A UN wildlife forum on the lucrative international trade in endangered marine and tree species will be held in The Hague from June 3-15 next week that seeks to curb.
The event will also serve to define the future of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), an international agreement between governments
CITES’s aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival, and its work is increasingly concentrating on commercial as opposed to exotic animal species.
The forum will be attended by 171 countries and its agenda includes 37 proposals relating to the depletion of the world’s marine and forest resources due to overfishing and overlogging. Environmentalists see this as a signal of the growing importance say this year’s proposals showed that governments had begun to take CITES more seriously.
Representing the European Union, Germany is keen to limit the trade in two threatened shark species: the spiny dogfish, much used in Britain’s fish and chip shops, and the porbeagle shark, prized for the quality of its meat. It is also demanding stricter legislation for another species popular in the kitchen: the European eel.
CITES bans trade in 530 animal and over 300 plant species. It also restricts trade in 4,460 animal species and 28,000 plant species.
Source:
CITES
www.cites.org/