CITES Secretary-General Ivonne Higuero spoke on November 23 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, saying: “Protecting nature is not only about preserving beauty; it is about safeguarding life itself for future generations.” She was recounting
CITES Secretary-General Ivonne Higuero spoke on November 23 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, saying: “Protecting nature is not only about preserving beauty; it is about safeguarding life itself for future generations.” She was recounting an Uzbek conservation principle.
The government of Uzbekistan is hosting the 20th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES this week. The conference on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) runs from November 24 to December 5 with 185 parties working to ensure that international trade in wild animals and plants is sustainable, legal, and traceable.
At the conference, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has urged governments to act decisively to halt the accelerating collapse of global shark and ray populations.
More than 37% of all shark and ray species are now threatened with extinction. For species in international trade, that risk nearly doubles, and new genetic testing from major markets shows far more shark products in circulation than appear in official CITES records, revealing pervasive illegal and unreported trade.
Globally, populations of pelagic sharks living on the high seas have collapsed by over 70% in just 50 years, and reef sharks are now functionally extinct on one in
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