Standing Up for Animals at International Conferences

Born Free USA is an NGO participant at the Meetings of the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which regulates commercial international trade of threatened and endangered species. CITES is one of the most crucial and effective instruments to counter the depletion of wildlife species for trade.

A Born Free USA delegation attended the 17th Meeting of the CoP to CITES from September 24 – October 5, 2016 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of pro-wildlife government representatives from Niger, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and others, CITES Parties were able to approve decisions and enact measures to increase protections for imperiled species, including:

• Protections for African and Asian pangolins.
  Born Free USA helped to secure the adoption of a prohibition of commercial trade in all eight pangolin species through their uplisting to CITES Appendix I. Thanks to this listing, trade in pangolins will be authorized only in exceptional circumstances.
• A step forward for African lion conservation.
  We partnered with African countries at CITES to prohibit international commercial trade in lion bones, claws, teeth, and whole skeletons from wild lions.
• Curbing illegal trade in cheetahs, elephant ivory, rhino trade, and more.
  Born Free USA helped secure recommendations on the long-term conservation of cheetahs, including efforts to stop the illegal trade in the species; succeeded in getting CITES Parties to consider the threats facing African wild dogs for the first time; and helped stop attempts to reopen the elephant ivory and rhino horn trades.
• Wildlife enforcement coordination in West and Central Africa.
  Born Free USA partnered with West and Central African countries and successfully secured the adoption of decisions launching a threat assessment on illegal wildlife trade to allow the development of a more efficient regional response to wildlife crime.
• Reducing demand for species targeted by illegal trade in West and Central Africa.
  We collaborated with West and Central African countries and the U.S. to successfully advocate for the adoption of decisions on demand-reduction.

The 18th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES will take place in Sri Lanka in 2019. Please check back on our CITES page for more information about the 2019 meeting.