Press Conference: Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)

Good afternoon, good evening, and good morning. A very warm welcome to all of you joining us in person or online for this press briefing ahead of the 81st meeting of the CITES Standing Committee, also known as SC81. My name is Saleh Khan. I'm the Program Management Officer. and the officer in charge at the Outreach and Projects Unit at the CITES Secretariat. SC81 will take place here in Geneva, Switzerland, at the International Conference Center Geneva, or CICG, from November 2nd to November 6th, just under two weeks from now. The meeting will bring together CITES parties and observer organizations from around the world to advance our shared commitment to ensuring that international trade in wild animals and plants is legal, sustainable, and traceable. I'm pleased to be joined today by CITES Secretary General, Yvonne Negero, and Sophie Flensburg, Chief of the Legal Unit. I would now like to invite Secretary General to take the floor and provide us with the context for CITES AC81 and an overview of what to expect at the meeting. Secretary General.

Thank you very much, Salehine, for that introduction and a little bit of the background of why we're here. I wish you all a good afternoon, good day, good evening. I know you're joining us all online, distinguished guests and journalists both here in Geneva and virtually around the world. It is really a great pleasure to be with you today to provide an overview of the upcoming CITES Standing Committee meeting, and it's going to take place just across from the Place des Nations at the CICG. Now, the three languages of the Convention are English, French, and Spanish, so the meeting will be conducted in those languages as usual, but we have the added benefit that the Russian Federation provided some funding so that it could also be interpreted into Russian. So this is something that is started in the at the Conference of the Parties meeting in Samarkand last year. You will also be able to watch a live stream on the YouTube channel of CITES. Now, this standing committee is meeting for the first time since we had that meeting of the Conference of the Parties, the 20th meeting of the Conference of the Parties in Samarkand late last year, and it really comes at an important moment for the convention as parties move from that decision-making process that happens intercessionally every three years to actual implementation of the decisions and resolutions that were agreed at the COP in Samarkand. Let me just tell you a little bit about the background of what the Standing Committee does. And it serves as the principal governing body and policy steering body of CITES between the meetings of the Conference of the Parties, which, as I mentioned, happen every three years. It provides policy and operational guidance to the Secretariat, oversees budgetary matters and resource mobilization efforts. addresses compliance and enforcement issues, and you'll hear a little bit about that today, coordinates with the Animals and Plants Committees, and prepares the groundwork for the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties. So they will meet twice during this intersessional period and have all of the recommendations ready for the decision-making that will take place at the Conference of the Parties in 2028. So the Committee really plays a critical role in ensuring that the Convention remains effective. responsive and accountable between COP meetings by following up on all of those decisions and resolutions. Now I'm pleased to report that preparations for SC81 are well advanced. Today if you look on our website you will see that almost all documents of the meeting have been posted. with only, I think, a few annexes remaining. But in general, those documents that are prepared by the Secretariat and those that we receive externally have all been posted. We also have the working program of the meeting available, which shows how the different issues, matters of the Convention will be discussed at the meeting. So it will show the dates and the times, which more or less will be followed if possible. Interest in the meeting has been very strong. As of today, we have already registered more than 600 participants, representing over 70 parties of the 185 parties of the Convention, and more than 100 observer organizations also participating. And this is something that's very probably unique to the Convention with a huge participation of observers in our meetings, particularly in the Standing Committee meeting and the COP. Now, this level of engagement, of course, reflects the continued commitment of the CITES community to addressing the increasingly complex challenges that we are facing in terms of wildlife conservation and sustainable and legal trade. As usual, this is something that for the past years I've now been eight years with the CITES Secretariat, it is something that I say every time. It is a particularly challenging agenda. There are 95 working documents to review during the Standing Committee, and the meetings will be held over 10 three-hour sessions over the five days. Now, some of you may have heard as well that given the current financial difficulties affecting the Convention's core budget, we are unable to schedule, which we have done in the past, night meetings or going over the weekend. A significant portion of the committee's work will focus on compliance matters. There remain several outstanding cases that require review and assessment by the committee so that they can either stop let go of those recommendations, say that those recommendations have been implemented, say if they have been partially implemented or not at all, and that they have to be reinforced in the next period. So we have 11 cases under Article 13 procedures, which is an article in the convention text, and you can ask more questions about that later. We can give you a little bit more information, but it really is about compliance in the implementation of the convention. We have reviews related to the implementation of national ivory action plans, matters concerning the submission of national reports, which is a requirement of the Convention, and reviews related to parties' compliance with the four central obligations of CITES to implementing national legislation, which forms the basis for effective implementation. These discussions are essential to maintaining the integrity, credibility, and effectiveness of CITES implementation globally. Beyond compliance, the agenda also reflects many of the strategic issues that continue to shape the Convention's work. The Committee will review progress in implementing decisions adopted by the COP, consider reports from the Animals and Plants Committees, discuss enforcement and illegal wildlife trade matters, and review a range of administrative, financial, and institutional questions that are vital to the functioning of the Convention. As well, they will be examining species-specific conservation and trade matters. In particular, the meeting will provide an opportunity to assess how parties are advancing implementation of the outcomes of COP20 and to identify where further guidance, cooperation, or support will be needed. And usually this is technical assistance, financial assistance in order to be able to implement those obligations under the Convention. Now, one of the biggest issues that we find that really helps in implementing the Convention is this cross collaboration amongst the regions and amongst all stakeholders involved in the CITES community. So it's not only the parties, but the observers, the nongovernmental organizations, academia, and other supporting CITES. I will not go into detail of the 67 agenda items, so I would like to provide just a few key insights on what to expect. The Committee will review the implementation of the CITES Tree Species Project, financed by Germany, and consider opportunities to leverage the CITES Tree Species Program to advance timber identification and other CITES work on trees. And this is something very important because in the recent years, in the recent COPs, there has been an increased addition of trees into the CITES appendices, these trees which are economically very valuable. And so some concerns about over-exploitation, some concerns about not having the fundamental documents of the convention, like a sustainability assessment, which we call non-detriment findings, and also legal acquisition findings to show that all along the value chain, there's checks and balances to know that everything has been legally acquired from the moment that tree has fallen to the point of export. On compliance matters, the Committee may consider compliance measures with respect to five parties under the National Legislation Project for lack of reported progress of adopting the implementing national legislation. The committee will also consider a draft guidance on the scope and application of recommendations to suspend trade developed by the Secretariat, as well as a progress report on the compliance assistance program and the selection of up to three additional parties to benefit from the support that the Secretariat gives on to be able to ensure that they are implementing the Convention effectively. Now, this is a very important part of the Convention, compliance. in terms of suspension of trade. And this is the strength of the Convention, where many say that this Convention has teeth because one of the measures could be trade suspension. On Article 13 of the Convention, the Committee will consider the progress in the implementation of the recommendations to address identified compliance issues in the parties subject to the application of Article 13. Based on the reported progress, the Committee may adopt revised recommendations And for your information, parties concerned include all range states of West African rosewood, these very valuable trees that I mentioned, as well as four parties in Asia, four in Africa, and three in South America. The committee will also consider progress by Mexico in implementing its compliance assistance the program, which is the action plan that they have, and whether further measures or compliance actions are needed. And this is something that's also you may have seen in the press in the last many recent years about the threat to the vaquita, which is a porpoise in the Sea of Cortez in Mexico, and all this illegal fishing of totoaba that has occurred. A lot of changes have happened since Mexico has implemented their compliance action plan, and it will be good to see progress in that. On regulation of trade, the committee will consider matters related to issues such as legal acquisition findings, specimens produced through biotechnology, rapid movement of wildlife diagnostic samples, introduction from the sea, and here again, many more marine species being introduced into the CITES appendices, very valuable fishes, you probably have heard about sharks and rays. And this is also something that is in complementary in line with what's now has been adopted, this new biodiversity framework, which is called Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdictions, BBNJ, and this Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdictions agreement that has been now that will soon enter force. On enforcement matters, committee members will consider parties' efforts to combat wildlife crime, including wildlife crime linked to the internet, which is now something that is really concerning because now it's not only sales, real live sales, but it's also on the internet, which is hard to monitor, the work of our International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime, and consider the finalized report on global illegal trade in seahorses. On species conservation, the committee will consider the implementation of recommendations by the CITES Animals and Plants Committees on the Review of Significant Trade, which is also called RST, and it will assess progress on implementation of those recommendations. This is where the concerns about over-exploitation come into play because of how the parties have been reporting in their national reports. and in our trade database how much trade has been going on to be able to make sure that it's sustainable. And this is where the sustainability assessment comes in, which are called non-detriment findings. Twenty-six new cases were selected at the Animals and Plants Committee meetings this summer. And they will also assess progress under the review of trade in specimens as reported that have been produced in captivity. On Brazilwood, which is also called pau-brasilha, which has also been in the news a lot, which is an endemic species of Brazil, they will consider terms of reference for a traceability study and note the progress made on the report of the Intersessional Working Group on pau-brasilha. Lastly, the committee will note the positive progress on saiga antelope conservation by Kazakhstan and consider concerns expressed by some parties about the legal basis for inclusion of fungi under CITES. This is also a new discussion that has just begun about whether fungi should be included under the Convention. So this discussion will happen. And on saiga antelope, you probably have heard now that Kazakhstan has more than 4 million specimens after being almost on the brink of extinction with only 20,000 some years ago. Now they have brought that population up to 4 million, but now it's causing something that is now much more relevant in terms of priorities, which is human-animal conflict. So you will hear more about that at the meeting as well. There's going to be a review of applications on the registration of operations, breeding, Appendix I specimens in captivity for commercial purposes, and these registrations have received objections from other parties due to doubts about the legal origin of these breeding specimens, where there's questions related to their contribution to conservation of the species and other concerns. Now, on financial matters, Some of you have heard too, and this is not something that is new, and it is not only happening to the CITE Secretariat, but many of the UN organizations now that we have seen that parties are in arrears, have not been paying their contributions. We have had some of the biggest party that is to the convention, which is the United States, some difficulties in paying their contribution. But I have good news to share with you, and you're probably the first ones who are going to know about this. We have had a pledge from the United States that they would make their contribution for 2026, and I had confirmation yesterday that we have received $1.77 million from the U.S., which is 22 percent of the budget. So you can imagine the difficulties that we have faced in the last year. almost two years now without having that contribution for the United States. So this is very good news for the Secretariat, because we have been concerned that we would have to draw down from the trust fund and our reserve to be able to with the cash flow problems that we've had in the Secretariat. So now we feel a little bit more relieved, but it is something that we are going to have to address over the next years. Now, this only skims the surface of the program that will be discussed at the Standing Committee. It's just an idea of the breadth and cross-cutting nature of the Convention's work. As always, the Standing Committee's work is founded on dialogue, cooperation, and shared responsibility. The challenges before us are significant, and you know this, as you have been seeing in the news, many challenges in terms of biodiversity. We have now, right now, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Conference of the Parties is meeting right now in Yerevan for this week and the next week. So there is a need for collective expertise, dedication, and commitment, which is represented by the members of the Standing Committee, by all the parties, the observers, the committee members, donors, and partners. and we thank them for their continued support. I also wish to express appreciation for the Secretariat staff. We are a very small Secretariat, dealing with more than 40,000 species on the appendices, And we are basically in the 20 to 25 people, depending, because some of them are projects, some of them are consultants. So these, we have to prepare documents, we have to implement a program of work. So it's a real challenge for the secretariat. And I am grateful for all that they do to prepare this meeting. So I wanted to thank you very much for joining this press conference, learning a little bit more about CITES for those of you who were not aware. so much about CITES, but I hope that this gives you an idea of what's going to be discussed. And of course, we look forward to answering any questions you may have on what I have just presented and any other issues that you have seen on the agenda. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Secretary General, for the statement. Now the floor is open for questions. Yes, I see a hand. If you may, before asking the question, if you may introduce yourself and the outlet you're representing. Thank you very much.

Hello, I'm Christiana with the German Press Agency based here in Geneva. You have a full agenda. I have one question. clarification and then a question. The clarification is on the US. Did I understand correctly that they did not pay the 2025 contributions, but they have paid the 2026, which was $1.77 million, and that represents 22% of the budget, just to confirm that they did not or did pay in 2025. My question is then, There's a lot of progress report, compliance, discussion, dialogue and everything. For my readers, this is a person who is interested in conservation issues. What would be a headline that is going to come out of this meeting? Is there going to be a decision on… better protection of seahorses or a decision on how to look after rosewood trees? Is there something very concrete that is going to come out of this meeting? Thank you.

Thank you very much for those questions. And yes, just to be clear, as you may know, the United States of America, the current Administration, had been reviewing which organizations, which processes, which treaties they would continue to be part of. And this took some time, and now, in my view, they haven't said anything to us officially in terms of, yes, we will remain parties, we wish to continue being part of CITES, but that is the message that I am getting right now, where the decision was taken to then make the contribution for 2026 to the Secretariat.

And not 2025.

The pledge is for 2026. Now, how that works out in the long term in terms of what happened in 2025, there's a fiscal year that's involved and how the financing occurs within each country, but that's the decision that has been taken for this fiscal year, that they would pay 2026. In terms of decisions, I think that the decisions were taken at COP 20, and as I said, a governing body is the intercessional body that then now looks to see how implementation has been with those decisions, new resolutions, amendments to the resolutions that happened at COP 20, because it's the Conference of the Parties that take decisions. the Standing Committee gives recommendations. And so what the Standing Committee is going to be looking at is to say, how well have those decisions and resolutions been implemented so far? Is there anything else that's needed? Do we need to give some further recommendations to say more financing, more implementation efforts by the countries? Because The Standing Committee would have made, for example, in many of the compliance cases, the Standing Committee would have already made some recommendations. Now they're going to assess progress, which the Secretariat does. We prepare reports once every party that is under some sort of compliance measure or some mechanism under the convention to check if they are implementing it effectively and in line with the provisions, they will give some recommendations and now it's time to see how far have they progressed in that. If there were compliance measures, and I think I'll turn to my colleague Sophie to give a bit of explanation about that, but in general, if there were measures that were put in place, if there were recommendations that were given, the Secretariat will... give their assessment to the Standing Committee, and the Standing Committee will then take a decision whether what the Secretariat has said, they can go along with it and say, yes, we agree with those proposals that you have made for recommendations, or we need something stronger, or we see that they have advanced sufficiently and we don't need to continue those recommendations. So maybe if you don't mind, I hand over to my colleague Sophie to be able to give a little bit more detail about what happens in terms of the recommendations that come out of the Standing Committee.

Thank you, Secretary General. Just to pick up on this issue with compliance, I think it's quite important to keep in mind that the approach that the CITIS has taken to compliance is one of is a non-adversarial and supportive approach with the objective of ensuring long-term compliance with the Convention. So There are many countries facing various challenges of implementing the Convention, and the recommendations that are being proposed to the Standing Committee and will come out of the Standing Committee are always tailored to address the specific concern of the specific country, and also trying to be very focused on the obligations that parties have under the Convention. looking ahead for the SC81, there will be 11 countries that have been in this, what we call the application of Article 13 process, where they have been requested to address these compliance issues. And these, as was mentioned by the Secretary General, are across the regions of the Convention across the world. And The compliance measures that may be adopted will be targeted to address the specific issues. It could be develop national legislation or update your national legislation. It could be establish better standard operating procedures to ensure that you exercise your due diligence before you accept imports, these types of quite detailed technical recommendations. It could also be that the parties invited to present what are the constraints that they experience, for instance, to implement their national library action plan, and what is the support that they think could be needed to help alleviate those constraints and help achieve their action plans that they have put in place years ago. When there is serious and severe and persistent compliance challenges, the Committee may suggest or may adopt A so-called recommendation to suspend trade, which means that it's a recommendation to all the other parties to not trade in CITES-listed species with the parties concerned because of these compliance issues that could potentially have an impact on the conservation of the species because the party is not able to, for instance, undertake the non-detriment findings that will ensure the sustainability of the trade. These recommendations have not at this point, we have not suggested any such recommendations to the committee, but the committee is free to take the decisions it feels are necessary in each of the concrete cases that are presented. All of the information that we provide to the committee is based on the information we receive from the countries and our assessment of this information. I think I'll leave it at that for now. Thank you.

Thank you. And on the positive side also, if there are any previous recommendations on suspending trade in those CITES, in specific CITES listed species, and there has been good progress in the implementation of the recommendations, the Standing Committee can also recommend that is lifted, that suspension be lifted. And so this is a positive outcome of the Convention. When the parties have made enough progress, put in efforts, made investments, It's a huge job, and this is why it has to be with assistance, with support to the parties, to be able to implement the convention, and it takes it requires human and financial resources to be able to do so. So when they have made those efforts and shown that they have put in place the measures that they should put in place to ensure that that trade is sustainable and legal, then a positive outcome can happen where they have either lifted the trade suspension or that they say that they has been implemented. Did you want to add something to that?

Sorry, can I just ask you, is this a recommendation to lift the suspension, or can the Standing Committee decide to lift the suspension?

Yes, we give the recommendation to suspend sometimes. Sometimes they decide on their own, but it is a decision of the Standing Committee. They are the ones who are tasked with this work.

Thank you, Secretary-General and Chief of Legal Unit, Sophie. There are questions from online. I see their hands raised. So firstly, I would give the floor to Kyodo News Agency.

Good afternoon. I hope you hear me. Thank you very much for taking my question. I am from the Japanese news agency Kyodo News, and I wanted to ask you questions about eels. As you may know, eels are extremely important for Japanese consumers, and in November 2025, Japan opposed to the site's trade restrictions for all eel species. And I wanted to ask you if in this session, we can expect some evaluations of the implementations of recommendations on EELs. And I have seen that Tunisia and Algeria submitted their report about how they are using EELs and their justifications for the use of EELs, but are we expecting a document submitted by the Japanese government? Thank you very much.

Secretary-General, thank you.

Thank you very much, and thank you to Kyodo News Agency for that question. And yes, this was a big item during the meeting of the Conference of the Parties last year. There were proposals to include all eels in the CITES appendices. This required a huge amount of negotiations during the meeting. We had two things occurring at the same time. One was the proposals for the amendment of the appendices to include all eels, and the other issue was amendments to the existing resolution on eels to be able to then consider some of the other threats. be able to take measures to be able to ensure that other eels, all eels, were addressed in terms of measures to on sustainability, measures on legality, et cetera. So at the end of the conference, when the discussions were held about inclusion of those of all eels into the CITES appendices, this was not agreed. So there was no inclusion of all eels into the CITES appendices, and but what did happen was amendment to the eels resolution, and that was those changes maybe you have those at hand that you can - Was it adoption of the new resolution? It was adoption of the new resolution, yes, because it was already something that was being discussed, and then there were amendments or suggestions on changing that draft resolution to be able to ensure that then it would cover those eels that were for some parties was a concern. So after many negotiations, this was what happened, I would say to the satisfaction of Japan that felt that they were taking measures adequate measures. But it showed that they were going to now have make more efforts and be more committed to ensuring that those particular species of eels, which indeed are very popular in many countries in Asia, that they would have they would make sure that that whatever fishing they use, export, would be sustainable. Do you want to say anything about the specific? So this is something that that's the other point, is that it's something that remains under so it depends on which committee is dealing, so if it's a scientific issue like sustainability, and we have to look at how they are ensuring with their sustainability assessments, like non-detriment findings, that they are doing them correctly, that the export of eels is not in a... volume that is threatening the sustainability of the eels, this is something that the Animals Committee takes care of. And we'll look over we had already the Animals Committee meeting in July. We will have another Animals Committee meeting next year. So, yeah, so that just to explain that this has been dealt with at the COP, and that now it's continued under the supervision or the oversight of the Animals Committee. Was there another question other than this? What was the other question? Was that it? Yeah, just to make sure. No, I think it was a document from Japan that we don't expect anything from Japan. Sometimes parties, yes, will submit information documents because they want to inform on how they're dealing with some of the decisions that were taken before or these resolutions. They may voluntarily submit an information document. So far I have not seen one, but there is still time. They can submit an information document at any time. So that it's always a possibility. But yes, some countries, some parties will choose to inform what may be, uh, about how they are managing the export of eels?

Thank you, Secretary General. There's a question again online from AFP. Please go ahead.

Thank you. I've got, um, questions on, on two things, uh, firstly on the, on the USA and then secondly on, uh, on the media access. So if I start with the question on the United States, so just to clarify, the USA, they didn't pay for 2025, but have made a pledge for 2026, and that's the 1.77 million. It's not money in the bank that's been received, it's a pledge of that amount.

Yes, please go ahead with the second one, please. If you have one.

Okay, and the second question was, do members of the press who have UN accreditation, do we need to do an additional accreditation in order to attend? And also, is there a sort of planned final press conference summarizing everything? Thank you.

Thank you for those questions.

Yes, and I'm sorry if I didn't I wasn't clear when I mentioned about the United States. We received a letter with a pledge for the 22 with the 1.77 million U.S. dollars, and what I'm saying now is that yesterday we got confirmation that the money is in the bank. The funds have been received. So we are very as a secretariat, we are very relieved that this has occurred. Again, as I mentioned, the United States was going through processes about organizations that they would maintain relationships with, or if, for example, they were parties to a treaty, if they were going to withdraw or stay with the treaty. And to me, it means that the United States will continue to be part of the CITES Convention and the CITES treaty and participate in our meetings, continue to be at the table with the decision-making processes of the Convention. On the second aspect of the accreditation, I see my colleague who deals with communications nodding her head that it is sufficient with your UN accreditation to participate in the meeting. Nothing further is required. We normally do not have, unless something really incredible happens at the standing committee that is not expected, we normally do not have a final press conference, but we do have a final press release that rounds up all of the everything that happened during the standing committee with the recommendations and results and outcomes of the standing committee. So you should keep your eye on that, because that will be coming out shortly after the standing committee meeting. Thank you.

Thank you, Secretary General. I don't see any other questions online. And okay, there is one in the room. Please go ahead.

I'm sorry to bang on about that, but we still have not understood the US contributions. Is it, do you have assessed contributions every year? And if so, has the United States paid for 2025? Does this $1.77 million include the payment that was due in 2025, or have they skipped their contribution for 2025 and are now only paying the sum that is allocated to them for 2026?

Okay, sorry. Maybe because I have the way that we work in my head and I'm not explaining it. Yes, it's 22% every year of the budget for that year that each party, well, no, sorry, that the United States, not each party, that the United States, it's the same as the, it is similar to the assessed contribution for the United Nations Secretariat. So we follow that. There's a few differences that we have because we're, you know, we're 185 parties, so it's a little bit different, but it is 22% of the budget. overall. So every year there's a contribution that they have to make of 22%. In 2025, they were going through this process. There was no payment to the Secretariat. This year, the pledge was that they were making their contribution for 2026. So sorry about that. Thank you.

I do not see any other questions from online. Maybe we can give a minute or so to wait and see if there are any questions coming up. I see the hand again from Kyodo News. Is that an old hand or a new hand?

No, thank you very much. Yeah, that's a new one. Thank you very much for your previous answers on the heels. It was very, very informative. I just want to come back. You mentioned, I'm sorry, because you made a very interesting first speech, but I'm coming back to one small point. You mentioned that the committee will review the site species program financed by Germany. And shortly after, you mentioned five parties that are, yeah, that are reporting a lack, that have a lack of reported progress. Could you mention these five parties, who they are exactly? It was shortly after the mention of the trees. Yeah.

Thank you for the question. Yes, Chief of Legal Unit, Sophie, please.

Thank you very much. So Every party is requested to report every year on the progress that they're making towards implementing the Convention, so to involve adopting national legislation that meets the site's minimum requirements. And these minimum requirements are based on the obligations, so the legally binding obligations, that are directly in the Convention. So the Secretariat is mandated to review these progress report and mandated to identify parties that have not put in place such minimum legislation or such legislation meeting the minimum requirements. Every year, we then receive these reports, we go through them, and we report to the Standing Committee. What happens is that sometimes parties have not reported progress, and if they haven't reported progress for three years, we bring it to the attention to the Standing Committee and mention that maybe a compliance measure for these countries would be appropriate, would help them in terms of making progress on their national legislation. From memory, the parties that are concerned by this are or include Afghanistan, Myanmar, and I think it's Trinidad and Tobago. Unfortunately, I can't remember the fifth one. But these are the parties that we haven't received updates from right now, they can still make these updates between now and the meeting, and we will then be able to revise our recommendations with respect to the national legislation project. I hope this helps. Thanks.

It might be useful to explained that the parties are considered in categories in terms of how they have put in place their national legislation, how far along they are. So we all would like the parties to be in category one, to be able to show that they have actually taken on board all of the provisions, all of the minimum requirements that they should have in their legislation. Then we have those who are in category two, who are working on it at different stages. For some, They have actually drafted the legislation. It's gone through a consultation, but maybe it hasn't passed through the parliament or whatever system of government that they have to be able to prove this legislation. Others may not even and that's maybe category two. Category three may be that they have not even been able to do a draft or have a draft. And we have and the secretariat under this project, we give them technical assistance and advice from the legal team in the secretariat on what changes they need to be able to make to that national legislation to show progress and to eventually be in Category 1. So all of them are their aim is to be in Category 1. They receive congratulations to be there. But the most important thing, of course, is that once if you have the legislation in place, you can the trade is the trade that is being engaged in, in terms of plants, wild animals, and wild plants that are under CITES under the CITES appendices, there's more trust that everything is being carried out in the proper way. Plus, in much of this legislation, and the chief of the legal unit can say something about that, there are penalties, for example, within the national legislation for those penalties that are put there for criminals who are committing illegal acts in terms of wild let's say wild let's say trees and or exporting illegally certain types of animals that are under the CITES list, pangolin, for example, and that when those criminals are arrested, they need to be prosecuted, et cetera, and that those penalties are commensurate with the type of crime that they're doing. And so this is the work that the Secretariat does, especially the legal team, to ensure that those are included in that national legislation. Do you want to add maybe the countries as you know them now.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Secretary General. So I'm pleased to also note that there has been significant progress over the past couple of years in that now two-thirds of the parties to the convention have adequate minimum legislation in place, which is 123 parties. Um, the, the ones that are in category two usually have some sort of legislation, however, it's not sufficient because maybe the, the, the penalties, there are no penalties for trade, for a trade in violation of the convention, which is quite important for ensuring the effectiveness of the convention. So the other parties that we haven't heard from recently are Belize and Chad. And interestingly enough, from our perspective, one of the things that is really important and is an obligation in the Convention is that parties designate in a legally binding instrument the authorities that are that have the capacity to issue CITES documents. They can issue legally binding documents. They issue documents that will authorize trade, and so they have to be designated in a legally binding instrument. And this is sometimes more difficult than you think to put in place and designate the correct scientific authorities and the correct management authorities, and this is the case for one of these countries. So the ones that are lacking behind in reporting progress are Afghanistan, Belize, Chad, Myanmar, and Trinidad and Tobago. There are other parties that are lacking behind. As I said, there are about 60-odd parties that do not yet have their national legislation in place, but they are working on it and reporting progress to the Secretariat each year. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Secretary General and Chief of Legal Unit, Sophie. We would perhaps give one more minute to any potential questions. If there's no questions at this time, we would like to thank you, the media, members of the media, for the interest in this press briefing and your questions online and also in person. If there are further questions, please feel free to reach out to the communications team. You have an e-mail address in the chat. box in the Zoom online. And, sorry? You don't have the chat, so we will give it to you right after this conference ends. And also, I would like to thank you, Secretary-General and Chief of Legal Unit, Sophie, for the answers. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.