With 51 proposals accepted, five rejected and six withdrawn, a major shift has taken place towards stronger protection for wild animals and plants from overexploitation and illegal trade.

The triennial two-week summit of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) closed in Johannesburg on 4 October. Secretary-General John E. Scanlon described the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (#CoP17) as “a game changer that will be remembered as a point in history when the tide turned in favour of ensuring the survival of our most vulnerable wildlife.”

Following two weeks of marathon negotiations, governments adopted a suite of groundbreaking decisions on regulating legal, sustainable and traceable trade in wildlife. This included strengthened actions to combat illicit wildlife trafficking, higher protection to entire groups of species, targeted demand reduction strategies for illegally

The CITES #CoP17 was the largest ever meeting of its kind, with 152 governments taking decisions on 62 species-listing proposals submitted by 64 countries.

John E. Scanlon, CITES Secretary-General said: “#CoP17 adopted decisions that saw wildlife firmly embedded in the agendas of global enforcement, development and financing agencies that have the capacity and technical expertise to help ensure implementation of the Convention on the front lines, where it matters most”.

UN Environment Head Erik Solheim, who attended the opening of #CoP17, said: “Protection of endangered species is paramount when it comes to preserving our natural heritage. The CITES conference saw a strong desire from countries to ensure that we are mounting a defence for plants and animals, big and small. Illegal trade of everything from the helmeted hornbill to the hundreds of species of rosewood severely damages our planet, and it's only through the international cooperation we've seen under CITES that we can prevent it.”

The Johannesburg conference was marked by agreement on measures to improve sustainable trade in a number of species, including the queen conch, humphead wrasse, sharks, snakes and African wild dog as well as a large range of timber species, such as bubinga and rosewoods, and the African cherry and agarwood.

Parties also recognized several conservation success stories, including that of the Cape mountain zebra, several species of crocodiles and the wood bison, which were all downlisted by consensus from Appendix I under CITES to Appendix II in recognition of their improved conservation status.

Multiple new animals and plants were also added to CITES Appendices for the first time, and hence will come under CITES trade controls. These decisions affect a large number of mammals, marine and timber species as well as many reptiles and amphibians and include more than 350 species of rosewood, devil rays, silky sharks and thresher sharks.

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