SUMMARY OF ISSUES TO BE DISCUSSED AT THE TWENTY-EIGHTH MEETING OF THE CITES ANIMALS COMMITTEE TEL AVIV, ISRAEL • 30 AUGUST-3 SEPTEMBER 2015 AC = Animals Committee ● PC = Plants Committee ● SC = Standing Committee ● RC = Resolution Conf. ● Dec. = Decision ● CoP = Conference of the Parties All meeting documents prepared by the CITES Secretariat unless otherwise indicated. All trade data from the CITES Trade Database. ISSUE PROPOSED ACTIONS SSN RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Opening of the Meeting No document. No comment. No Document 2. Rules of Procedure Contains Rules of Procedure (RoP) adopted at AC27 Regarding Rule 13, SSN recommends that AC adopt the first option: to (April-May 2014) with two recommended changes. elect the Chair and Vice-Chair following the CoP via postal procedure. AC28 Doc. 2 Proposes Rule 13 be changed to either: While SSN agrees that it is helpful to elect Chair and Vice-Chair as soon That regional representatives or their alternates as possible after the CoP, all representatives should be provided the present at the CoP elect a Chair and Vice-Chair opportunity to stand for these positions and participate in any vote. immediately following the CoP and in case no Regarding Rule 20, SSN urges the AC to reject the proposed changes. quorum is attained, by the postal procedure Documents should be required to be submitted by a firm deadline so that contained in Rules 32 to 34, in which case the duties Parties and Committee Members are provided sufficient time to review and of the Chair shall be discharged by the previous consider all documents fully in advance of the meetings. Chair or Vice-Chair ad interim; or The previous Chair and Vice-Chair hold office until their successors are elected at the first meeting of the Committee after the CoP. Proposes Rule 20 be changed to allow documents to be received after the document deadline (“Documents to be considered at a meeting shall normally be provided to the Secretariat by Parties, or by members of the Committee, at least the latest 60 days before the meeting…”) 3. Adoption of the agenda and working programme 3.1 Agenda Provisional agenda for the meeting is presented for No comment. consideration and adoption. AC28 Doc. 3.1 3.2 Working programme Provisional working programme for the meeting is No comment. presented for consideration and adoption. AC28 Doc. 3.2 1 ISSUE PROPOSED ACTIONS SSN RECOMMENDATIONS 4. Admission of observers Not available at the time this document was prepared. No comment. AC28 Doc. 4 5. Preparation of the report of No document. No comment. the Chair of the Animals Committee for the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties 6. Cooperation with other biodiversity-related multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) 6.1 Intergovernmental Prepared by the Chair of the SC Working Group on SSN recommends that the AC note this document. Science-Policy Platform IPBES, in collaboration with the Secretariat. on Biodiversity and Provides an update on implementation of Decisions Ecosystem services on IPBES since their adoption at CoP16. (IPBES) (Decision 16.15) Notes that the deadline for submitting nominations of experts for the “sustainable use assessment” has AC28 Doc. 6.1 passed. Invites AC to note progress and consider whether and how Chairs of the Scientific Advisory Bodies should coordinate more closely with each other. 7. Capacity-building 7.1 Report of the Secretariat Dec. 16.29 directs the Secretariat to collaborate with SSN encourages the AC to develop and consider proposals regarding new – overview AC and PC on relevant capacity-building activities, activities, harmonizing work and how the two groups can collaborate. inter alia to improve and expand the Secretariat’s AC28 Doc. 7.1 training materials on the making of non-detriment findings, including those available through the CITES Virtual College. Reports on activities undertaken by the Secretariat under this and other Decisions to support this work, and proposes new targeted activities. Invites the AC to consider: this report; suggestions for new targeted activities; harmonizing the work that could be taken under this and other Decisions and related Resolutions; and, how best the working groups on capacity- building and review of identification and guidance materials may communicate, collaborate, and align their work with each other. 7.2 Report of the joint Prepared by the co-Chairs of the AC/PC Working SSN recommends that the AC note this document. working group on Group on capacity-building. capacity-building The mandate of the group is to, inter alia, provide 2 ISSUE PROPOSED ACTIONS SSN RECOMMENDATIONS (Decision 16.29) guidance to the Secretariat on its relevant capacity- AC28 Doc. 7.2 building activities. Provides the work plan of the group. Invites AC/PC to note the document. 8. Extinct or possibly extinct Prepared by the Co-Chairs of the Working Group on SSN recommends that, should the definition of ‘Extinct’ in RC 9.24 (Rev. species (Decision 16.164) Extinct or Possibly Extinct Species. CoP16) be revised to follow that of IUCN, then the words “where Dec. 16.164 directs the AC and PC to review the appropriate” should be included to recognize that the IUCN definition may AC28 Doc. 8 provisions of RC 9.24 (Rev. CoP16) on Criteria for not always suit the precautionary approach of CITES. amendment of Appendices I and II as they apply to Of the three options presented, SSN opposes adoption of Option 3 species that are either extinct or possibly extinct and (proposed by Mexico) as insufficiently precautionary. Of the remaining report to the SC on their findings. options SSN prefers the approach proposed by the United States, but is Adopts the IUCN definition of ‘Extinct’ for CITES concerned by its need for 37 amendment proposals to apply the purposes; eliminates the category ‘Possibly Extinct’. annotation “Extinct” to all currently listed species listed as Extinct by IUCN Provides three options: and asks the AC to consider if a simpler process for doing so might be extinct species should not normally be included in available. the Appendices, but where these species are already SSN recommends that the AC not rule out the possibility that there may be listed they should not be de-listed unless suggested a need, in future, to list a species considered to be extinct in order to precautionary criteria are met; regulate trade in an extant listed species. (proposed by USA) retain extinct species in the Appendices with annotations and with restrictions on the types of trade that are permitted; or (proposed by Mexico) delete extinct species from the Appendices unless there are good reasons to retain them. Asks the AC to review the work of the group, comment on the options to move forward, forward these to the PC and then submit to the SC. 9. Review of Significant Trade in specimens of Appendix-II species [Resolution Conf. 12.8 (Rev. CoP13) 9.1 Evaluation of the Prepared by the Co-Chairs of the CITES Advisory SSN urges AC to ensure that any changes made should not weaken the Review of Significant Working Group for the Evaluation of the Review of purpose of the Review, which is to ensure that Parties exporting reviewed Trade [Decision 13.67 Significant Trade. species comply fully with Article IV. (Rev. CoP14)] Provides draft guidance to the Secretariat on letters Regarding the proposed changes to categorization of species and related sent to selected range States (Annex 1) and a action by AC/PC, SSN urges AC to maintain the current categories and AC28 Doc. 9.1 proposed annex to letters detailing information their definitions for the following reasons: requested (Annex 2). With the revision, recommendations are formulated only for species Provides revisions to RC 12.8 on Review of Significant 3 ISSUE PROPOSED ACTIONS SSN RECOMMENDATIONS Trade (Annexes 3a and 3b), including, inter alia: categorized as “action is needed” for which trade is known to be A vetting process by which species selected as unsustainable1, eliminating the ability of the scientific committees to take an exceptional case are first reviewed by the action when it is not clear whether the provisions of Article IV, Secretariat; paragraph 2 (a), 3 or 6 (a) are being implemented (previously "Possible Fewer species are selected at each phase; Concern"). Consultation with range States at the same time For species/country combinations categorized as ‘unknown status” by as compilation of information; range States will be WCMC, AC/PC are required to categorize these into one of two engaged in the compilation of the report; categories--“action is needed” or “”least concern”.2 Given that there is not Revised categories (from ‘urgent concern’, sufficient information to determine that the requirements of Article IV are ‘possible concern’ and ‘least concern’) to ‘action is not being implemented for these combinations, by default, they will be needed’, ‘unknown status’ ‘least concern’; gives categorized as “Least Concern” and no action will be taken. greater power to the consultant to decide AC27 developed recommendations for five species/country categorization than committee; recommendations are combinations of Urgent Concern and 19 species/country combinations of formulated only for species categorized as ‘action is Possible Concern. If the new process were applied, recommendations needed’; only would have been formulated for 5 species as, under the new Problems related to issues other than process, recommendations are not formulated when it is not clear implementation of Article IV will be addressed by the whether non-detriment requirements are met. SC rather than the Secretariat; SSN recommends that AC support the following proposed revisions: Requirement that the Secretariat consult with Consultation with range States at the same time as compilation of AC/PC (not only the Chair) on whether information would allow more timely completion.