The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
CITES and FAO International Plan of Action (IPOA) for Sharks
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IUCN/TRAFFIC Paper on CITES and Sharks
The IUCN Shark Specialist Group and TRAFFIC have prepared a document
on 'The role of CITES in the Conservation and Management of Sharks'.
This has been referred to the 158 Parties to CITES by the Australian Government
for consideration when reviewing Australia's Working Document (CoP12 Doc. 41.1), submitted
for discussion at the twelfth Conference of the Parties to CITES in Chile, November 2002.
The IUCN/TRAFFIC document has also been distributed to Parties through Notification 2002/042
from the CITES Secretariat.
Background to the document
Concern over increasing levels of international trade in shark products and the unsustainable,
unmanaged nature of shark fisheries raised at the 9th Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP 9)
in November 1994 resulted in the adoption of CITES Resolution Conf. 9.17 'The Status of International
Trade in Shark Species'. The CITES Animals Committee (AC) subsequently prepared a discussion paper on
the biological and trade status of shark species subject to international trade. The AC recommendations
were adopted by CoP 10 in 1997 in the form of a number of CITES Decisions, one of which led to the
adoption of the FAO International Plan
of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks (IPOA-Sharks) in 1999. The Resolution
appeared to have largely been implemented by the content of the IPOA-Sharks, and was therefore repealed
at CoP 11 in 2000, although the CITES AC was directed to continue to monitor implementation of the
IPOA-Sharks. The IUCN Shark Specialist Group and TRAFFIC have also monitored implementation of the
IPOA-Sharks through their international networks. They prepared a document
(AC18 Doc. 19.2) for the AC meeting in April 2002 reviewing the extent to which the FAO IPOA-Sharks has delivered improved management of shark populations. This concluded that there had been negligible progress in implementing the IPOA-Sharks, largely because the IPOA-Sharks is wholly voluntary and appears not to be considered a priority by many shark fishing States or Regional Fisheries Management Organizations.
The document prepared for the CITES AC meeting has now been revised and updated by the Shark
Specialist Group and TRAFFIC in order to provide a full analysis of the extent to which
Resolution Conf. 9.17 and subsequent Decisions have been implemented effectively. The new
document The
Role of CITES in the Conservation and Management of Sharks should inform discussions
at CoP 12 in Chile, November 2002. A working document for CoP12 (CoP12 Doc. 41.1) prepared by
Australia, which discusses the Conservation and Management of Sharks, suggests that CITES
Parties may wish to consider the IUCN SSG/TRAFFIC analysis prior to discussions of shark
conservation and management at the CoP.
IUCN SSG and TRAFFIC conclude that the concerns expressed by Parties to CITES through the adoption
of Resolution Conf. 9.17 eight years ago have not yet been addressed effectively through improved
shark fishery management and trade monitoring measures by shark fishing and trading nations.
Demand for and volumes of some shark products in international trade have risen and the status
of some stocks has deteriorated, while most remain unmonitored and unmanaged. The reported
catch to FAO in 2000 was 828,364 tonnes, the highest yearly catch ever recorded, with
catches reported by 118 countries.
The document affirms that CITES does have the potential to play an important role in actively
supporting and encouraging the implementation of the voluntary IPOA-Sharks and other
measures directed at facilitating the management of shared and/or other vulnerable
stocks of commercially fished and internationally traded shark species, and that CITES
should take a more active role than its current 'watching brief' with regard to the
conservation and management of shark species. Detailed recommendations are given.
The following CoP 12 documents are now available for consultation on www.cites.org
Agenda item 41. Conservation of sharks
Agenda item 66. Proposals to amend Appendices I and II
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