The 19th World Conference of the Convention on International Trade in Species of Wild Wild flora and flora threatened with extinction concluded Friday in Panama.
by Perrine Mouterde and Laurence Caramel
On November 16, Masphal Kry, a Cambodian official, was arrested at an American airport. Accused of trafficking in wild macaques, a species threatened with extinction, it is today incarcerated and risks 145 years in prison: this civil servant would have personally participated in the transport of primates captured in national parks and exported to the United States, where They were presented as breeding animals.
Small feature: Masphal Kry was on the way to … Panama, where he was to lead the Cambodian delegation during the 19
For ten days, representatives of some 160 states took, on the occasion of this meeting, measures intended to make transactions involving wild “sustainable, legal and traceable” species, while illegal trade of these plants and animals is considered the third more lucrative in the world.
“The parties to the CITES are fully aware that it is their responsibility to face the crisis of loss of biodiversity, underlined the executive secretary of the CITES, Ivonne Higuero, by closing the COP19, two weeks before The opening of the COP15 for biodiversity in Canada. The decisions resulting from this meeting will serve the interests of conservation and a trade which does not threaten the existence of species of plants and wild animals for future generations . “
” Very beautiful advances “
Gathered in Latin America for the first time in twenty years, the parties to the CITES adopted a record number of 365 decisions. Part of them will protect several hundred wild species more, including a hundred species of trees, through their inscription on one of the three “annexes” of the CITES – on which are already included more than 38,000 species.
Registration in Annex 1 prohibits any transaction for commercial purposes. For species in Annex 2, imports and exports continue to be authorized, but they are supervised by license and quotas systems. Finally, Annex 3 prohibits trade from a particular destination.
“This COP has enabled very beautiful advances with regard to wood, turtles, reptiles or even singing birds, such as yellow -headed bulbul, underlines Charlotte Nithart, delegate of the Robin des Bois association The CITES. For wood, the only regret relates to Pernambouc, used for the manufacture of archers. The European Union [EU] played a negative role by opposing Brazil’s proposal for an appendix 1 classification . “
You have 50.7% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.