SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan— The 20th Conference of the Parties for the world’s wildlife trade convention ended today with the parties formalizing several newly adopted protections for more than 100 imperiled species, including a sea cucumber, sharks, birds like African hornbills and Latin American songbirds, okapi, reptiles, sloths and a tarantula. The protected species face threats ranging from the pet trade to décor and direct consumption.
Attempts to open elephant ivory and rhinoceros horn trade were rejected, along with a proposal to eliminate trade protections for giraffes in eight African nations.
“We avoided the worst at this meeting by protecting elephants and rhinos from ivory and horn trade, while many rare and endemic species, some captured for the pet trade, received vital global support,” said Tanya Sanerib, international legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The bad news is that countries sent a clear message that CITES lacks adequate funding, and there was little appetite for new work. Stagnation is an utter tragedy during a global biodiversity crisis. We need ambition and new ideas for protecting species from overexploitation, not the same old sorry song.”
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, meets every three years to debate global trade protections for imperiled wildlife. This meeting, also known as “CoP20,” was the first of the conferences to be held in Central Asia.
Center staff members attended the meeting in person and advocated for several species that won protections, including golden sandfish sea cucumbers, African hornbills, six species of songbirds, several reptiles and a tarantula. They also helped fight efforts to loosen trade safeguards for elephants, rhinos and giraffes.
Endangered eels did not win protections, even though demand for unagi and other high-value dishes has skyrocketed, depleting eels’ populations. Rattlesnakes were also denied protections.
The United States attended CoP20 but did not assume its typical leadership role under the treaty. A destructive proposal from the Trump administration and Canada to remove the commercial trade ban for peregrine falcons did not pass, and the administration did not submit any proposals to increase protections. In contrast, the United States joined 14 proposals at the last CITES meeting in 2022.
