The good, the bad and the ugly
EIA campaigners present their detailed analysis on the decisions made at the recent CITES Standing Committee gathering in Lyon, France.
EIA’s UK and US Wildlife Teams were at the 74th Meeting of the Standing Committee (SC74) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), in Lyon, 7-11 March 2022. The meeting was held six months ahead of the next major Conference of the Parties (CoP19), scheduled for November 2022 in Panama, and focused on matters of compliance and enforcement. This was an opportunity for us to raise the alarm over species of fauna and flora at risk from trade and the role of crime and corruption in undermining conservation. There were several key agenda items for which our teams had prepared briefings and, in collaboration with other NGO colleagues, intervened to call for more effective action.
Here’s the run down on the outcomes for Asian big cats, elephants, pangolins, rhinos, timber and totoaba/vaquita.
Since the 1980s, CITES Parties have recognised there are situations where some species require action beyond the scope of the text of the CITES Treaty (i.e. beyond just import, export and re-export). Elephants, rhinos, sturgeon, Tibetan antelope and tigers are just some of the species that have been singled out as needing urgent action within national boundaries. A worrying trend that emerged during the course of SC74 is the push back from some Parties, especially China, against valid CITES resolutions, decisions and recommendations to take necessary action to save some of the worlds most threatened species. For example, EIA is extremely concerned by China and Japan’s repeated assertions that reporting on national seizures of endangered wildlife falls outside the scope of the CITES mandate. Wildlife trafficking involves endangered species entering countries illegally before transportation across the national territory to different end-destinations in that country. We believe seizures at points of entry and throughout the destination country must be reported by all Parties to ensure a comprehensive understanding of trafficking scope and trends.
Members of the Wildlife Team along with EIA US colleagues, at the 74th meeting of the Standing Committee to CITES
Since CoP17, the Government of India has been promoting the use of tiger stripe pattern profiling analysis to support investigations into the origin of tigers in trade. The process has helped India and Nepal collaborate on cross-border trade. All Parties that make seizures are supposed to send images of skins to India and Thailand as the two Parties with stripe pattern databases. Despite there having been over 500 seizures of skins, carcasses, live animals and taxidermy specimens globally since CoP17, only a handful of images from Vietnam have been shared with India. It’s such a low cost way of sharing non-sensitive information that could facilitate enforcement, it is shocking that such little action has been taken by Parties making seizures. At this meeting, the call for a better response was made. Let’s see in a few months who was listening.
Despite everyone agreeing that Laos has not made adequate progress towards effective enforcement or in 
Ivory stockpiles held by Governments are a serious threat to elephants through leakage of ivory onto the illegal trade as thefts from stockpiles are frequent, fuelling demand and perpetuating ivory’s status as a marketable commodity. The thefts and illegal sales of ivory from stockpiles usually involves corruption and international criminal networks and EIA welcomed the strong interventions made by Gabon, Kenya and Ethiopia reminding the Committee that stockpiles need to be accounted for in a transparent, secure and consistent manner. Along with a number of our partner NGOs, we expressed concern that 44 countries, including NIAP countries, who hold ivory stocks have never reported on their inventories and called on them to do so as a matter of urgency. Given the level of non-reporting and the importance of stockpile data, we were therefore pleased that the Committee reiterated requests to Parties to step up their efforts to comply with stockpile reporting obligations. Looking forward to CoP19, we will work to ensure that this critical topic remains on the table to ensure a holistic response to elephant poaching and ivory trafficking.
Under Agenda Item 73 on pangolins, the SC accepted comments from Parties to encourage species-level identification and reporting of seized pangolin specimens, as well as the urgent establishment of stricter controls in securing stockpiles of pangolin derivatives. The acceptance of these comments could prove instrumental in identifying vulnerable pangolin populations and informing targeted enforcement and demand reduction efforts. Additionally, the implementation of more stringent stockpile management measures could reduce the laundering of illegally sourced pangolin derivatives.
During the discussion on the rhinoceros agenda item, Kenya intervened to remind Parties that despite the important actions underway to protect rhinos from poaching and prosecute rhino horn traffickers, poaching and illegal trade remain very serious issues in source and consumer countries. Kenya further recognised that it would be especially beneficial to bring law enforcement experts together again to create new strategies and actions to protect rhinos, and called on the SC to recommend that CoP19 reconvene the CITES Rhinoceros Enforcement Task Force. The US also expressed support for reconvening the Task Force, noting it has been nearly 10 years since it last met. The SC subsequently agreed to propose a decision to CoP19 to reconvene the CITES Rhino Enforcement Task Force subject to available funding.
On the second day, the Standing Committee considered a report from the Secretariat which assessed the actions taken by Mexico to comply with CoP Decision 18.293, which requested that Mexico implement seven actions to address the illegal fishing and trafficking of totoaba. The Secretariat’s report acknowledged continued illegal fishing, noting that “… the continued presence of fishers in the vaquita refuge and zero tolerance area is the single most important factor that significantly undermines the efforts of Mexico and the progress made by Mexico on other fronts.”