Original language: English CoP17 Inf. 11 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 – 5 October 2016 IUCN/TRAFFIC ANALYSES OF THE PROPOSALS TO AMEND THE CITES APPENDICES AT THE 17TH MEETING OF THE CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES The attached document has been submitted by the Secretariat at the request of IUCN/TRAFFIC*, in relation to agenda item 88 on Proposals to amend Appendices I and II. * 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 their authors. CoP17 Inf. 11 – p. 1 Production of the 2016 IUCN/TRAFFIC Analyses of the Proposals to Amend the CITES Appendices was made possible through the support of: Austria – Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management European Commission – Directorate General for the Environment Canada -– Environment and Climate Change Canada Finland – Ministry of the Environment France – Ministry of Environment, Energy and the Sea Germany – Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) Monaco – Ministry of External Affairs and Cooperation New Zealand – Department of Conservation Netherlands – CITES Management Authority, Ministry of Economic Affairs Spain – Economy and Competitiveness Ministry Sweden – Scientific Authority of CITES, Naturvärdsverket – Swedish Environmental Protection Agency Switzerland – Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office, Federal Department of Home Affairs USA – U.S Fish and Wildlife Service IUCN – International Union for Conservation of Nature helps the world find pragmatic solutions to the most pressing environment and development challenges. IUCN’s work focuses on valuing and conserving nature, ensuring effective and equitable governance of its use, and deploying nature-based solutions to global challenges in climate, food and development. IUCN supports scientific research, manages field projects all over the world, and brings governments, NGOs, the UN and companies together to develop policy, laws and best practice. IUCN is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organization, with more than 1,200 government and NGO members and more than 16,000 volunteer experts in some 160 countries. IUCN’s work is supported by over 1,000 staff in over 50 offices and hundreds of partners in public, NGO and private sectors around the world. The IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) is the largest of IUCN’s six volunteer commissions with a global membership of more than 10,000 experts. SSC advises IUCN and its members on the wide range of technical and scientific aspects of species conservation, and is dedicated to securing a future for biodiversity. SSC has significant input into the international agreements dealing with biodiversity conservation. TRAFFIC the wildlife trade monitoring network, works to ensure that wildlife trade is not a threat to the conservation of nature. TRAFFIC is a strategic alliance of IUCN and WWF. Citation: IUCN and TRAFFIC (2016). IUCN/TRAFFIC Analyses of the Proposals to Amend the CITES Appendices. Prepared by IUCN Global Species Programme and TRAFFIC for the Seventeenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES. IUCN – International Union for Conservation of Nature, Gland, Switzerland. The designations of geographical entities in this document and the presentation of the material do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IUCN or TRAFFIC concerning the legal status of any country or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. i INTRODUCTION CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) was opened for signature in Washington DC on 3rd March 1973, and to date has 1821 Parties from across the world. If CITES is to remain a credible instrument for conserving species affected by trade, the decisions of the Parties must be based on the best available scientific and technical information. Recognizing this, IUCN and TRAFFIC have undertaken technical reviews of the proposals to amend the CITES Appendices. The Analyses - as these technical reviews are known - aim to provide as objective an assessment as possible of each amendment proposal against the requirements of the Convention as laid out in the listing criteria elaborated in Resolution Conf. 9.24 (Rev. CoP16) and other relevant Resolutions and Decisions. Unfortunately, due to a challenging fundraising environment and the high number of proposals, the funds necessary to conduct the Analyses and present them in the same manner as for previous Conference of the Parties (CoPs), were not found. Therefore, instead of producing the highly-detailed summary section and accompanying table for each proposal as we have done in previous years, for CoP17 we have instead produced a summary section for every proposal. The time available to research and consult experts has been reduced compared with previous Analyses, and is therefore not as exhaustive. In addition, to ensure the Analyses were completed in time to assist Parties with their decision making, the summary documents were made available online 10 weeks from the deadline for the submission of proposals as opposed to 12 weeks as in past years, in response to requests by Parties. To ensure the Analyses are as accessible as possible to Parties, we have sought to improve online dissemination through the creation of a bespoke webpage where the Analyses can be downloaded individually or in full (see http://citesanalyses.iucn.org/). The Summary section presents a synthesis of available information taken from the Supporting Statement and other sources and, in a separate paragraph, a specific analysis of whether or not the proposal might be considered to meet the pertinent criteria in Resolution Conf. 9.24 (Rev. CoP16) or other relevant CITES Resolutions. Information on the status and biology of species has been collected from IUCN’s Species Survival Commission Specialist Group network and the broader scientific community, and used to evaluate the proposals and the information proponents provided against the CITES listing criteria. TRAFFIC has drawn on its own information sources on trade and expert networks. The resulting document brings together a broad range of expertise, which we are confident will be of assistance in the discussions of the proposals. Following the deadline for Parties’ submission of amendment proposals (27th April 2016), the Analyses team compiled available information to prepare a first draft of the summary section. Information compiled, together with a series of additional questions and clarifications were then sent to a variety of reviewers for comment if needed, particularly on the accuracy and reliability of information presented. Reviewers were not sent the “Analysis” paragraphs, for which the IUCN/TRAFFIC Analyses Team takes full responsibly and which are only finalized at the end of the project. Reviewers do not see, or have responsibility for, the analysis against the relevant criteria. Those named as “Reviewers of summary information” (previously listed as Reviewers) have only reviewed the information compiled by the Analyses team in the summary section for accuracy and gaps. The final text expressed in this publication does not necessarily reflect those of IUCN or TRAFFIC, nor the reviewers as a body. To satisfy the needs of the Parties for information well before the CoP, the Analyses were completed and made available on the web on 6th July 2016. The Summary and Analysis paragraphs will be translated into French and Spanish and made available online as soon as possible. Printed versions of the Summary and Analyses paragraphs in all three languages will be made available at CoP17 in Johannesburg, South Africa. 1 As of 20th June 2016 https://cites.org/eng/disc/parties/chronolo.php ii These analyses aim to highlight relevant information on which the Parties can base their decisions, and are not to be considered exhaustive. There may be omissions and differences of interpretation in a document compiled on a wide range of species, particularly with such high number of proposals to consider within the allotted timeframe and under a tight budget. We have nevertheless tried to ensure that the document is factual and objective and consistent in how we have interpreted and applied the criteria across the range of taxa and proposals A summary of the CITES listing criteria and the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria is provided as an annex to the document. It should be emphasized that the numerical guidelines for the listing criteria in Resolution Conf 9.24 (Rev. CoP16), Annex 5 are not thresholds and may not be appropriate for all species. Consequently, applying the criteria requires a certain amount of interpretation of them. Decision 15.29 (2010) invited IUCN and TRAFFIC to summarize their experience in applying criterion Annex 2 a B and the introductory text to Annex 2 a of Resolution Conf. 9.24 (Rev. CoP15) to commercially exploited aquatic species. The resulting paper can be found in AC25 Doc 10 Annex 3. TRAFFIC has also been commissioned