SADC moves to start legal wildlife trade outside CITES

Friday, December 06, 2019

From the soil: SADC countries are fighting for the right to set their own conservation agendas

JOHANNESBURG: Last week a number of SADC countries made formal declarations refusing to accept anymore of what they say is CITES’ ‘unfair, harmful and prohibitive’ trade rules regarding wildlife and wildlife products.

The states dismissed the CITES voting process and reinforced their position that the UN agency’s trading rules are “tainted, rigged and not free and fair.”

After the 18th CITES conference voted to block the SADC countries from trading in specific animals in August, some of them recently officially filed reservations with CITES to ignore the vote, a dramatic action the CITES treaty permits. The SADC states have declared that they would not abide by the CITES restrictions that are detrimental to conservation and development in their countries.

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