The 50th meeting of the Standing Committee (SC-50) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was held from 15-19 March 2004 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Delegates discussed, inter alia, arrangements for the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties, financial and administrative matters, the budget for 2006-2008, significant trade in specimens of Appendix-II species, and national reports. The Committee further decided to extend the validity of the Convention’s Strategic Vision and Action Plan until the end of 2007, and requested the Animals and Plants Committees to produce a final report on developing standardized guidelines and procedures for conducting periodic reviews at SC-51.
The meeting’s highlights included heated discussions on elephants and sturgeons. Regarding elephants, the Committee discussed whether the conditions have been met for three African states –Botswana, Namibia and South Africa – to proceed with the one-off sale of their ivory stocks, according to a COP-12 decision. Kenya, supported by eight other African countries, submitted a document claiming that the three countries have not enforced the required monitoring and registering systems nor the necessary domestic laws to protect elephants. The Committee decided that the Secretariat will receive information on rates of illegal hunting of elephants and trade in elephant specimens from existing systems of monitoring the illegal killing of elephants and trade in elephant specimens (MIKE and ETIS), and will work with the Parties that report an increase in illegal hunting or trade to establish the potential linkage to the commercial trade in raw ivory. The Secretariat will then formulate recommendations to the Standing Committee, taking a precautionary approach. If the Standing Committee concludes there has been an increase in illegal hunting or trade, it will recommend that international trade in all specimens regarding the elephant populations of the three countries be halted and will request that all Appendix-II populations of the species be transferred to Appendix-I.
On controlling internal ivory trade, the Committee assessed the situation of several countries and expressed particular concern regarding Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti and Nigeria. These countries were requested to halt all domestic sales of ivory, implement domestic legislation against illegal trade in elephant specimens, enforce existing laws, effectively police cross-border dealing, conduct public awareness campaigns, and report to the Secretariat on implementation by the end of the year.
Regarding sturgeons, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan, the key caviar-producing countries, will have until mid-June to prove their cooperation with a Caspian-wide management system combating pollution and overfishing, despite having missed the original deadline of 31 December 2003. The decision angered environmental groups, who argued that it allows the four countries another fishing season without having demonstrated good practices.
More information is available at:
UN Wire, 19 March 2004
http://www.unwire.org/UNWire/20040319/449_14187.asp
ENS, 19 March 2004
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2004/2004-03-19-03.asp
UN Wire, 22 March 2004
http://www.unwire.org/UNWire/20040322/449_14206.asp