28 November 2023 – The Minister of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE), Barbara Creecy, has published the Amendments to Appendices I and II of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
These amendments include the amendments agreed to at the 19th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (COP19) held in Panama City, Panama from 14 to 25 November 2022 which came into force on 23 February 2023.
This means that these newly published amendments do not have any significant impacts of the wildlife industry at present, except:
African Rosewood
Pterocarpus spp, also known as kiaat, bloodwood, paddle-wood, sealing-wax tree, wild teak, and Transvaal teak is listed in Appendix II. Therefore, trophies that are yet to be mounted, and the hunter chose to mount the trophy on African Rosewood, will have to be reconsidered.
White Rhino
At COP19, Namibia and Botswana successfully tabled a proposal, which was supported by South Africa, to move the Southern White Rhino population of Namibia from Appendix I to Appendix II, with annotations:
- Live animals for in-situ conservation only; and
- Hunting trophies
WRSA CEO, Richard York, as part of the Sustainable Use Coalition of South Africa (SUCo-SA) delegation, made an intervention to support the proposal. (Read text here.)
In the latest published Appendices, the Southern White Rhino of Eswatini, Namibia and South Africa are listed under Appendix II while all other rhino populations remain under Appendix I.
Read more here: Great Result for White Rhino Conservation in Southern Africa
Click here to download Government Gazette 49774 Amendments to Appendices I and II of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES),
or read below:
Amendment to Appendices I and II of CITES 28.11.2023
