Guest Article #18: CITES at 40 Marks a Major Decision Point for Sharks, Trees, Snakes, Turtles and other Wildlife Species [viewed]
CITES at 40 Marks a Major Decision Point for Sharks, Trees, Snakes, Turtles and other Wildlife Species: Guidelines, toolkits, standards and action plans fostering capacity, financing, law enforcement, livelihoods, science, sustainability, traceability and synergies also adopted
The 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP16) held March 2013 in Bangkok, will be remembered as a defining moment in the 40 year history of the Convention.
30 April 2013: Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the World Bank has approved a US$4.2 million grant to support the Government of Burundi's efforts in promoting sustainable land and water management in coffee farms, within the pilot Sustainable Coffee Landscape Project.
April 2013: The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) is calling for proposals to enhance the involvement of the private sector under the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) and the Forest Investment Program (FIP).
18 April 2013: Over 35 ministers, vice-ministers and senior officials of finance, development and environment met for a High-level Ministerial Dialogue on Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) on 18 April 2013, in Washington, DC, US, on the eve of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meetings. As part of a larger group called the "first movers" of NCA, they discussed new methods for valuing nature, reaching beyond traditional gross domestic product (GDP) as a measure of economic progress. 
9 April 2013: The April issue of the World Bank Program on Forests' (PROFOR) newsletter features sections on the benefits of sustainable forest management (SFM) certification, upcoming events, new activities and stories from around PROFOR.
3 April 2013: The World Bank has reported on the implementation of a multi-country project, titled Senegal River Basin Multi-Purpose Water Resources Development Project (MWRD), which aims to assist Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal in jointly managing shared water resources, as well as reduce poverty, diseases and hunger.
12 March 2013: The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) held a training session for wildlife law enforcement officials from across Asia. The training, which focused on investigative techniques, took place on the sidelines of the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP 16). 
9 March 2013: Representatives and experts from twelve snow leopard range countries convened in Bangkok on the sidelines of the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP 16) to advance national preparations for the 2013 International Snow Leopard Conservation Forum. 
7 March 2013: The first global meeting of wildlife enforcement networks (WENs) met on the sidelines of the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP 16) to strengthen regional enforcement capacity, coordination and response to wildlife crime. 
