Review of species selected on the basis of a new or increased export quota in 2012 (Version edited for public release) Prepared for the European Commission Directorate General E - Environment ENV.E.2. – Development and Environment by the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre August, 2012 UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre 219 Huntingdon Road Cambridge CB3 0DL United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 1223 277314 Fax: +44 (0) 1223 277136 Email: [email protected] Website: www.unep-wcmc.org The United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre PREPARED FOR (UNEP-WCMC) is the specialist biodiversity assessment centre of the United Nations The European Commission, Brussels, Belgium Environment Programme (UNEP), the world’s foremost intergovernmental environmental DISCLAIMER organisation. 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Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 2 3. Update since Analysis of 2012 CITES export quotas ..................................................... 2 4. Species reviews ................................................................................................................... 3 SPECIES: Clelia clelia .................................................................................................................. 3 SPECIES: Cyclagras gigas ........................................................................................................... 5 SPECIES: Eryx miliaris ............................................................................................................... 7 SPECIES: Kinixys erosa ............................................................................................................. 10 ANNEX. Key to Purpose and Source Codes .................................................................... 13 1 Introduction 2. Introduction Export quotas are usually established by each Party to CITES unilaterally on a voluntary basis, but they can also be set by the Conference of the Parties or result from recommendations of the Animals and Plants Committees. Guidance on the management of nationally established export quotas is available through Resolution Conf. 14.7 (Rev. CoP15). To ensure that national quotas are effectively communicated, countries should inform the CITES Secretariat when they establish national export quotas for CITES species (Resolution Conf. 12.3 [Rev. CoP15]). In turn, the Secretariat informs the Parties. Early each year, the Secretariat publishes a Notification to the Parties containing a list of export quotas of which it has been informed. Quotas generally relate to a calendar year (1st January to 31st December); however, since 2008 sturgeon quotas have related to a quota year (1st March to last day of February). In 2012, quotas were published on the CITES website (www.cites.org) on 29/02/2012 and were updated on 14/05/2012, 15/06/2012, 18/06/2012 and 20/07/2012. Based on the quotas that were available on 29/02/2012, UNEP-WCMC analysed the 2012 CITES export quotas to identify: a) Quotas that were newly established in 2012 (i.e. 2012 quotas for particular species/country/term/source combinations which had not previously been subject to a quota, or had not been subject to a quota for at least the last 5 years); b) Quotas that increased or decreased in 2012 compared with 2011 quotas (or compared with 2010 quotas if no quota was published in 2011). This analysis was discussed at SRG 60 on 07/06/2012. Four species/country combinations were selected for review where the new or increased quota in 2012 indicated that further consideration might be necessary to determine whether the trade would have a harmful effect on the conservation status of the species or on the extent of the territory occupied by the relevant population of the species. These were: Clelia clelia / Guyana: New quota of 100 live individuals. Not been assessed by the IUCN. Cyclagras gigas / Guyana: New quota of 100 live individuals. Not been assessed by the IUCN. Eryx miliaris / Uzbekistan: New quota of 50 live individuals. Not been assessed by the IUCN. Kinixys erosa / Democratic Republic of the Congo: Quota increased from 500 live individuals in 2011 to 3000 live individuals in 2012. Data Deficient. 2.1. Trade data Trade data included in this report were downloaded from the CITES Trade Database on 29/06/2012. 3. Update since Analysis of 2012 CITES export quotas Since publication of the Analysis of 2012 CITES export quotas (SRG 60) and an update provided at SRG 60 on new and increased export quotas published on 14/05/2012, additional CITES export quotas have been published on the CITES website. Of these, the following relate to new or increased quotas for wild specimens: an increase in Prunus africana dry bark from Cameroon from 350 000 kg in 2011 to 658 674 kg in 2012; an increase in Strombus gigas meat from Cuba from 38 350 kg in 2011 to 40 000 kg in 2012; and new quotas of 319.837 m3 logs and 543.724 m3 sawn wood for Pericopsis elata from Congo. 2 Clelia clelia 4. Species reviews REVIEW OF SPECIES SELECTED ON THE BASIS OF A NEW OR INCREASED EXPORT QUOTA IN 2012 REPTILIA COLUBRIDAE SPECIES: Clelia clelia SYNONYMS: Boiruna maculata, Clelia occipitolutea, Clelia plumbea, Pseudoboa clelia COMMON NAMES: Mussurana (Danish), Mussurana (Dutch), Mussurana (English), Mussurana (Finnish), Mussurana (French), Mussurana d'Amérique du sud (French), Mussurana (German), Mussurana (Italian), Masurana (Spanish), Mussurana (Spanish), Massurana (Swedish), Mussurana (Swedish), Mussuranasnok (Swedish). RANGE STATES: Antigua and Barbuda (ex), Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Lucia (ex), Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. RANGE STATE UNDER REVIEW: Guyana IUCN RED LIST: Not evaluated PREVIOUS EC OPINIONS: - TRADE PATTERNS: Clelia clelia from Guyana was selected for review on the basis of a new quota for 100 live individuals published in 2012 and also because of its unknown global conservation status. Guyana previously published quotas for 50 live individuals 1997-2001. There was no reported direct or indirect trade in this species from Guyana to the EU-27 or any other country over the period 2001-2010. Prior to 2001, there was no reported direct or indirect trade from Guyana to the EU-27, but single live, wild-sourced individuals were exported to countries other than the EU-27 in 1983, 1986 and 1992. CONSERVATION STATUS in range states Clelia clelia is a large constrictor occuring in lowland rainforests of Central and South America, from Guatemala to northwestern Ecuador west of Andes, northern Argentina east of Andes and Uruguay 3 Clelia clelia (Peters and Orejas-Miranda, 1986; O'Shea and Halliday, 2002). It was reported to reach lengths of 2– 2.5 m and to lay 10–22 eggs (O'Shea and Halliday, 2002). Its overall status was reported to be ‘rare’ (O'Shea and Halliday, 2002); it was described as ‘widespread’ in the Guiana Shield (de Ávila Pires, 2005). Guyana: In a preliminary list of herpetofauna of Guyana, Reynolds et al. (2002) recorded C. clelia as present in Guyana based upon collections from the American Museum of Natural History and the British Museum. C. clelia was listed as occurring in Guyana in de Ávila Pires’ (2005) checklist of reptiles of the Guiana Shield. The species was also reported from Guyana by Zaher (1996). No further information could be found on the species’ status in Guyana. Roughly 85 per cent of Guyana’s land area was reported to be forested, with its biodiversity considered largely intact but understudied; pressures/threats to Guyana’s biodiversity were reported to include overhunting on commercial scales and uncontrolled harvesting and poaching, as well as indirect threats such as weak law enforcement, limited knowledge of species’ distributions and behaviour and a limited number of protected areas (Environmental Protection Agency, 2010). Guyana’s Wildlife