30 March 2012: For the first time in several years, the scientific committees of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) met in tandem.

The 26th meeting of the CITES Animals Committee (AC 26) convened from 15-20 March 2012, in Geneva, Switzerland. This meeting was followed by the Joint Meeting of the AC and Plants Committee (PC), which took place in Dublin, Ireland, from 22-24 March 2012. Finally, the 20th meeting of the Plants Committee (PC 20) met in Dublin from 26-30 March 2012.

During AC 26, participants adopted recommendations on: the Review of Significant Trade (RST) in specimens of Appendix-II species; the Periodic Review of animal species included in the CITES Appendices; the reports from Caspian Sea range States on the evaluation of sturgeon stock assessment and Total Allowable Catch (TAC) determination methodology; the implementation of Resolution Conf. 12.6 (Rev. CoP15) on conservation and management of sharks; and the report of the working group on sea cucumbers. On sharks, the AC recommended that the CITES Secretariat contact the top 26 shark fishing member States that did not respond to CITES notifications relating to sharks or to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) questionnaire on the status of implementation of the FAO International Plan of Action for Conservation and Management of Sharks (IPOA-Sharks).

At the Joint Meeting, the AC/PC recommended that the second Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) should clarify CITES participation mechanisms in IPBES. Concerning the draft resolution on non-detriment findings (NDFs), the AC/PC noted that a notification would be issued to parties to provide further comments on the draft resolution before the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 16).

At PC 20, participants adopted recommendations on: the progress report on strategic planning; the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); the review of Resolution 14.8 (Periodic Review of the Appendices); Annotations; RST in seven species of medicinal and aromatic plants; timber issues; the Periodic Review of plant species included in the CITES Appendices; bigleaf mahogany and other neotropical timber species; timber species, medicinal plants and agarwood-producing species; annotations; and proposals for possible consideration at COP 16. [IISD RS Coverage of the CITES Meetings]