The CITES conference divided into the two main working committees. Committee I that deals with species listing decisions and Committee II that deals with implementing the Convention. These Committees will continue to meet daily throughout the course of the meeting and these updates will highlight the key issues that are important to the U.S. delegation over the next two weeks.

Committee I, chaired by J. Donaldson of South Africa, began its deliberations on documents related to cooperation with other Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA) including 10.1 Synergy with biodiversity-related international initiatives and 10.4 Global Strategy for Plant Conservation of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The purpose of these discussions center around how to work cooperatively among various MEAs. The U.S. intervened in support of these discussions.

It then moved to a discussion on the relationship between the impacts of climate change on species’ status and CITES. Due to the importance of this issue, the acting head of the delegation Jane Lyder, intervened to emphasize the need for CITES to consider the impacts of climate change on the scientific findings under CITES. That statement is attached below. The discussion resulted in the formation of a working group to discuss how CITES should deal with climate change. The U.S. is a member of this working group.

Working groups are an important part of the procedures of the meeting of the CoP. During Committee business, if an issue is raised that requires further deliberation and action, a working group is formed and members identified. The working group is asked to convene during the meeting and report back to the Committee. The Committee considers these recommendations in adopting any final decision. One of the strengths of the CITES process is that it works by consensus. Contentious and complex issues are deliberated in working groups where consensus recommendations are often agreed in principle and result in an agreed position.

The Committee then discussed 14.18 (from CoP14) which is Doc 12 for CoP15 entitled Harmonization of Nomenclature and Taxonomy with other Multilateral Environmental Agreements. It is critical that the Parties adopt standard names for species across MEAs to ensure the names used to identify species are consistent among these agreements. A discussion ensued where delegations spoke up in support of this approach. The Parties agreed to a number of changes. Although, Pakistan raised an objection to one change that was proposed that would merge the Ganges river dolphin and the Indus river dolphin as a single species the change was adopted.

The Committee then discussed capacity building, especially workshops to assist countries in making non-detriment findings under CITES. The basic tenet of CITES is sustainability of species in the wild, which is derived by making a non-detriment finding when issuing permits. A non-detriment finding means that issuing a permit to export wildlife parts or products will not have a detrimental effect on the species in the wild. This finding is required before an individual can get a permit to trade in listed species. The CITES Secretary commended the U.S. for funding a workshop to discuss non-detriment findings. There was considerable discussion about the usefulness of the workshop and a decision was taken to review the effectiveness of these types of workshops to inform support for future efforts.

In the afternoon, Committee I focused on a discussion of significant trade in specimens of Appendix II plant species. There are more than 28,000 species of plants listed in Appendix II, and CITES enables the evaluation of these plants to discern which plants are heavily traded commercially. The Committee specifically looked at the significant trade in seven species of Asian medicinal plants. The Committee approved a proposal to implement regionally coordinated actions to improve the management of the seven species and ensure that the trade is legal, sustainable and traceable.

Another important issue considered in Committee I was a discussion of ranching and the trade in ranched species. At previous meetings, the Parties agreed to allow commercial trade in certain skins produced from species of crocodiles from ranching operations. A ranching operation is where the species is raised in captivity with a portion of the offspring returned to the wild and a portion of the surplus allowed in trade. During discussions yesterday, the Parties considered ways to ensure that proposals to allow ranching would require that proper documentation and enforcement requirements are in place to protect the overall viability of the species in the wild. After some discussion, a working group was formed to address this issue further.

The work of Committee II occurred simultaneously in another meeting room, also equipped with microphones and translation services. This committee deals with day-to-day CITES implementation issues. The Committee is chaired by W. Dovey of New Zealand. Basic to the implementation of CITES is its funding. The Convention is funded by voluntary donations by participating Parties. The U.S. is a major voluntary donor to the Convention. Particularly in these economic times, discussions concerning the funding of the Convention are critical. The budget is typically raised early in the CITES proceedings and a working group is formed to discuss the budget and develop recommendations for consideration. A working group will be formed this week, and the U.S. will participate.

Committee II also discussed several other issues related to CITES implementation including a discussion on how trade in CITES species relates to livelihood issues particularly in developing countries. Parties supported reviewing their internal wildlife trade policies and developing recommendations to strengthen those policies. Several countries spoke about the support they have received to review their wildlife trade policies.

A series of documents were adopted by consensus by the Parties. Each day, “rapporteurs” record the proceedings to develop a permanent record for the meeting. CITES deals with many complex and intricate scientific, trade, policy and diplomatic issues that require careful consideration by all of the Parties. The permanent proceedings are a way to ensure an accurate record for future consideration.

U.S. Intervention regarding Document CoP15 Doc. 10.1/

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As this is the first intervention of the United States of America in Committee I, we’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate you, Chairman, on your appointment. We look forward to working with you over the next two weeks.

Regarding Document CoP15 10.1, the United States supports adoption of the draft decision revising the CITES Strategic Vision: 2008-2013 to take into account the post-2010 biodiversity targets.

With regard to the 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (BIP), the United States notes that the Secretariat is already engaged in this work, and we support the Secretariat continuing its work as a partner for the ‘Status of species in trade’ element of the indicators of sustainable use. Consequently, we support the adoption of the draft decision related to this item. However, we are opposed to further expanding the role of CITES in this Partnership unless a clear link can be made to CITES core work.

Finally, the United States is very concerned about the causes and consequences of global climate change. We agree with the Secretariat that Parties should recognize the actual and potential impacts of climate change on CITES implementation. However, we believe that the consideration of climate change within the CITES context should be limited to science-based decision-making, such as when making non-detriment findings and listing decisions. We support the adoption of the first decision, directed to the Animals and Plants Committees, with minor revisions. Rather than the three decisions directed to the Standing Committee proposed by the Secretariat, we propose a more limited and consolidated decision directed to the Standing Committee.

We are pleased to report that the two decisions we are proposing are the product of discussion with our colleagues in Canada and Mexico and represent a regional consensus on this issue.

We propose revising the first decision regarding climate change, directed to the Animals and Plants Committees, to read as follows:

Directed to the Animals and Plants Committees

Given the implications of climate change for science-based decision-making, tThe Animals and Plants Committees shall identify the scientific aspects of the provisions of the Convention and of Resolutions of the Conference of the Parties that are actually or likely to be affected by climate change, and report their findings, and make recommendations for further action as appropriate, at the 62nd meeting of the Standing Committee.

We propose replacing the three decisions directed to the Standing Committee with the following more focused and consolidated decision:

Directed to the Standing Committee

The Standing Committee shall consider the reports of the Animals and Plants Committees, as well as the climate change-related activities of other biodiversity-related multilateral environmental agreements, on the implementation of Decisions 15.xx, 15.xx and 15.xx and report to make recommendations for further action at the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties.

These important decisions will provide the Parties with the needed science-based decision-making tools to address climate change within a CITES context and serve the Parties well in the future. The United States would be pleased to provide external funds as necessary to support these decisions.

We have already provided this intervention, including our proposed amendments, in writing to the rapporteurs. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Christine Eustis (FWS)

Jane Lyder intervenes for the U.S. accompanied by Craig Hoover