Over the past 24 months we have seen a number of countries, including Belgium, Chad, China, Hong Kong SAR, China, Czech Republic, Gabon, France, Philippines, and the USA, destroy stockpiles of illegally traded elephant ivory and rhino horn that have been seized and confiscated.
Secretary-General's statements
CBD CoP12 side event
Does biodiversity matter for development? EU's Development Cooperation
launches its B4Life Flagship Initiative
Opening Statement
John E Scanlon, Secretary General, CITES
(Delivered by Milena Sosa Schmidt)
ITTO-CITES: Working together to sustain tropical tree species
Opening Statement
John E Scanlon, Secretary General, CITES
Side event at 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity
Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea, 15 October 2014
Chair, Emmanuel Ze Meka, Executive Director, ITTO, Astrid Schomaker, Head of the Unit for Global Sustainability, Trade and Multilateral Agreements, Director General of the Environment European Commission, friends and colleagues.
Alors que nous sommes bientôt à mi-parcours de l’échéance de 2020 pour atteindre l’ensemble commun de nos objectifs et stratégies pour la biodiversité, il est opportun de réfléchir sur la façon dont la Convention sur le commerce international des espèces de faune et de flore sauvages menacées d'extinction (CITES) contribue à réaliser le Plan stratégique pour la diversité biologique (2011-2020) ; à atteindre les 20 Objectifs d’Aichi pour la biodiversité ; et à célébrer la vision de la Décennie des Nations Unies pour la biodiversité d’un monde vivant en harmonie avec la nature [1].
As we approach the mid-way point to the 2020 deadline to achieve our common set of biodiversity targets and strategies, it is an opportune moment to reflect on how the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is contributing to: realizing the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011-2020); achieving the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets; and celebrating the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity's vision of a world living in harmony with nature.
High-level Discussion: "Poaching and Illicit Wildlife Trafficking
– Towards Joint Action by the International Community "
A joint event of the Gabonese Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany
United Nations Headquarters, New York, 26 September 2014
Welcome and Opening Remarks by co-Hosts
H.E. Mr. Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of the Gabonese Republic.
H.E. Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany.
CITES Secretary-General's remarks at the destruction of confiscated rhino horn in the Czech Republic
The recovery of the CITES-listed African black and white rhino populations in the wild over the past few decades, after being hunted close to extinction, is a great conservation success story – and for the first seven years of this century poaching levels had remained low at around ten a year.
After 2007, however, a sharp upward trend in poaching started to emerge – a trend that has continued to the point where over 1,000 rhinos were illegally killed for their horn in South Africa alone in 2013 and over 700 killed so far this year.
Message of the CITES CITES Secretary-General, Mr John E. Scanlon, to the SPREP regional preparatory meeting for the Conference of the Parties of CBD, CMS and Ramsar Convention
Geneva, Switzerland, 31 July 2014
World Ranger Day honours park rangers across the world who have been injured or lost their lives in the line of duty, and also celebrates the role rangers play in protecting our natural resources, including wild animals and plants. It was first observed in 2007, on the 15th anniversary of the founding of the International Ranger Federation (IRF).
The challenges and risks that rangers face have increased significantly in recent years.