Defenders of Wildlife Calls for Countries to Support CITES Protections for Wildlife Amidst Biodiversity Crisis

Defenders of Wildlife’s team of international lawyers are attending the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP 19) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to support countries seeking increased trade regulations for imperiled species.

The conference begins on November 14 and runs until November 25 in Panama City, Panama. CITES COP’s are held every three years and are critical to addressing the overexploitation of species, one of the leading drivers of the biodiversity crisis.  

“As the world faces an escalating biodiversity crisis, it’s critical that governments ensure that their decisions about which proposals to support are science-based and account for the threat international trade poses to the species,” said Alejandra Goyenechea, senior international counsel for Defenders of Wildlife. “Sacrificing the long-term benefits of having biodiverse ecosystems for any short-term gain that may come from not adopting CITES regulation is not an option.”

In coordination with many Latin American countries seeking to protect their invaluable biodiversity, especially Costa Rica and Mexico, as well as the United States, Defenders of Wildlife has been diligently working to support proposals that would place all species of glass frogs, horned lizards and requiem sharks on Appendix II. Defenders is also urging parties to adopt new protections for aquatic turtles, neotropical trees and freshwater stingrays, in addition to proposals to address the illegal jaguar trade, and documents that improve the implementation of the Convention.

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CITES

This year’s conference has an unusually large number of proposals for full family listings as opposed to just single species so that imperiled species are not traded under the guise of more common species that they look similar to. As a result, depending on how member countries vote, it’s possible that this COP could lead to the listing of a large number of species on the CITES Appendices.

“With our planet experiencing biodiversity loss at an unprecedented rate, it is more important than ever that the world embraces a precautionary approach to environmental governance and acts decisively at COP19 to reduce the threat that international trade poses to species worldwide,” said Orion Cruz, international associate with Defenders of Wildlife.

Background:

Proposal Fact Sheets.