7 March 2012: The report of an international workshop to “Review the Application and Effectiveness of International Regulatory Measures for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Elasmobranchs,” organized jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the Convention on International Trade of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), was been released.

At the workshop, held in Genazzano, Italy, from 19-23 July 2010, the attending experts, acting in an individual capacity, underscored the importance of international cooperation among States for the protection of species with a large geographic distribution to ensure that necessary management measures are applied over a sufficiently large distribution area. They also: emphasized the need for scientific assessment and data collection for sound shark management regimes at national and international levels, together with species identification tools and training of data collectors and inspectors; and stressed the role played by information from fishery-independent sources in scientific stock assessments, while recognizing that these activities are expensive and may not be available to for some developing countries without international assistance and cooperation.

Participants agreed that the use of CITES to regulate international trade in sharks should be considered as a complementary measure rather than an alternative to traditional fisheries management. John Scanlon, Secretary-General, CITES, noted that the workshop illustrated the way CITES and FAO are working together, within their respective mandates, to address the challenges faced in sustainably managing the world’s sharks, rays and skate. [CITES Press Release] [Publication: Report of the FAO/CITES Workshop to Review the Application and Effectiveness of International Regulatory Measures for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Elasmobranchs]