Eighteenth meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES) Plants Committee
17-21 March 2009 | Buenos Aires, Argentina
Daily Highlights, Tuesday 17 March 2009
L-R: Margarita Clemente, Plants Committee Chair (Spain); Homero Bibiloni, Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Development (Argentina); and David Morgan (CITES Secretariat).
The 18th meeting of the Plants Committee (PC18) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was opened by David Morgan, on behalf of CITES Secretary-General Willem Wijnstekers. He stressed the importance of implementation, and urged the PC to “turn talk into action” by developing concrete proposals for the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP15), which will take place in Doha, Qatar next year.
PC Chair Margarita Clemente (Spain) welcomed participants and thanked Argentina for their generosity in hosting the meeting during these times of economic crisis. She stressed the importance of the Plants Committee’s work on issues such as timber, review of annotations and the preparation of guidelines to undertake non-detriment findings (NDFs). Noting that these seemingly easy tasks can actually become quite complicated, she underscored her confidence in the PC to progress quickly towards reaching its goals.
The PC established several working groups on, among other issues, preparation of the chairman’s report for CoP15, collaboration with the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation of the Convention on Biological Diversity, review of significant trade (RST) in Appendix II species, annotations, exchange of herbarium specimens, non-detriment findings, timber issues and proposals for consideration at CoP15.
Plants Committee representatives. L-R: Dora Ingrid Rivera (Costa Rica); Margarita Clemente (Spain); and Maurizio Sajeva (Italy).
L-R: David Newton (TRAFFIC); and Colman O'Criodain (WWF) prepare for the afternoon plenary.