21 December 2011: The first official session of the Steering Committee of the African Elephant Action Plan and the African Elephant Fund, created under the auspices of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), held a three-day meeting to allocate funds to six elephant conservation projects. The Committee includes representatives of the range states and donor countries.
The CITES Standing Committee provides policy guidance to the Secretariat concerning the implementation of the Convention and oversees the management of the Secretariat's budget; coordinates and oversees, where required, the work of other committees and working groups; carries out tasks given to it by the Conference of the Parties; and drafts resolutions for consideration by the Conference of the Parties.
20 December 2011: The Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate access to expertise for the care of confiscated live animals.
16 December 2011: The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC) released the proceedings of the international symposium on community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), and its relevance to the conservation and sustainable use of CITES-listed species in exporting countries. Participants discussed markhor conservation efforts, incentives for local sustainable management of migratory species, and biological impacts of sustainable use.
19 December 2011: The first international workshop on controlled deliveries in wildlife smuggling took place under the auspices of the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC).
15 December 2011: The Eye on Earth Summit (Eye on Earth 2011) met under the Patronage of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to discuss efforts to find common solutions to obstacles to data access. The event concluded with the adoption of the Summit Declaration, which will be forwarded to the UN Conference for Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20).
15 November 2011: Eight Central African countries have agreed on an Action Plan to strengthen enforcement of national wildlife laws and cooperate more effectively to address large-scale poaching and illegal wildlife trade in the region.
28 November 2011: INTERPOL, the World Bank and partners launched Project Predator, a worldwide enforcement initiative to protect tigers in the wild. The Project will call for countries to establish National Tiger Crime Task Forces, which it hopes will encourage the use of modern, intelligence-led enforcement practices for tiger conservation.
25 November 2011: Participants in the World Customs and Trade Forum discussed knowledge management and new ways to share and access information on customs policies and private sector practices, with the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) contributing as a panel member on the effective use of knowledge and information management in CITES' work.
The twentieth meeting of the Plants Committee (PC 20) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) will address, among other issues, review of significant trade in Appendix II species specimens, proposals to amend the Appendices, and timber issues, including the progress report of the Working Group on the Bigleaf Mahogany and other neotropical timber species and a progress report on the joint CITES-ITTO timber programme.
| Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) |
|
| Conference Reporting Services (CRS) |
