Wildlife Meet Mulls Trade Rules To Counter 'unprecedented' Species Declines

(@FahadShabbir)

Wildlife meet mulls trade rules to counter 'unprecedented' species declines

Amid growing alarm over accelerating extinctions, a major international conference opened in Geneva Saturday aiming to tighten rules on trade in elephant ivory and other endangered animal and plant species

Geneva, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Aug, 2019 ) :Amid growing alarm over accelerating extinctions, a major international conference opened in Geneva Saturday aiming to tighten rules on trade in elephant ivory and other endangered animal and plant species.

Thousands of conservationists and policymakers from more than 180 countries will meet for 12 days to evaluate regulations and species protection listings under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

"business as usual is no longer an option," CITES Secretary General Ivonne Higuero said at the start of the meeting, warning that "nature's dangerous decline is unprecedented." The treaty, created more than four decades ago, regulates trade in over 35,000 species of plants and animals and contains mechanisms to help crack down on illegal trade and sanction countries that break the rules.

The meeting follows warnings about rapid species decline, with a UN report in May indicating that one million species are being pushed to the brink of extinction.

"My fear is that we are... now really on the edge," Higuero told AFP ahead of the conference, saying she hoped the delegates in Geneva would "make what we call transformative change."Inger Anderson, who heads the United Nations Environment Programme, echoed her sense of urgency, warning the conference that "we are losing species at a rate never seen before."