Summary
On Tuesday, CITES SC66 met to address several agenda items pertaining to elephants: elephant conservation, illegal killing and ivory trade; the growth of ivory destructions; update on the Elephant Protection Initiative; and National Ivory Action Plans (NIAPs) process. Concerning the latter, the Secretariat noted that six of the countries of “primary concern” have substantially achieved NIAPs actions and that several countries of “secondary concern” and of “importance of watch” have had mixed compliance results.
On the decision-making mechanism for authorizing ivory trade, SC noted that the working group tasked with the topic did not complete its work and decided to ask guidance from CoP17 on whether the working group’s mandate should be extended.
In the afternoon, SC considered pangolins, rhino, snake trade and conservation, sturgeons and paddlefish and traceability. During the discussion on pangolins, IUCN described that according to their revised Red List assessment, all eight pangolin species are threatened with extinction.
Several working groups met throughout the day, including the working group on Asian Big Cats.
IISD Reporting Services, through its ENB Meeting Coverage, has provided daily web updates and a summary and analysis report from the 66th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Our summary and analysis report is available in HTML and PDF.
David Morgan, CITES Secretariat, reviewing documents.
Animals Committee Chair Carolina Caceres, Canada
L-R: Tom Milliken and Sabri Zain, TRAFFIC
L-R: Tom De Meulenaer, CITES Secretariat, and SC66 Chair Øystein Størkersen, Norway, consulting on elephant agenda.
Colman O’Criodain, WWF
Alice Miller and Laura Russo, IISD Reporting Services, reporting.