SSN Briefing Document for the 57th Meeting of the CITES Standing ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

ISSUE PROPOSED ACTIONS SSN RECOMMENDATIONS 4.2 Submission of documents 5. Credentials SC57 Doc. 4.2 • Prepared by Israel. • Rule 19 of the SC RoP states that “documents to be considered at a meeting shall normally be provided to the Secretariat at least 60 days before the meeting where they are to be discussed,...” • Rule 20 of the SC RoP states in part, “All documents submitted to the Secretariat by a Party, or submitted by an observer at the request of the Chairman, shall be placed on the Secretariat’s website as soon as possible after they are received, in the original language in which they have been submitted.” • Notes that at SC54, 18 of 73 documents were submitted late and at SC55, 11 of 13 documents were submitted late. • Encourages the SC to address this problem of late submission of documents. • No document. • SSN notes that most documents that are not posted to the CITES website 60 days before the meeting are those prepared by the Secretariat. • SSN recommends the following changes to Rule 20 [new text underlined]: “All documents submitted to the Secretariat by a Party, prepared by the Secretariat, or submitted by an observer at the request of the Chairman, shall be placed on the Secretariat’s website as soon as possible after they are received, in the original language in which they have been submitted, but not later than 5 working days after the submission deadline.” • No comment. No document 6. Election of Vice- Chairman and Alternate Vice-Chairman No document 7. Admission of observers SC57 Doc. 6 8. Clearing House SC57 Doc. 8 9. Strategic Vision 2008- 2013: Development of indicators SC57 Doc. 9 • No document. • No document. • Invites the SC to appoint a new Member of the CITES Clearing House as Mr Colman O'Criodain is no longer an official of the Government of Ireland. • Decision 14.1 directs the SC to develop indicators for the objectives in RC 14.2 on the CITES Strategic Vision: 2008- 2013. • Decision 14.2 directs the Secretariat to request Party input on the indicators developed by the Strategic Vision Working Group and to submit responses to SC57. • Contains the responses of the Parties to the Secretariat’s Notification 2008/009 of 5 February 2008. • The Secretariat recommends that the SC establish a Working Group consisting of the Parties having made written contributions, assisted by the Secretariat, to consolidate their 2 • No comment. • No comment. • No comment. • SSN supports the recommendation to establish a Working Group on indicators for the objectives of the Strategic Vision and encourages the SC to invite observer organizations that submitted written comments to join the Working Group. • SSN notes, however, that no responses were received from Africa or Asia and only one (Colombia) from LAC. These regions should nonetheless be represented in the Working Group if possible. • Please see SSN’s factsheet on this issue.
ISSUE PROPOSED ACTIONS SSN RECOMMENDATIONS submissions for adoption by the SC. • No comment. 10. Relationship with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) • No document available at the time this document was prepared. SC57 Doc. 10 11. Cooperation with the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) SC57 Doc. 11 12. Cooperation with the World Trade Organization (WTO) SC57 Doc. 12 13. Financial matters 13.1 Report for 2007 SC57 Doc. 13.1 • RC 13.3 on Cooperation and synergy with the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) directs the SC to keep the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CMS. • Invites the SC to endorse the draft list of CITES-CMS joint activities for 2008-2010 presented in Annex 2. Once a final list is agreed by both Conventions, both Secretariats will sign the new Annex to the MoU and proceed with its implementation. • The Secretariat recommends that the SC: ■ have the Chair request, again, observer status for CITES in the General Council and any other WTO bodies deemed relevant for CITES; ■ identify the WTO bodies, other than the General Council and the Committee on Trade and Environment (including its Special Sessions), that it deems relevant to CITES; and • The Secretariat also discusses the option of establishing an MOU with WTO, noting that doing so might not solve the observership issue. • Provides information on the expenditures of the Secretariat in 2007 (Annex 1), which totaled US$5.08 million, along with the status of contributions from the Parties (Annexes 2, 3 and 4). • Provides an overview of the availability of the CITES Trust Fund resources and their use in the biennium 2006-2007 (Annex 5). • States that the balance of the CITES Trust Fund as of 31 December 2007 stood at US$2,144,523 of which US$700,000 represents the operating cash reserve to guarantee the liquidity of the Trust Fund. • SSN supports the proposed list of joint activities with the following changes [deleted text strikethrough, new text underlined] to the text in the second column (2) under, “Joint actions for the conservation and sustainable use of shared species”: “Working with these stakeholders, develop joint programmes for the conservation of these species and/or to ensure that any use of these species is sustainable use of these species.” One purpose of the CITES Strategic Vision is “that international trade in wild fauna and flora is conducted at sustainable levels…” (RC 14.2 on the CITES Strategic Vision: 2008-2013), not to ensure use. • SSN supports the recommendation for CITES to request observer status at the WTO General Council and the Committee on Trade and Environment (including its Special Sessions). • SSN believes that other WTO bodies are not relevant to CITES and therefore that no further identification process is necessary. • SSN also believes that the areas of interest between WTO and CITES are not broad enough to make an MOU desirable or necessary. • Regarding actual expenditures for 2007 by category of service (Annex I), SSN encourages the SC to request greater detail in reporting, including an itemized accounting of expenditures. Currently, the categories are so general that it is impossible to evaluate the return for funds spent or to make suggestions on where costs can be reduced. • Regarding unpaid contributions, SSN recommends that the SC request the Secretariat to distribute a list of those Parties with unpaid contribution for more than one year at each meeting of the SC and that the SC decide on follow up actions needed. 3
Page 1: SUMMARY OF ISSUES TO BE DISCUSSED A
Page 5 and 6: ISSUE PROPOSED ACTIONS SSN RECOMMEN

SSN Briefing Document for the 57th Meeting of the CITES Standing ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?