The 20th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), along with the 79th and 80th meetings of the Standing Committee, was grandly held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from November 23 to December 5. More than 3,000 delegates from all contracting parties, as well as observers from intergovernmental international organizations and non-governmental organizations, participated in the event. Representing the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government, Ao Ieong Un Wa, Director of the Macao Economic and Technological Development Bureau (hereafter referred to as “the Bureau”), and other representatives joined the Chinese delegation to attend the meeting.
During the conference, discussions and votes were held on multiple proposals from contracting parties, the Standing Committee, the Animals Committee, and the Plants Committee, and the list of member representatives of various regional committees was confirmed. Meanwhile, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the entry into force of CITES. The conference focused on deliberating 51 proposals for amending the CITES Appendices and over 100 policy issue documents, covering more than 250 species such as eels, saiga antelopes, pangolins, sea cucumbers, and sharks.
CITES aims to protect endangered wild fauna and flora through regulating international trade. Macao’s Law No. 2/2017, the “CITES Implementation Law”, came into force on September 1, 2017. After multiple rounds of consultations and exchanges, the CITES Secretariat confirmed on May 16 this year that Macao’s relevant legislation is fully compliant with requirements, and officially announced at this conference that the legislative rating of Macao SAR’s CITES Implementation Law has been upgraded to the highest Level I. In his speech, Ao Ieong Un Wa thanked the Secretariat for recognizing Macao’s legislative efforts, and stated that the SAR Government will continue to strictly implement all provisions of the convention, actively participate in relevant work, and conscientiously fulfill its responsibilities.
In accordance with the law, the Bureau is Macao’s statutory CITES management authority, with the power to issue CITES certificates, import and export permits, and supervise compliance with relevant laws; the Municipal Affairs Bureau acts as the scientific authority, responsible for assisting the management authority in identifying relevant species and issuing technical opinions, among other duties.
Lam Hoi Kin, Director of the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Bureau, and Senior Technician Tam Fei also attended the conference as part of the delegation.
