The Ministry of Environment and Water held a meeting with the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi, as a part of the UAE membership in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), where the ministry represents the administrative authority of the UAE membership, and the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi represents the applied science and practical authority; both governmental authorities are willing to participate in the "Sixteenth Conference of the CITES States Parties" which would be held between March 3rd-14th in Bangkok, Thailand.

  Both parties discussed the agenda of the conference and the topics for discussion and the mechanism of decision-making about modifying the appendices of the Convention, and the proposed exception for agarwood trees and the allowable quotas of personal share. In addition, they discussed proposals on African Elephant and that it would classified in appendix I, a proposal to include new five types of shark in the CITES appendices, and proposals on the transfer, deletion and adding some plant and animal species in the CITES appendices.

   It should be noted that, the convention appendices are three, and they are classified according to the degree of protection required by the species. Appendix I is for endangered species that can’t be trafficked, while Appendix II is for species that are endangered, but their trafficking must be restricted in order to avoid inappropriate acquisition that could affect their survival, and the last Appendix includes species that are protected against trafficking at the level of a particular member country of the convention.