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PANAMA CITY (AP) — An international wildlife conference has been launched to enact some of the most significant protections for the finned shark species and for the many turtles, lizards and frogs decimated by the pet trade.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known by its initials as CITES, ended on Friday in Panama. In addition to protecting over 500 species, delegates at a United Nations wildlife conference rejected a proposal to reopen the ivory trade. The ivory ban was enacted in 1989.
“Good news from CITES is good news for wildlife, as this agreement is one of the pillars of international conservation, imperative in ensuring that countries are united in the fight against the global interconnected crises of biodiversity collapse, climate change and pandemics,” said Susan Lieberman, vice president. chairman of the international policy of the Society for the Protection of Wildlife.
“Many of the proposals adopted here reflect that there is continued exploitation and unsustainable trade, as well as escalating illegal trade, and some are the result of complex interactions of other threats that are reducing populations of species in the wild, including climate change, disease, infrastructure development and habitat loss,” she added. is she.
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The International Wildlife Trade Treaty, adopted 49 years ago in Washington, has been praised for helping to curb the illegal and unsustainable trade in ivory and rhino horn, as well as whales and sea turtles.
But it has come under fire for its limitations, including reliance on cash-strapped developing countries to fight the illegal trade, which has become a lucrative $10 billion-a-year business.
One of the biggest achievements this year was increasing or ensuring protection for more than 90 species of sharks, including 54 species of requiem shark, the bonnethead shark, three species of hammerhead shark and 37 species of shark. Many have never had trade protection before, and now, under Annex II, commercial trade will be regulated.
The global shark population is declining, with annual fishing deaths reaching around 100 million. Sharks are sought after mainly for their fins, which are used in shark fin soup, a popular delicacy in China and elsewhere in Asia.
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“These species are threatened by unsustainable and unregulated fishing that supplies the international trade in their meat and fins, which has led to major population declines,” said Rebecca Regnery, senior wildlife director at Humane Society International. “With an Appendix II listing, CITES parties can only allow trade if it is not harmful to the survival of species in the wild, giving these species the help they need to recover from overexploitation.
The conference also brought protections for dozens of species of turtles, lizards and frogs, including glass frogs whose transparent skin has made them a favorite of the pet trade. Several species of songbirds have also received trade protection.
“Already under tremendous environmental pressure resulting from habitat loss, climate change and disease, the uncontrolled and growing trade in glass frogs is exacerbating the already existing threats to the species,” Danielle Kessler, director of the US-based Fund for Animal Welfare International, said in a statement. “This trade must be regulated and limited to sustainable levels to avoid exacerbating the multiple threats they already face.”
But some of the more controversial proposals were not approved.
Some African countries and conservation groups had hoped to ban the hippo trade. But that has been opposed by the European Union, some African countries and several conservation groups, which argue that many countries have healthy hippo populations and that trade is not a factor in their decline.
“The world’s prized mammals like rhinos, hippos, elephants and leopards didn’t get increased protection at this meeting, while a bunch of wonderful weirdos won conservation victories,” said Tanya Sanerib, International Legal Director of the Center for Biological Diversity. . “In the midst of a heartbreaking extinction crisis, we need a global agreement to fight for all species, even when it’s contested.”
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