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<< Notifications of 2000

Notifications to the Parties

No. 2000/057 Geneva, 29 September 2000

CONCERNING:

Failure to submit annual reports

1. At its 11th meeting (Gigiri, Kenya, April 2000), the Conference of the Parties agreed that, from 1 January 2001, Parties should not authorize any trade in specimens of CITES-listed species with any Party that the Standing Committee has determined has failed, without having provided adequate justification, to provide the annual reports required under Article VIII, paragraph 7 (a), of the Convention for three consecutive years within the deadline established in Resolution Conf. 11.17, or the extended deadline that is provided for in that Resolution.

2. The Secretariat is distributing this Notification to the Parties as a reminder of the decision taken. As of 22 September 2000, the following Parties had not submitted annual reports for the years 1998, 1997 and 1996 and, in some cases not for previous years either. The Secretariat wishes to provide early warning to these Parties that, unless annual reports are received before the deadline referred to above, it must bring this to the attention of the Standing Committee.

Afghanistan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Benin, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Comoros, Cyprus, Djibouti, Dominica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Georgia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Liberia, Malaysia-Sabah, Malaysia-Sarawak, Niger, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Somalia, Uganda, Uruguay and Vanuatu.

3. Should their annual reports for 1999 not be received by 31 October 2000, the following Parties would also be included in the Secretariat's report to the Standing Committee:

Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Congo, Ecuador, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Myanmar, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Venezuela and Yemen.

4. Additionally, the following Parties, which have submitted annual reports in recent years, have prior periods of three consecutive years during which they did not submit annual reports:

Belize (1995-1998)
Côte d'Ivoire (1995-1998)
Egypt (1993-1995)
Jordan (1991-1994)
Pakistan (1994-1996).

5. Parties are reminded that the Secretariat can provide assistance, through its contract with the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, by requesting the creation of a tabulated form of all trade data, which can serve as an annual report. Parties that require such assistance must supply copies of all permits and certificates issued by their Management Authorities. The Secretariat is aware that only a few Parties have chosen to make use of this service in the past. Any Party that wishes to do so, or continue to do so, should contact the Secretariat as soon as possible to establish, or re-establish, the arrangements to enable this to take place.

6. In reaching its decision, the Conference noted that the current lack of trade data, caused by the failure of some Parties to submit annual reports or submit them in a timely fashion, impedes the decision-making processes of the CITES technical committees and the Conference of the Parties.

7. Additionally, the Secretariat takes this opportunity to draw to the attention of the Parties that Article VIII, paragraph 7 (b), of the Convention requires the transmission to the Secretariat of a biennial report on legislative, regulatory and administrative measures taken to enforce the provisions of the present Convention. At present, only a minority of Parties submit such reports.