Report of the Expert Consultation on Implementation Issues Associated with Listing Commercially-Exploited Aquatic Species on CITES Appendices. Rome, Italy, 25-28 May 2004
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The Expert Consultation on Implementation Issues Associated with Listing Commercially-exploited Aquatic Species on CITES Appendices was held at FAO Headquarters from 25 to 28 May 2004. It was held in response to the agreement by the Twenty-fifth Session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) that an Expert Consultation should be convened to address the following issues, related to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES): „X CITES Article II Fundamental Principles, Paragraph 2(b), the 'look-alike' clause; „X Annex 3 of CITES Resolution Conf. 9.24 Criteria for Amendment of Appendices I and II, which deals with split-listing; and aquaculture issues as a group, noting the inter-relationships in these topics. „X Administrative and monitoring implications of listing and down-listing, including the implications of Annex 4 of Res. Conf. 9.24 for this. It was agreed that this should also include an analysis of the socio-economic im pact of listing on sturgeon, queen conch and a number of hypothetical listing proposals. The meeting was attended by 11 experts from 10 countries, with expertise covering the terms of reference for the Consultation, and by a member of the CITES Secretariat. After extensive discussions, the Consultation agreed on a number of key recommendations. Amongst these were that States needed to improve communication and co-ordination between their national governmental agencies responsible for CITES implementation and those responsible for natural resource management, including fisheries. Attention was drawn to the concern of many FAO members that a sufficiently responsive and flexible mechanism for listing and de-listing is required in CITES. It was suggested that FAO could raise this concern with CITES, taking into consideration the nature of safeguard mechanisms for down-listing commercially-exploited aquatic species and the manner in which they might be applied. The Consultation discussed the approaches used within CITES to assist Customs and others in identifying specimens and species. It raised the need to examine alternative approaches that would effectively address enforcement and identification issues in a manner that would avoid unnecessary listing of look-alike species. Similarly there was examination of the potential problems for fisheries if there was inflexible adherence by CITES Parties to the guidance on split-listing. The nature and implications of CITES pe rmitting procedures for aquaculture systems were examined. The Consultation examined some case studies of commercially-exploited aquatic species that were on a CITES Appendix but these did not provide sufficient information on the costs and benefits of a CITES listing. It was recommended that further work on this was required. The Consultation raised the need for capacity-building to assist States to meet their obligations under CITES. Attention was drawn to the fact that implementation o f the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and the associated international plans of action should help to reduce the incidence of listing proposals for commercially-exploited aquatic species.