strict data size duty breaking measures

DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

1. Did the headline make you want to read the article?
2. Do you like caviar?
3. What do you know about caviar and sturgeon?
4. Do you think the UN has made a good decision?
5. How do you think the primary caviar exporters feel about this decision?
6. How do you think the sturgeon feel about this decision?
7. Do you think CITES is strong enough to enforce the ban?
8. What can CITES do to get the key importing countries to put measures in place?
9. Would you buy any product if you thought it was illegally fished or hunted?
10. Do you think the UN could solve this problem by encouraging more fish farms?

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

1. Did you like reading this article?
2. What do you think about what you read?
3. What are your fears for endangered species?
4. Which endangered species do you fear for most?
5. What punishment do you think should be given to sturgeon poachers?
6. What punishment do you think should be given to giant panda poachers?
7. What are the biggest problems for the primary exporters in controlling fishing?
8. Do you think the primary exporters stick to CITES regulations?
9. What more can the EU do to protect declining sturgeon populations?
10. Did you like this discussion?

AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.

1. What was the most interesting thing you heard?
2. Was there a question you didn’t like?
3. Was there something you totally disagreed with?
4. What did you like talking about?
5. Which was the most difficult question?

SPEAKING

ENDANGERED SPECIES: In pairs / groups, talk about the endangered species below. Agree on three things that could help the survival of each species.

SPECIES	TO HELP SURVIVAL
Caspian Sea sturgeon	1. 2. 3.
Well behaved children	1. 2. 3.
Blue whales	1. 2. 3.
Talented pop singers	1. 2. 3.
Giant pandas	1. 2. 3.
Honest politicians	1. 2. 3.

Change partners and tell you new partner(s) the two points you decided with your old partner(s).

Talk about which of your points are the most important. Which points are likeliest to be accepted?

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on the Caspian Sea sturgeon. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson. Did you all find out similar things?

3. ENDANGERED: Make a poster on one endangered species. Show your posters to your classmates in the next lesson. Whose poster was best?

4. LETTER: Write a letter to the head of CITES. Tell him / her what you think he / she should do to protect the declining sturgeon populations.  Show what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Did everyone write similar things?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a. F

b. T

c. F

d. F

e. F

f. F

g. T

h. F

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	placed	put
b.	short-term	temporary
c.	endangered	threatened
d.	worried	concerned
e.	declines	falls
f.	control	govern
g.	data	information
h.	duty	responsibility
i.	key	important
j.	measures	regulations

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	a short-term ban	on caviar exports
b.	CITES wants figures on illegal	sales
c.	worried about poaching and	the future of the fish
d.	species are currently suffering	serious population declines
e.	the world’s primary	caviar exporters
f.	have very strict conditions	that control caviar exports
g.	agree	on data for all catches
h.	stick to	a shared management plan
i.	countries must also take	responsibility
j.	he is worried that importers	are breaking the rules

WRONG WORD:

UN suspends international trade in caviar

A United Nations agency / shop has placed a short-term ban on caviar exports. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has said it will not allow / follow exports from the Caspian Sea area until it deceives / receives more information from exporters. CITES wants figures on illegal sales and the numbers of the endangered wild sturgeon, the fish that provides / consumes caviar. An official said he was worried about poaching and the future of the fish. Sturgeon species / specials are currently suffering serious population declines. The ban affects Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran and Kazakhstan – the world’s primitive / primary caviar exporters.

The 169 CITES member countries have very slick / strict conditions that control caviar exports. Exporters must agree on data for all throws / catches and stick to a shared management plan. They must also give scientific evidence / residence of the size of sturgeon populations. Importing countries must also take responsibility to make sure sturgeon is not being under / over-fished. Importers such as the European Union have a legal duty to check / tick that all the caviar it imports has been legally caught. A CITES official said he is worried that importers are breaking the rules. He said: “Many key / lock importing countries have still not put these measures in place.”

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