Projects and activities

EU project (second phase)

The EU has continued to support CITES-related activities over the years. The EU contribution of 900,000 EUR has now been confirmed for the second phase (2017-2020) of the EU project that builds on the experiences of the first phase and the feedback received from the previous years. It will further scale up targeted activities to assist with the implementation of CITES provisions for commercially-exploited marine species. The activities will take advantage of strong existing partnerships, and establish new ones, with a view to maximizing synergies, avoiding duplication of work and delivering outcomes in a coordinated and effective manner.

CITES aims to contribute to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 by responding to the capacity building needs identified by the CITES Parties (SDG 14.A), including for the making of scientific assessments (non-detriment-findings), ensuring legal harvesting (legal acquisition finding), reporting and trade monitoring, the outcomes of this project will directly contribute to the recovery of the stocks of CITES listed species to sustainable levels (SDG 14.4).
 

EU project (first phase)

At CoP16, the European Union announced a financial contribution of EUR 1.2 million to CITES to assist developing countries in their implementation of the new listings of sharks and manta rays. The project “Strengthening capacity in developing countries for sustainable wildlife management and enhanced implementation of CITES wildlife trade regulations, with particular focus on commercially-exploited aquatic species” was officially approved in October 2013 and was implemented in close consultation and partnership with FAO, RFMOs/RBOs, Parties, and other stakeholders from the fisheries sector, as well as with academia and NGOs

The project gave Parties the opportunity to identify their capacity needs during regional consultative workshops. Based on the outcomes of these workshops CITES and its partners then delivered a variety of well-targeted capacity building activities.

Other projects and activities (response to Notification 2013/023)

In May 2013, CITES Secretariat issued Notification to the Parties No. 2013/023 on Request for information on planned and ongoing capacity-building activities on CITES-listed shark species. To date, the Secretariat has received a small number of responses.

Many Parties have requested the Secretariat to make available the information received. This information will assist Parties and stakeholders in learning about current projects and initiatives and in developing new projects that build on existing initiatives. For this reason, the Secretariat has agreed to publish a summary of these submissions on the CITES sharks webpage.

The Secretariat welcomes additional information on ongoing and planned activities to be sent on a continuing basis, and it will add it to the information above.
 

Other relevant resources and external links