Highlights and images for 18 July 2017

Switzerland

Summary


CITES
The twenty-ninth meeting of the Animals Committee (AC29) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) opened on Tuesday, 18 July in Geneva, Switzerland. 

In the morning, CITES Secretary-General John Scanlon welcomed participants and underlined the AC’s “extraordinary and critical work” in bringing science to the decision-making and implementation processes of CITES. Hugh Robertson, AC representative for Oceania, on behalf of Fiji, presented Secretary-General John Scanlon with a tabua, a ceremonial sperm whale tooth with significant cultural value, in recognition of the repatriation to Fiji of 146 tabua confiscated at the New Zealand border. 

The AC welcomed Mathias Lörtscher (Switzerland) as its new Chair. It addressed, among other issues: the Review of Significant Trade (RST); periodic review of the Appendices; captive-bred and ranched specimens; nomenclature; and species-specific matters. Chair Lörtscher established several working groups and a drafting group, which will meet on Wednesday and Thursday.

IISD Reporting Services, through its Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) Meeting Coverage, has provided daily web coverage and a summary and analysis report from the 29th Meeting of the CITES Animals Committee, Joint Meeting of the CITES Animals and Plants Committees, and 23rd Meeting of the CITES Plants Committee. The summary and analysis is now available in HTML and PDF.

Photos by IISD/ENB | Sean Wu
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Opening Plenary

John Scanlon, Secretary-General, CITES

Sofie Flensborg, CITES Secretariat

Tom De Meulenaer, CITES Secretariat

Simon Nemtzov, AC representative for Europe

Amir Hamidy, Indonesia

Chair Mathias Lörtscher, Switzerland

Delegates from Mexico

Delegate from Tanzania

Claire McLardy, UNEP-WCMC

Øystein Størkersen, Norway

Room view during the morning plenary

Ronald Orenstein, Humane Society International

Pablo Sinovas, UNEP-WCMC

Chair Mathias Lörtscher, Switzerland

NGOs raising their plates to join the membership of a working group

Kelly Malsch, UNEP-WCMC

Peter Paul van Dijk, CITES Nomenclature Specialist

David Morgan, CITES Secretariat

Guy Apollinaire Mensah, AC representative for Africa

Afternoon Plenary

View of the dais during the afternoon plenary

Tom De Meulenaer, CITES Secretariat, in discussions with Chair Mathias Lörtscher, Switzerland

Delegates taking notes

Delegate from European Union raising his plate

Vincent Fleming, AC representative for Europe

Hugh Robertson, AC representative for Oceania

Daniel Kachelriess, CITES Secretariat

Marcel Calvar Agrelo, AC representative for Central and South America and Caribbean

Amie Bräutigam, Wildlife Conservation Society

Firdaus Agung, Indonesia

Zhigang Jiang, China

Dan Natusch, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Alain Jouffrey, GS1 Switzerland

Around the Venue

Participants

Negotiating blocs
European Union
Non-state coalitions
NGOs