Delegates from more than 180 countries and experts in the protection of endangered species, meeting for a week in Panama, decided on Monday to maintain the total ban on the trade in white rhinoceros horn (Ceratotherium simum simum).
Eswatini (ex-Swaziland), sponsored by Botswana and Namibia, to ease the trade in horns of its rhinos to free up resources to finance the protection of the species was rejected on Monday by 85 votes against 15 and 26 abstentions despite the support of Japan and several African countries. Other African countries, the European Union, Israel and Panama had previously called for any development to be rejected.
Similarly, delegates refused to allow the resumption of ivory trade, even regulated, to the satisfaction of the NGO International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
The “legal ivory trade opens opportunities for traffickers of elephant ivory hunted by poachers,” argues IFAW Vice President Matthew Collis.
– Reptiles and batrachians –
The protection of reptiles and amphibians promises to be among the highlights of this 19th CITES conference: it will have to decide by its closing on Friday on the rules for marketing a dozen species of freshwater turtles , and as many varieties of “crystal frogs”.
“Freshwater turtles are among the main species victims of international traffic and are under pressure” for this reason, explains to AFP Yovana Murillo, of the NGO Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Four Latin American countries (Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru) propose to put in Appendix II (regulated trade) the Matamatas turtles Chelus fimbriaba, from the Amazon basin, and Chelus orinocensis from the Orinoco.
“The Matamatas are plagued by many threats: destruction of their habitat, pollution but also illegal trade, consumption of their flesh and eggs, and now (trafficking) to make them pets (… ) because of their characteristics”, laments to AFP Doris Rodriguez, of the service of forests and wildlife of Peru (Serfor).
These spiny-shelled turtles, which measure about fifty centimeters for about fifteen kilos, look like living fossils that particularly attract collectors.
It is also the spectacular morphology of the “crystal frogs” (Centrolenidae) that makes them the preferred prey of traffickers. Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic, the United States and five African countries have agreed to request the protection that these frogs currently lack. nocturnal humid forests of Central and South America.
The president of Committee I, the Briton Vincent Fleming, held Monday to salute “a positive story of restoration of a species”. Noting the improved status of the Aleutian Cackling Goose (Branta canadensis leucopareia), the Committee agreed by consensus, at the request of the United States, to move this species of wild duck from Appendix I ( total ban on marketing) in Appendix II allowing regulated marketing.
In addition, Committee I of the summit approved by consensus the transfer from Appendix I to Appendix II for a crocodile from Brazil (Caiman latirostris) and another from the Philippines (Crocodylus porosus), but refused to do the same with a species from Thailand (Crocodylus siamensis). This passage makes it possible to lift the ban on marketing these species when they live in captivity.
“Brazilians have a lot of information on which they base their decisions. It’s not marketing pressure, because the value of these species has gone down a lot,” researcher Miryam Venegas-Anaya, a renowned specialist, told AFP. crocodiles from the Technological University of Panama and the Smithsonian Institute.
COP-19 should also make a major foray into the seas, deciding in plenary to protect Requiem sharks and hammerhead sharks by listing them in Appendix II in order to curb the trade in shark fins and prevent them from ending up in soup.
The price of shark fins can reach a thousand dollars per kilo in Asian markets, especially in Hong Kong. Hammerhead sharks and Requiem sharks provide half of the sales, estimated at half a billion dollars each year.
CITES, in force since 1975, sets the rules for international trade for more than 36,000 wild species, ranging from the issuance of permits (more than a million transactions authorized per year) to total prohibition.
