SCI, SCIF Participate In 69th CITES Standing Committee Meetings

[AfricaHunting.com]

Safari Club International and SCI Foundation attended the 69th CITES Standing Committee in Geneva, Switzerland last November. Johan Svalby represented SCI and Matt Lewis represented SCI Foundation.

The meeting was the first full Standing Committee meeting since last year’s Conference of the Parties. Much of the work leading up to the next Conference of the Parties in Sri Lanka (May 23 - June 3, 2019) is getting underway and will be done in working groups, via email, between now and the next Standing Committee meeting. SCI/SCIF joined the hunting-relevant working groups to protect hunters’ interests.

Following is a summary of some of the most important issues discussed at the meeting:

· Elephants continue to dominate the agenda and time used at the meeting, even when there are few motions on the agenda pertinent to elephant policy. Tanzania still has to submit its progress report on the National Ivory Action Plan, as a Party of “primary concern,” or additional compliance measures, including suspension of trade, could be implemented at the 2018 Standing Committee Meeting (SC70). SCI is working with Tanzania on this matter.

· The Committee established an intersessional working group to deal with how CITES reviews proposals to transfer an elephant population from Appendix I to Appendix II. SCI joined the working group which report to SC70.

· The most important outcome of the discussions on ‘demand reduction strategies’ to combat illegal trade in CITES-listed species was that the Committee encouraged Parties “to make a clear distinction between legal and illegal wildlife products when undertaking demand reduction initiatives, especially when working with various campaign partners.” South Africa, Canada, Peru and Mexico underlined that legal trade is essential for livelihoods and that demand reduction strategies should not lead to counterproductive results for sustainable use.

· SCIF was picked by the Standing Committee Chair to join the intersessional working group on the African lion, which will be chaired by Niger and report to SC70. Some observers could not join due to a limited number of seats available under the SC Rules of Procedure, but the Chair deemed it valuable to have SCIF in the group. The working group will review reports produced by the Animals Committee and the Secretariat.

· The Standing Committee agreed that the Hippopotamus amphibius from Mozambique should be removed from Significant Trade Review and that the trade suspension will be lifted. This is positive news. Mozambique has indicated that 40 hippo trophies will be harvested/traded each year.

SCI/SCIF enjoyed a very good working relationship with other hunting organisations present, in particular the European Federation of Associations for Hunting and Conservation (FACE). Among nations with hunting programs, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe had national delegations present. Tanzania and Zambia did not attend. SCI/SCIF engaged with most of these African delegations throughout the week on various issues.

SCI/SCIF continue the work towards the next Standing Committee in 2018 to ensure positive outcomes for hunters and the environment.



Source: Safari Club International (SCI)