43 Results for: Trade

Searching for clues in the catch and trade of seahorses in Viet Nam

This story begins in 1995 with Amanda Vincent and Marivic Pajaro uncovering a global seahorse trade of more than 15 million animals per year. Until then Viet Nam was reportedly a supplier of dried seahorses but little was known about the nature or magnitude of the trade, not to mention the status of the seven species of seahorses found along the shores of Viet Nam.… Read more

Reliving the joys of CITES

My mind keeps dancing back to ten momentous days in September/October last year, when the world came together in Johannesburg, South Africa to figure out how best to look after trade in endangered species.  So much got done and so much remains to be done.  The conference in Johannesburg was really all about helping guide the 182 countries that are members of CITES  to take active measures for conservation.  Sarah Foster  and I were part of the powerful IUCN  delegation, providing the technical information that might influence countries’ decisions.… Read more

Where conservation happens

I am tired. So. Very. Tired. And as I sit here on the plane heading back to Canada from South Africa, a childhood rhyme is playing through my head… “Slowly, slowly, very slowly, creeps the garden snail…slowly, slowly, very slowly up the garden trail…”. Such was the pace of the 17th meeting of the CITES …

Project Seahorse work leads to huge international change, as Thailand announces it is suspending seahorse exports

Story originally posted on UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries Project Seahorse, a marine conservation research unit based at The University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, is applauding Thailand’s decision to end seahorse exports until it can trade in a sustainable manner, without damaging their wild populations. We spoke to …

On being part of the world’s largest conservation team

By Dr. Amanda Vincent It is truly wondrous that the world has managed to create a global action group for conservation, one that includes 1200 governments and non-governmental organizations. I am so involved in this club, called the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) that I seldom step back and really look at …

Three more countries required to take action for seahorses

By Dr. Amanda Vincent Good. Two more seahorses species should get better help, thanks to the recent CITES technical meeting for animals. At this meeting, CITES expressed Urgent Concern about Guinea and Senegal’s exports of West African seahorses (Hippocampus algiricus – photo right) and Thailand’s exports of three spotted seahorses (Hippocampus trimaculatus). The upshot is that these countries have …

Supporting seahorses through CITES – here we go again…

Here we go: CITES again. Every year or so, several hundred people sit down at a technical meeting to see whether international trade controls are doing any good for animals. It’s a somewhat crazy process, full of potential and limitations. CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, is responsible for ensuring sustainability in exports in 4827 animal species. It works more or less well for different countries and different species.… Read more

CITES, conservation, and geopolitics

By Dr. Amanda Vincent There it is.  I have survived another week of UN negotiations on wildlife trade.  And emerged content. I’ve been in Geneva to contribute to the technical working group on animals for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES.  It meets to execute the will of …