The 54th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee convened from 2-6 October 2006, in Geneva, Switzerland, attracting over 300 delegates.

The meeting’s agenda included: the CITES Strategic Plan for 2008-2013; preparation for the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-14); financial matters; review of the scientific committees; and trade and conservation issues in species including great apes, elephants, tigers, sturgeon and bigleaf mahogany. The Standing Committee (SC) approved the Secretariat’s estimated expenditures for 2006, and set a deadline for the submission of comments on the CITES Strategic Plan 2008-2013. It also agreed, inter alia, to: defer consideration of trade in tigers to COP-14; review timber trade in Peru and Malaysia at future SC meetings; designate Japan as a trading partner for the one-off sale of ivory stockpiles from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, but not to proceed with the sale at this point; and withdraw the recommendation on suspending trade in the four Caspian Sea sturgeon species, but not to revise the 2006 caviar export quotas.
Link to further information
IISD RS coverage of the meeting