After almost two weeks of intense debate, the 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) drew to a close on October 4th.
This particular meeting was one of the more successful in terms of species protection. In all, a record number proposals to regulate or prohibit international commercial trade in various species were submitted, and the majority were adopted, many by consensus. These included Appendix I listings for African grey parrots, all eight species of pangolin, and barbary macaques. Silky and thresher sharks and Mobula rays were listed on Appendix II.
Good decisions were made in relation to elephants. Attempts by Namibia and Zimbabwe to allow them to trade ivory were blocked, the Convention sent strong signals that domestic ivory markets should be shut down, the development of a mechanism to decide on future ivory trading was abandoned, and measures to improve the effectiveness of National Ivory Action Plans and increase the scrutiny of live elephant trade were agreed.
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