NGOs

The twenty-ninth meeting of the Animals Committee (AC29) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) opened on Tuesday, 18 July in Geneva, Switzerland.  In the morning, CITES Secretary-General John Scanlon welcomed participants and underlined the AC’s “extraordinary and critical work” in bringing science to the decision-making and implementation processes of CITES. Hugh Robertson, AC representative for Oceania, on behalf of Fiji, presented Secretary-General John Scanlon with a tabua, a ceremonial sperm whale tooth with significant cultural value, in recognition of the repatriation to Fiji of 146 tabua confiscated at the New Zealand border.  The AC welcomed Mathias Lörtscher (Switzerland) as its new Chair. It addressed, among other issues: the Review of Significant Trade (RST); periodic review of the Appendices; captive-bred and ranched specimens; nomenclature; and species-specific matters. Chair Lörtscher established several working groups and a drafting group, which will meet on Wednesday and Thursday. IISD Reporting Services, through its Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) Meeting Coverage, has provided daily web coverage and a summary and analysis report from the 29th Meeting of the CITES Animals Committee, Joint Meeting of the CITES Animals and Plants Committees, and 23rd Meeting of the CITES Plants Committee. The summary and analysis is now available in HTML and PDF. Photos by IISD/ENB | Sean Wu For photo reprint permissions, please follow instructions at our Attribution Regulations for Meeting Photo Usage Page Opening Plenary John Scanlon, Secretary-General, CITES Sofie Flensborg, CITES Secretariat Tom De Meulenaer, CITES Secretariat Simon Nemtzov, AC representative for Europe Amir Hamidy, Indonesia Chair Mathias Lörtscher, Switzerland Delegates from Mexico Delegate from Tanzania Claire McLardy, UNEP-WCMC Øystein Størkersen, Norway Room view during the morning plenary Ronald Orenstein, Humane Society International Pablo Sinovas, UNEP-WCMC Chair Mathias Lörtscher, Switzerland NGOs raising their plates to join the membership of a working group Kelly Malsch, UNEP-WCMC Peter Paul van Dijk, CITES Nomenclature Specialist David Morgan, CITES Secretariat Guy Apollinaire Mensah, AC representative for Africa Afternoon Plenary View of the dais during the afternoon plenary Tom De Meulenaer, CITES Secretariat, in discussions with Chair Mathias Lörtscher, Switzerland Delegates taking notes Delegate from European Union raising his plate Vincent Fleming, AC representative for Europe Hugh Robertson, AC representative for Oceania Daniel Kachelriess, CITES Secretariat Marcel Calvar Agrelo, AC representative for Central and South America and Caribbean Amie Bräutigam, Wildlife Conservation Society Firdaus Agung, Indonesia Zhigang Jiang, China Dan Natusch, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Alain Jouffrey, GS1 Switzerland Around the Venue