CITES CoP19 Parties voted to list requiem sharks and hammerheads on CITES Appendix II. Final adoption in Plenary is expected in the coming days.

The following statement was issued today by Sue Lieberman, Vice President of International Policy for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), at CITES CoP19 on the role of CITES member governments in reducing risk of future pathogen spillover and potential zoonotic disease emergence associated with live wildlife trade.

The European Union (EU) announced a 25.5 million euro investment in the protection and sustainable use of the Five Great Forests of Mesoamerica, and the Indigenous Peoples and local communities that risk their lives as their frontline defenders.

WCS is issuing the following statements concerning the revised EU Action Plan Against Wildlife Trafficking.

WCS Brasil and the State of Amazonas agreed to work together to develop the first pilot areas for a new high integrity forest investment initiative designed to pay the stewards of high integrity tropical forests for the ecosystem services those forests provide, including their CO2 absorption, which helps cool the planet. The agreement was signed at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Climate Conference.

The following statement is by Dr. Susan Lieberman, WCS Vice President of International Policy who spoke at a special event on the need to increase protection of more than a dozen turtle species by CITES CoP19 (Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), which is meeting from Nov 14-25 at Panama City, Panama.

WCS issued the following statement today from CITES CoP19 being held in Panama City, Panama

At the close of the first week of the UN Climate Conference in Egypt, WCS is sounding a global call to action for governments around the world planning for climate change mitigation and adaptation: put coral reefs front and center.

Researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced the results of an international investigation finding that online trade of jaguar parts are openly detectable on multiple online platforms, representing an emerging and serious threat to jaguar populations across the range of this Latin American wildlife icon.

An expanded group of signatories, including key local cocoa exporters, on 2 November joined an innovative landscape-focused collaboration to stimulate the local economy by supporting the production of sustainable cocoa around the Okapi Wildlife Reserve (OWR), in Ituri Province.