Join Orion, our International Associate, in Panama for the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP19) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES for short). Our international team is advocating in particular for proposals to list the full family of glass frogs, the full family of requiem sharks, aquatic turtles, horned lizards, freshwater stingrays and neotropical trees, which play an outsized role in supporting biodiverse rainforest ecosystems.
Video Transcript:
I’m Orion Cruz, International Associate with Defenders of Wildlife down here in Panama City for CITES COP19.
There are a whole bunch of really exciting and contentious issues that are going to be covered at this conference. And we’re focused primarily on amphibians and marine species such as sharks.
We’re really excited to get started. The energy is really high. There’s a lot of people and what we’re hoping to do is generate enough support for the proposals that we care about, that they will pass and we’ll get increased regulation in those species to make sure that trade is more sustainable.
One of the most important proposals that Defenders is going to be working on down here is the glass frogs proposal. This is a proposal we’ve been working on since the last COP where it only failed by two votes. So we’re really dedicating ourselves to getting this proposal passed. We feel that there’s a chance. Unfortunately, we’ve heard that the European Union might not be supporting this proposal, and therefore, we’re hoping we can get them to abstain.
With respect to sharks, we’re really excited that there are two hugely significant proposals that are going to be voted on this year. One for requiem sharks and one for Bonnethead Sharks. Both of these proposals would include all the species in those families.
If we can get this passed, it would be one of the most significant steps, I believe, in marine conservation potentially for the next 10 or 20 years.
nd so it’s really important that we’re able to succeed in this and that the world comes together to protect these species.
So this is really big. We’re going to be here every day working with different partners, speaking with countries, generating support for these proposals. And at the moment, we have optimism in the outcome.
