Secretary-General's statements

12th IATA World Cargo Symposium Dallas, 13 March 2018 ‘Air cargo and the fight against illegal wildlife trade’ Keynote address by John E. Scanlon, Secretary-General of CITES Distinguished delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

UN World Wildlife Day 2018. Big Cats: Predators Under Threat! Opening Remarks by John E. Scanlon, Moderator and CITES Secretary-General 2 March 2018   Deputy Secretary-General, Excellences, Distinguished guests, friends of wildlife! A very warm welcome to all of you on this wild and wintery day to the 5th celebration of UN World Wildlife Day. World Wildlife Day has today become the largest global annual celebration of wildlife.

Big Cats: Predators Under Threat ‘CITES turns 45 as we celebrate the 5th World Wildlife Day’ 1 March, 2018, Washington DC, USA     Director Christine Dawson Deputy Assistant Secretary Jim Walsh Colleagues Friends of Wildlife! I can think of no more appropriative place to be celebrating World Wildlife Day than right here in Washington DC, as it is what took place here on 3 March 1973 that served to inspire the Parties to CITES and the UN General Assembly in 2013 to declare 3 March as World Wildlife Day.

CITES and Rural Communities Working Group meeting Opening remarks by Mr. John E. Scanlon, CITES Secretary-General 26 February, Geneva/Nairobi, 2018 Dear colleagues from CITES Parties and rural community representatives Good morning to you all! Let me start by expressing our deep gratitude to Namibia for leading the organization of this very important meeting of the Working Group on CITES and Rural Communities and to extend my particular thanks to our Working Group Chair, Louisa Mupetami.

  Completing my mandate as CITES Secretary-General   February, 2018   John Scanlon giving keynote address at the World Travel and Tourism Council Global Summit, Bangkok, 2017 After serving for eight years as Secretary-General of the CITES Secretariat (and three years with the UN Environment Programme in Nairobi prior to that) I will soon be completing my mandate with the Convention and taking up my next career challenge.

Sixty-ninth meeting of the CITES Standing Committee Geneva, Switzerland, 27 November 2017 Opening remarks by John E. Scanlon, CITES Secretary General Good morning and welcome to Geneva – or back to Geneva for many of you. I would like to extend a very warm welcome to our Standing Committee Members, Party Observers, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as the private sector and the media. Our sincere thanks go to Switzerland for once again making this facility available to us, and for funding the purchase of the lovely new CITES banners you can see around us! -----

Statement by John E. Scanlon, CITES Secretary-General Annual General Meeting and Open Forum of International Fragrance Association (IFRA) ‘The Role of Science in a Post Truth, Fake News World’ ‘CITES and International Agreements: Opportunities and Challenges for Business’ Majestic Hotel, Barcelona, 6-10 November 2017   Michael Carlos, IFRA Chairman Martina Bianchini, IFRA President Fellow panelists Friends and colleagues

Plenary: Remarks by John E. Scanlon, CITES Secretary-General 7th session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption Vienna, 6-10 November 2017   Thank you President and thank you for giving CITES the opportunity to address today’s Plenary session, which is a first for the Convention. I would also like to express our sincere thanks to Executive Director Yury Fedotov and his good team for their extraordinary support for CITES and the fight against wildlife crime.