- On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast we speak with Ivonne Higuero, secretary general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora — better known by its acronym, CITES.
- Signatories to CITES will meet later this summer for the eighteenth meeting of the Congress of the Parties (or COP). The meeting was originally to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka last May, but a series of terrorist bombings in the South Asian country during Easter services in April forced CITES officials to postpone the meeting until August and move it to Geneva, Switzerland.
- On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast, Huigero, the first woman to ever serve as CITES secretary general, discusses how her background as an environmental economist informs her approach to the job, how CITES can tackle challenges like lack of enforcement of CITES statutes at the national level and the online wildlife trade, and what she expects to accomplish at the eighteenth congress of the parties to CITES.
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast we speak with Ivonne Higuero, secretary general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora — better known by its acronym, CITES.
Listen here:
Just about every country on Earth has signed on to CITES, a multilateral treaty meant to ensure that international trade in wildlife does not threaten the survival of species in the wild. Trade in about 36,000 different species is currently regulated under CITES.
Signatories to CITES will meet later this summer for the eighteenth meeting of the Congress of the Parties (or COP). The meeting was originally to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka last May, but a series of terrorist bombings in the South Asian country during Easter services in April forced CITES officials to postpone the meeting until August and move it to Geneva, Switzerland.
Despite the setback, Ivonne Huigero hopes to see much progress made at this year’s COP. “We are approaching some very critical times in terms of species loss, if you have seen the IPBES report talking about a million-plus species that could be lost if we continue with business as usual,” she says. “We all have to really focus and concentrate on the work ahead of us to avoid that from happening, from having this major species loss. And for CITES it’s related, of course, to making sure that international trade is sustainable, and we have to do everything we can that that is the case.”
On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast, Huigero, the first woman to ever serve as CITES secretary general, discusses how her background as an environmental economist informs her approach to the job, how CITES can tackle challenges like lack of enforcement of CITES statutes at the national level and the online wildlife trade, and what she expects to accomplish at the eighteenth congress of the parties to CITES.
Here’s this episode’s top news:
- Arctic sea ice extent just hit a record low for early June; worse may come
- Nearly 600 plant species have gone extinct in last 250 years
- Sumatran rhinos to get a new sanctuary in Leuser Ecosystem
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