AWI joined several hundred delegates representing nearly 80 countries and a similar number of observer organizations in Geneva this July for the 33rd meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Animals Committee (AC33). From trade in big cats, seahorses, stony corals, and tortoises to deliberations over taxonomy, nomenclature, and trade in specimens produced through biotechnology, the committee rendered decisions that will be considered at next year’s Standing Committee meeting in February and the all-important 20th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES in the fall of 2025. Much of the discussion centered on core processes that are fundamental to CITES implementation.
Animals Committee meetings include a “periodic review” process to evaluate whether the Appendix I and Appendix II listings (triggering certain trade protections) of species are in accordance with their level of imperilment and the threat international trade poses to their survival. At AC33, the committee agreed to add six new species to the process: large Palau flying foxes, Malagasy kestrels (Seychelles population), ground parrots, paradise parrots, Tampico pearly mussels, and northern Chinese argali sheep. In addition, the committee agreed to review the sources and purposes of trade in scarlet macaws, western gorillas, and chimpanzees to ensure that such trade is being managed in compliance with the restrictions imposed under Appendix I (the highest level of protection).
A review of significant trade (RST) process also takes place at these meetings to evaluate whether trade in certain Appendix II–listed species complies with CITES. At AC33, the committee agreed to retain the RST process (i.e., continue the review) for seven taxa and nine countries, including devil rays traded from Sri Lanka; oceanic whitetip sharks from Kenya and Yemen; great hammerhead sharks from Mexico; scalloped hammerhead sharks from Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, and Yemen; ball pythons from Benin, Ghana, and Togo; Home’s hinged-back tortoises from Ghana; and Russian tortoises from Uzbekistan. The nine countries under evaluation could face sanctions if they cannot demonstrate CITES compliance for their trade in these species. Mexico unsuccessfully attempted to extract itself from RST scrutiny regarding its trade in the two hammerhead shark species by agreeing, in each case, to cut its fishing quota in half, while Oman and Senegal (for oceanic whitetip sharks) and China and Oman (for scalloped hammerhead sharks) were removed from the review by agreeing to halt all exports for these species.
A relatively new process is in place to evaluate CITES compliance with respect to trade in reportedly captive-bred animals in order to, among other things, prevent the laundering of wild-caught specimens as captive-bred. At AC33, the committee agreed to retain nine country/species combinations in the review process: long-tailed macaques traded in large number (primarily for use in biomedical research) from Vietnam, the Philippines, and Cambodia; MacQueen’s bustards from Kazakhstan; Greek tortoises from Jordan; Russian tortoises from Uzbekistan; Egyptian tortoises from Syria and Egypt; and green-and-black poison dart frogs, strawberry poison dart frogs, and red-eyed tree frogs from Nicaragua. As with the RST process, countries retained in the captive breeding evaluation process may face sanctions if they cannot demonstrate compliance with CITES.
The committee discussed a new methodology—developed by the University of Oxford in collaboration with the United Nations World Conservation Monitoring Centre and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)—that relies on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species to identify species that merit CITES listings due to imperilment and ongoing or potential effects of international trade on the species. Currently, listing proposals are made by CITES parties without necessarily prioritizing species in the greatest need. An initial analysis published in 2023 in Nature Ecology & Evolution identified over 900 species as potential candidates for listing on Appendix I or II.
The committee also discussed a number of CITES workshop reports on marine ornamental fish, amphibians, and songbirds. These reports, combined with the University of Oxford results and other analyses of southeast Asian snakes, freshwater mammals, and croaker fish species in trade (see below), provide a plethora of species that warrant CITES protection from overexploitation. With such reports now publicly available, it is imperative that CITES parties submit species listing proposals—including proposals for entire genera and taxonomic families—to ensure that robust protections for species in trade constitute a vital component of international efforts to address the biodiversity crisis.
Grave Concern over Assault on Croakers
AWI is increasingly concerned about the devastating impact of the global trade in swim bladders (maws) from croakers, a family of bony fish whose large, collagen-rich maws are highly sought after in China for their purported traditional medicinal benefits and as a luxury food and status symbol akin to shark fins. International trade in croaker maws is unregulated and poorly documented, with little known about the conservation status of many legally targeted species. It is increasingly clear, however, that strong demand and high prices, particularly for fish with the largest maws, are driving a “gold rush” on croakers. Typically in such cases, the most valuable species are driven to extinction, whereupon the trade—often orchestrated by organized crime syndicates—moves on to target the next most valuable species.
The trade is wreaking enormous collateral damage on other imperiled species, as well, including dozens of CITES-listed small cetaceans, sharks, rays, and sea turtles who are ensnared and die agonizing deaths as bycatch in croaker fisheries’ nets. An “information document” submitted by the United States to the Animals Committee on the fish maw trade identified 286 species of croakers in trade, with the trade placing 29 of them at a higher risk of extinction. As the International Whaling Commission’s Scientific Committee urged at its meeting in May, we must learn from the near extinction of the vaquita porpoise, the victim of bycatch in the illegal fishery for totoaba (a croaker species) to prevent the same fate befalling other species.
As CITES continues to wrestle with the illegal totoaba trade and its catastrophic impact on the vaquita, AWI—in collaboration with the Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmental Investigation Agency, and the Natural Resources Defense Council—hosted a well-attended side event at AC33 to raise the profile of this issue and call on CITES parties to regulate the croaker trade, including through decisive action at the 20th meeting of the Conference of the Parties next year.