CITES at Its Best: CoP16 as a ‘Watershed Moment’ for the World's Wildlife

• Published date: 01 November 2013
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12040
• Author: John E. Scanlon
• Date: 01 November 2013

CITES at Its Best: CoP16 as a ‘Watershed Moment’

for the World’s Wildlife

John E. Scanlon

The sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties

to CITES (CoP16) has been hailed as a ‘watershed

moment’ for the Convention, with key decisions being

taken on capacity-building, enforcement, financing

and synergies. Significant decisions were also taken to

bring many new species of precious fauna and flora,

including commercially valuable timber and marine

species, under the Convention. CITES parties demon-

strated unprecedented levels of international coopera-

tion at CoP16 to combat increased levels and types of

wildlife crime, especially with regard to the poaching

of African elephants for their ivory and rhinos for their

horn. The great success of CoP16 reflects the increas-

ing relevance of a four-decades-old convention to the

conservation and sustainable use of wildlife.

INTRODUCTION

It was a defining moment in the forty-year history of the

Convention on International Trade in Endangered

Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), when at the

16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP16)

held in March 2013 in Bangkok, the 178 parties1agreed

on new ways for CITES to ensure legal, sustainable and

traceable trade in species of precious fauna and flora,

including commercially valuable timber and other

forest products and marine species. The Conference

unanimously brought hundreds of new timber species

under CITES controls, along with a number of tortoises

and turtles and a wide range of other plant and animal

species.2Significantly, five shark species and all manta

rays were also brought under the global CITES trade

regulation regime, following a vote supported by more

than the required two-thirds majority. Overall, the

international community made good use of this prag-

matic and effective agreement to help chart a more sus-

tainable path for marine species and forests.

CoP16 also saw unprecedented levels of international

cooperation to combat increased levels and types of

wildlife crime, and parties heeded the call from the

United Nations Conference on Sustainable Develop-

ment (or ‘Rio+20’) to recognize the important role

of CITES as an international agreement standing at

the intersection between trade, the environment and

development.3

SHARKS AND MANTA RAYS

The meeting reached a climax on its final day after a

request in the closing plenary, to reopen the debate on

four shark species, failed to obtain the required support

from one-third of the parties. With this and other

actions, CITES parties confirmed decisions taken

earlier in the week by the Conference’s Committee I

(that deals with scientific matters) to include five com-

mercially valuable shark species in Appendix II. The

oceanic whitetip (Carcharhinus longimanus), scal-

loped hammerhead (Sphyrma lewini), great hammer-

head shark (Sphyrna mokarran), smooth hammerhead

shark (Sphyrna zigaena) and the porbeagle shark

(Lamna nasus) are harvested in huge numbers for their

valuable fins and, in some cases, meat.

Broad alliances were forged in support of proposals to

list the sharks and the manta ray across multiple geo-

graphic regions. In taking their decisions, parties had

the benefit of technical and scientific advice provided

by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organiza-

tion (FAO) Advisory Expert Panel, the CITES Secre-

tariat, the International Union for Conservation of

Nature (IUCN)/TRAFFIC and others.

Recognizing that implementation of these decisions

will require some preparation time, parties decided that

the entry into force of the inclusion of sharks and manta

rays in Appendix II should be delayed by 18 months,

until 14 September 2014. From that time forward,

1With over 170 parties attending CoP16.

2CITES Press Release, ‘CITES Conference Takes Decisive Action to

Halt Decline of Tropical Timber, Sharks, Manta Rays and a Wide

Range of Other Plants and Animals’ (14 March 2013), found

at: <http://www.cites.org/eng/news/pr/2013/20130314_cop16.php>;

CITES Press Release, ‘New Rules for International Trade in Timber,

Marine and Other Wild Animals and Plants Come into Force’ (14 June

2013), found at: <http://www.cites.org/eng/news/pr/2013/20130614

_cop16_decisions.php>.

3CITES Resolution Conf. 16.3, CITES Strategic Vision 2008–2020

(2013). See also J.E. Scanlon, ‘CITES: From Stockholm ‘72 to

Rio+20 – Back to the Future’, IISD Sustainable Development Policy

and Practice (6 July 2012), found at: <http://uncsd.iisd.org/guest

-articles/cites-from-stockholm-in-%E2%80%9872-to-rio20-back-to

-the-future/>.

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Review of European Community & International Environmental Law

RECIEL 22 (3) 2013. ISSN 2050-0386

© 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

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