Our campaigners are in Russia to push for progress at a major CITES meeting

Our Wildlife and Forests campaigners are in Russia this week for one of the key meetings on the international conservation calendar.

The 70^th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) opens today in Sochi and runs until the end of the week.

As a unique NGO at the forefront of calls for transnational wildlife and forest crime to be properly recognised and tackled, our campaigners are attending to push for positive outcomes on a number of important campaign issues and to get the results of our investigations and analysis into the right hands to drive meaningful change.

In preparation for the meeting, we have released several key reports and documents:

Elephants

• Taking Stock: An assessment of progress under the National Ivory Action Plan process
• Joint NGO statement on National Ivory Action Plan (NIAP) process
• Exposing the Hydra: The growing role of Vietnamese syndicates in ivory trafficking

Forests

• Vietnam in Violation: Action required on fake CITES permits for rosewood trade

Laos Forest and Wildlife Crime

• Application of Article XIII in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Ocean

• Mexico’s failure to effectively enforce totoaba trade prohibitions violates CITES and is causing extinction of the vaquita porpoise

Tigers and other Asian Big Cats

• Asian Big Cats
• Down to the bone: China’s alarming trade in leopard bones

 Our campaigners will also be posting social media updates live from Sochi throughout the week – keep up to date on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.