Original language: English CoP17 Doc. 81.1 CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES OF WILD FAUNA AND FLORA ____________________ Seventeenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties Johannesburg (South Africa), 24 September - 5October 2016 Species specific matters Maintenance of the Appendices STANDARD NOMENCLATURE: REPORT OF THE ANIMALS AND PLANTS COMMITTEES 1. This document has been prepared by the Animals and Plants Committees in collaboration with the CITES Secretariat.* Introduction 2. At its 14th meeting (CoP14, The Hague 2007), the Conference of the Parties appointed Ms Ute Grimm of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, Bonn, Germany, as the nomenclature specialist of the Animals Committee and Mr Noel McGough, then of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as the nomenclature specialist of the Plants Committee. 3. Following the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP16), nomenclature issues were considered at the 27th and 28th meetings of the Animals Committee (AC27, Veracruz, April 2014; AC28, Tel Aviv, September 2015) and the 21st and 22nd meetings of the Plant Committee (PC21, Veracruz, May 2014; PC22, Tbilisi, October 2015). Nomenclature Working Groups were formed and met at AC27, AC28, PC21 and PC22. The documents from these meetings, together with the working group reports, are available on the CITES Website. 4. In addition to a short section on the revision and publication of the CITES Appendices, this report includes an introduction and sections of both fauna and flora nomenclature. Each covers the main activities conducted since CoP16 and the proposed work program for the next period. 5. Nomenclatural recommendations of the Animals and Plants Committees, calling for the amendment of the Annex to Resolution Conf. 12.11 (Rev. CoP16) on Standard nomenclature, are included in Annex 2 to this document. 6. As in the past, the nomenclature specialists of the Animals and Plant Committees have continued to provide timely services to the Parties and the Secretariat. These included: responding to enquiries regarding the nomenclature of taxa listed in the Appendices; designating appropriate taxonomic authorities for the nomenclature of taxa listed in the Appendices that are not included in standard references adopted by the Parties; reviewing the nomenclature of the taxa listed in the Appendices, in consultation with the Secretariat; reviewing the nomenclature of species proposed for listing in the Appendices prior to their consideration at the meetings of the Conference of the Parties; and advising the Secretariat of recommended changes in nomenclature that should be used in the Appendices. * The geographical designations employed in this document do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the CITES Secretariat (or the United Nations Environment Programme) concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The responsibility for the contents of the document rests exclusively with its author. CoP17 Doc. 81.1 – p. 1 General issues New layout for the Annex of Resolution 12.11 (Rev. CoP 16) 7 Over the last ten years, the number of publications that the Parties adopted concerning the nomenclature for different animal groups has increased tremendously. It has become quite difficult to identify which is the reference literature for separate groups such as Cetacea, Primates, Iguanidae, Boidae, Elapidae or Trionychidae. Adopting new overall checklists for higher taxa such as birds or Testudines only solves this problem temporarily. Annex 1 shows a modified layout for presenting the standard nomenclature references in the Annex to Resolution Conf. 12.11 (Rev. CoP16). This new layout is recommended by the Animals Committee, in collaboration with the Secretariat, in order to facilitate the future use of this source of information. All changes indicated in paragraphs 11-13, 16-19 and 21 of this report have already been integrated in this revision. Annex 2 gives an overview of the recommended changes to the Annex of Resolution Conf. 12.11 (Rev. CoP16) in its current layout. Fauna Nomenclatural tasks referred to the Animals Committee at CoP15 and CoP16 8. Corals Decision 15.64 (a) requires the Animals Committee to "identify existing coral reference materials that could be adopted as standard nomenclatural references for CITES-listed corals". As it had not been possible to identify references serving this purpose between CoP15 and CoP16, a coral species list provided by UNEP-WCMC was adopted at CoP16 as an interim solution, leaving the task still open. This issue has been discussed at AC27 and AC28. Two different reference sources have been identified by the Animals Committee that might serve as a basis for general nomenclature reference for corals: 1) a time-specific version of the WoRMS database, and 2) a new website for Corals of the World by John VERON, which is in preparation. For the time being, it is recommended to continue using the interim nomenclature reference for corals, and explore further possibilities to use the databases indicated above in the hope that a new standard nomenclatural reference for CITES-listed corals may be adopted at the 18th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP18). The tasks in Decision 15.64 (b), for the Animals Committee to “update its list of coral taxa for which identification to genus level is acceptable, but which should be identified to species level where feasible,” and to “provide the updated list to the Secretariat for dissemination”, remain uncompleted because it requires the prior adoption of new standard nomenclature references for corals. Decision 15.65 calls upon the Secretariat, when receiving the updated list from the Animals Committee, to transmit this information to the Parties through a Notification to the Parties, and to publish the list on the CITES website. The list of coral taxa in CITES Notification 2013/35 - with changes indicated - is in line with the currently adopted interim nomenclature reference for corals. Therefore, Decision 15.65 can be regarded as fulfilled for the time being. An update will only be necessary once a new standard nomenclature references for corals will have been adopted. The Animals Committee therefore recommends the adoption of new decisions, found in Annex 3 of this report, and the deletion of Decisions 15.64 and 15.65. 9. Hippocampus At CoP16, Australia asked for the recognition of a number of Hippocampus species. As this request had been made after Annex 6 (Rev.1) of document CoP16 Doc 43.1 (Rev.1) had been adopted, it was agreed to refer the discussion of this issue to the next Animals Committee meeting. It was addressed at AC27 and AC28, especially with inputs from the Australian Scientific Authority on the one hand, and the IUCN/SSC Seahorse, Pipefish and Stickleback Specialist Group on the other. However, there remained differences of opinion between these two sides which could not be resolved during the AC meetings, and further information is needed. The Animals Committee therefore recommends further discussion of this issue and any additional available information at CoP17. CoP17 Doc. 81.1 – p. 2 Lack of standard nomenclature references for broad animal groups, and not only for species currently listed in CITES Appendices 10. At AC27, the unfortunate situation was discussed that for new species proposed for inclusion in the CITES Appendices, it often happens that the taxa concerned are not covered by the nomenclature references listed in Resolution Conf. 12.11 (Rev. CoP16) (e.g. new shark species included in Appendix II at CoP16). The Committee recommended that this problem be addressed by requesting the CITES Secretariat to approach the copyright holders for the databases currently serving as source for the downloaded checklists of amphibians, fish and spider species, and to request for a time-specific version of these databases. These could then be used as nomenclatural standard reference for these taxon groups in case of CITES discussions of taxa not currently listed in the Appendices, for example in the context of new listing proposals. At AC28, the Secretariat reported to have contacted the copyright owners of the relevant databases. At the time of writing (June 2015), it had received two replies. In the case of the World Spider Catalogue(http://wsc.nmbe.ch), a biannually generated archive version would be available for use as a time-specific version. For the Amphibians of the World database (http://research.amnh.org/vz/herpetology/amphibia/), there was no such version available for the time being. The Secretariat indicated that it will continue to reach out to the relevant copyright holders and, upon request, provide an oral update on this matter at the Animals Committee meeting. The Animals Committee commended the CITES Secretariat to continue its efforts to explore the possibilities for time-specific versions of the databases for amphibians, fish and spider species and requested the Secretariat to report back on its progress at CoP17. The nomenclature specialist prepared a draft decision for continued work on this issue in case this matter remains unresolved at CoP17 (see Annex 4). New or updated nomenclature checklists for CITES listed species 11. Chamaeleonidae and the genus Phelsuma The number of standard nomenclature references for chameleon species and species of the genus Phelsuma has increased significantly (only for chameleons, there