John E. Scanlon, CITES Secretary-General
26 January 2016
Religious dignitaries
Hon. Gamini Jayawickrema Perera, Minister for Sustainable Development and Wildlife
Hon. Ravi Karunanayake, Minister of Finance
Cabinet Ministers, State Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Members of Parliament, Diplomats, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen and dear children.
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Secretary-General's statements
Keynote Address
'CITES and wildlife trade – how CITES works and how it links to wildlife tourism’
John E. Scanlon
Secretary-General, CITES Secretariat
Colombo, Sri Lanka 25 January 2016
Good morning and thank you to our colleagues from Sri Lanka Tourism for organizing today’s Public Seminar and for giving me the opportunity to address you.
Sixty-sixth meeting of the Standing Committee
Geneva (Switzerland), 11 January 2016
Opening remarks by John E. Scanlon, CITES Secretary General
Thank you Chair and I would like to join with you in wishing everyone a Happy New Year – bonne année , feliz año – and to extend a very warm welcome to the Standing Committee Members, Party Observers, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as the private sector and the media.
We extend a special welcome to the European Union, which has become a Party to CITES since the last time we met and hence joins us today as a Party Observer for the first time.
Corruption as an enabler of wildlife and forest crime
Joint Statement of Mr Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of UNODC and
Mr John Scanlon, Secretary-General of CITES
Saint Petersburg, 3 November 2015
As the world turns to realising the new development agenda with the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, we are concerned that spiralling wildlife and forest crime, fuelled by corrosive corruption, can impede vital progress.
Workshop on illegal trade in cheetahs
3 – 5 November 2015
Kuwait
Welcoming remarks by John E. Scanlon, CITES Secretary General
His Excellency Sheikh/ Abdullah Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah - Director of the Environmental Public Authority of the State of Kuwait & Chairman of the Board
Distinguished guests, friends and colleagues
We are most grateful to the Environmental Public Authority of the State of Kuwait for hosting and financing this week’s workshop on illegal trade in cheetahs.
Corruption is “an insidious plague” that is present in the wildlife sector just as it is in other sectors, indeed in virtually any form of human activity.
A clear message of the determination of the international community to work to prevent and combat corruption was sent with the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) of the UN Convention Against Corruption in 2003 and its entry into force in 2005.
This week in New York, the U.N. General Assembly will adopt a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets that represent an unprecedented opportunity to safeguard globally threatened wildlife species. The new goals are part of an agenda called Transforming Our World: The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda – a vision for the planet in which “humanity lives in harmony with nature and in which wildlife and other living species are protected.”
Keynote Address
'CITES and wildlife trade – how CITES works and what it is and isn’t’
John E. Scanlon
Secretary-General, CITES Secretariat
Tbilisi, 20 October 2015
22nd Meeting of the CITES Plants Committee
19 – 23 October 2015
Tbilisi
Welcoming remarks by John E. Scanlon, CITES Secretary General
Mr. Gigla Agulashvili, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Protection of Georgia
First Deputy Minister Mr. Teimuraz Murgulia
Chair of Plants Committee, Professor Margarita Clemente, and members of the Committee
Distinguished guests, friends and colleagues,
Global trade in wild animal and plant species, including fish and timber, is on the rise - both legal and illegal. Legal and sustainable trade in certain species, such as the wool of the vicuna or the bark of the African cherry tree, can benefit people and wildlife. The current surge in illegal wildlife trade, estimated to be in the billions of dollars annually, is having devastating economic, social and environmental impacts. But not all the costs of wildlife trafficking can be quantified. Iconic species like elephants, and the lesser-known but heavily trafficked pangolin, are being driven toward what experts warn may be the next big extinction.