CITES CoP16 Digest - Species Survival Network

DOCUMENT BACKGROUND / CURRENT STATUS EFFECT OF DOCUMENT SSN VIEW
72
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• The Action plan for the control of trade in elephant
ivory is available as Annex 2 to CITES Decisions.
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elephant ivory have come to the attention of the
Secretariat in the course of 2012”, and that “the
current unprecedented threat that poaching poses
to elephant populations, especially in central
Africa, has become evident.”
• Indicates that illegal ivory trade can be successfully
combated only if:
• full coordination is achieved between the enforcement
activities of wildlife authorities, police and
Customs;
• effective use is made of the existing tools and
communication channels; and
• national strategies are put in place.
• Regarding security of government ivory stocks:
• notes that “since CoP15, two incidents are known
to have occurred where substantial quantities of
ivory were stolen from government stockpiles, and
it is suspected that thefts may also be occurring
from confiscated stocks of ivory in countries outside
Africa.” States that the Secretariat “intends
to include in its future reports to the SC and CoP
greater detail on such incidents”, and encourages
Parties that are affected to submit information to
the Secretariat.
• Regarding the Action plan for the control of trade in
elephant ivory:
• encourages elephant range States and Parties
seizing ivory to supply samples for DNA testing;
and
• reminds Parties that Hong Kong SAR, Malaysia,
the Philippines and Vietnam are major transit
countries or territories for large quantities of ivory,
and the two countries most heavily implicated as
destinations for illicit trade in ivory are China and
Thailand.
• Proposes adoption of draft Decisions which direct:
• the Secretariat to, inter alia::
··
convene a CITES Ivory Enforcement Task Force
to review existing strategies and develop new
strategies to combat illegal trade in ivory;
Continued
the related Decision include, range State representatives
from West, East, Southern and Central Africa to be designated
by each subregion.
• Regarding the report of thefts from government ivory
stockpiles, SSN urges Parties to direct Secretariat to provide
a detailed verbal report on this issue at CoP16.
• SSN urges Parties to strongly support use of DNA testing
of seized ivory for enforcement purposes, and recommends
that Parties adopt the following Decisions at
CoP16, directing:
• Secretariat, working in collaboration with relevant
scientific experts, to issue a Notification to Parties
informing them of options available for DNA analysis
of ivory samples and other scientific or forensic techniques;
and
• SC, working in collaboration with relevant experts, the
CITES Ivory Enforcement Task Force, elephant range
States and interested CITES Parties and stakeholders,
to review the Action plan for the control of trade
in elephant ivory (Decision 13.26 (Rev. CoP15)) with
a view to expanding the language in para 2 regarding
DNA testing to include mandatory DNA testing of
government ivory stockpiles.
• Regarding the Action plan for the control of trade in elephant
ivory, SSN encourages Parties to launch a needs
assessment amongst range States to determine capacitybuilding
measures needed to:
• allow stronger implementation of the Action plan for
the control of trade in elephant ivory and ensure that
available resources are prioritized in the most efficient
way possible; and
• ensure that data submission to ETIS is made more
consistent.
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