In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and following extensive deliberations between the Chairs and members of the Standing, Animals and Plants Committees and the Secretariat, it was confirmed that the face-to-face 31st meeting (AC31) of the Animals Committee and the 25th meeting (PC25) of the Plants Committee would not take place as scheduled from 13-17 July and on 17 and 20-23 July, respectively (see Notification to the Parties No. 2020/045 of 29 May 2020).
Following that decision, the Secretariat made an appeal to Parties to consider offering to host AC31 or PC25 during the first half of 2021 (see Notification to the Parties No. 2020/046 of 4 June 2020). So far, the Secretariat has not received any expression of interest in hosting AC31 or PC25.
Led by its Chair, the Animals Committee is developing actions to advance its work intersessionally.
On the basis of the documents prepared for its 31st meeting, the Animals Committee took the following intersessional decisions (see Notification No. 2020/057 of 22 September 2020 ):
- Mr. Mathias Lörtscher (Representative for the European region) and Mr. Hugh Robertson (Representative for the Oceanian region) were confirmed as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Animals Committee respectively;
- The Animals Committee workplan for 2020-2022 (CoP18 to CoP19), as outlined in document AC31 Doc. 7.2 , was approved;
- Ms. Cecilia Lougheed (alternate representative for the North American region) was nominated as the Animals Committee representative on the Standing Committee working group on capacity-building; and
- The scope of the work on marine ornamental fishes, envisaged in Decisions 18.296 to 18.298, was confirmed to be as outlined in paragraph 3 of document AC31 Doc. 36 , i.e. international trade in non-CITES listed live coral reef fishes, and those species (including sharks and rays) that are caught and traded for display in public or private aquariums.
The Committee also established several intersessional working groups. Details of their mandates and membership can be found here. Guidance for the chairs of intersessional and in-session working groups is available here. The Secretariat invites interested Parties and observers to regularly visit the Committee’s information documents webpage (AC) where studies to be considered by the intersessional working groups will be posted.
Any new developments on the intersessional work of the Animals / Plants Committee will be posted on this webpage.