CITES Secretary General John Scanlon provides summary of CITES gathering in Bangkok, 2013

The 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP16) held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 3-14 March 2013, took decisive action to tackle the disturbing spike in the illegal killing of the African elephant and rhino and smuggling of their ivory and horn. Parties also took significant decisions on other species being pressured by illegal trade, such as Asian big cats, great apes, pangolins, freshwater turtles and tortoises, certain timber species and the Tibetan Antelope. In this article, John E Scanlan, Secretary General of the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna outlines his perspective on the meeting. For more information, please visit http://africasd.iisd.org/guest-articles/cites-cop16-bangkok-2013-a-%E2%80%98watershed-moment%E2%80%99-for-combating-wildlife-crime/