Highlights and images for 2 December 2025

Delegates returned to the second week of the the twentieth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP20) feeling varying degrees of reinvigoration: while some enjoyed a well-deserved pause, others met through the mid-CoP break to move contentious agenda items forward.

Want to dig deeper into today's talks? Read the full Earth Negotiations Bulletin daily report.

The two committees continued to work in parallel sessions throughout the day. Committee I started the day hearing back from African range states who successfully achieved consensus on nomenclature and amendments to harmonize conditions of trade of live African elephants. Committee I also accepted proposals to:

• delete bontebok (Damaliscus pygargus pygargus) from Appendix II;
• uplist Home’s hinge-back tortoise (Kinixys homeana) from Appendix II to Appendix I; and
• include four Pelophylax species in Appendix II.

In the afternoon, Committee I discussed: regulation of trade, including agenda items on non-detriment findings and materials for identification of specimens of CITES-listed species; identifying information on species at risk of extinction affected by international trade; and standard nomenclature and nomenclature of Appendix III listings.

In Committee II, parties discussed matters relating to exemptions and special trade provisions, strategic matters, and regulation of trade, including:

• facilitating legal trade and sustainable use during periods of transition; 
• disposal of confiscated specimens;
• trade in specimens of animals and plants not of wild source; and 
• risk assessment and analysis for border control of CITES-listed species.

Parties in Committee II also considered exemptions and special trade provisions, such as a proposal on guidance on the term “artificially propagated,” which was accepted, and on the use of phytosanitary certificates as certificates of artificial propagation, which was rejected.
 

Meetings continued in working groups on Paubrasilia echinata, trade in threatened endemic species, and finance and budget, among others. The venue was also host to a variety of side events, where delegates could immerse themselves on topics such as: uniting for hammerheads; returning big cats to central Asia; and the global songbird crisis.