No. 917                                       Geneva, 20 June 1996


CONCERNING:


   Significant Trade in Animal Species Included in Appendix II


1.In 1994, in the course of its work conducted in
  accordance with Resolution Conf. 8.9, the Animals
  Committee identified 24 species that might be subject
  to significant levels of trade and with respect to
  which additional information was needed. The
  Secretariat therefore contracted IUCN, TRAFFIC and the
  World Conservation Monitoring Centre to conduct
  studies of these species for the Animals Committee.

2.The relevant parts of the draft report of these
  studies were sent to all of the 128 range States of
  the species in March 1995, for comments. Unfortunately
  the full draft was available only in English but the
  Secretariat provided translations of the summary and
  conclusions in the appropriate working language.
  Taking into account all comments received before the
  end of July 1995, the authors prepared a further draft
  report for consideration at the 12th meeting of the
  Animals Committee, in Antigua, Guatemala, 11-
  14 September 1995.

3.On the basis of its discussions at the meeting and by
  correspondence subsequently, the Animals Committee
  made a number of primary and secondary recommendations
  in accordance with Resolution Conf. 8.9 and also
  agreed to undertake further consultations with certain
  States. The primary and secondary recommendations were
  sent to the Parties concerned in March 1996.

4.The authors of the above-mentioned draft report
  revised it following the 12th meeting of the Animals
  Committee to take into account information presented
  there and received afterwards and have provided the
  final report to the Secretariat. A copy of the report
  is enclosed with this Notification. It should be noted
  that this report was prepared for consideration by the
  Animals Committee and is only a working document of
  the Committee.

5.The report was written in English and the Secretariat
  very much regrets that, because of its size (240
  pages), it is not possible to provide copies in the
  other two working languages of the Convention.