Highlights for Monday, 6 July 2009
SC58 opens
The 58th meeting of the Standing Committee (SC58) of the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) opened today in Geneva, Switzerland and will continue until Friday, 10 July. CITES Secretary-General, Willem Wijnstekers, opened the meeting and welcomed delegates. He explained that SC Vice-Chair Nana Kofi Adu-Nsiah (Ghana) would chair the meeting, as SC Chair Cristian Maquieira (Chile) could not be present.
Delegates addressed administrative and substantive matters, including: rules of procedure; admission of observers; arrangements from the 15th Conference of the Parties (CoP15), to be held from 13-25 March 2010 in Doha, Qatar; selection of chairmanship of the scientific committees; and CITES and livelihoods. Several parties also provided updates on progress made in developing national CITES-related legislation.
