Orion, our International Associate, provides updates on requiem sharks, Bonnethead Sharks, and freshwater stingrays from the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP19) Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES for short).
Video Transcript:
The first week of COP 19 has been really eventful, so we wanted to provide a few updates.
On Wednesday, we supported a side event by Costa Rica and Panama. That was a big success. We had a rough timeslot at 7:30 AM, so when the room ended up being completely packed, we were very excited.
We also had a number of important proposals that came up. The first of these proposals was on requiem sharks. That ended up coming down to a vote. In the end, though, more than 2/3 of the parties that were present voted in favor of it.
A second proposal that was discussed was for the bonnethead shark and five lookalike species. And with that proposal, it ended up being passed by consensus.
A third proposal we’re following closely was put forward by Brazil to list some freshwater stingrays that are endemic to that country.
Defenders of Wildlife has been working on this proposal for a number of years, so it was great to see that in the end it was adopted by consensus.
While the progress made on these proposals this week was very encouraging for the conservation of biodiversity, they still need to be confirmed by the plenary before they’re fully adopted.
Therefore, we’re not celebrating yet.
We look forward to keeping you updated as things progress over this next week.
