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<< Notifications of 1999

Notification to the Parties

No. 1999/75 Geneva, 21 October 1999

CONCERNING:

SENEGAL

Recommendation to suspend trade

1. Decision 10.64 directs the Standing Committee to decide whether Decision 10.18, paragraph a), shall apply or not to the Parties referred to in Annex 1, paragraph 10, of document Doc. 10.31 (Rev.). These are Parties whose national legislation is believed generally not to meet the requirements for implementation of CITES; that did not comply with Decision 6 a) directed to the Parties, adopted at the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, by reporting improvements in their legislation; and that are engaged in significant amounts of international trade in specimens of CITES species. Senegal has been identified as one of these Parties.

2. The inadequacy of Senegal's legislation has been brought to the attention of the Management Authority on several occasions, and the Management Authority has been aware, since the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties, in June 1997, that it might be the subject of a recommendation to suspend trade in specimens of CITES species. However, the Government has not adopted legislation that generally meets the requirements for the implementation of the Convention.

3. Pursuant to Decision 10.115, the Secretariat expressed its concerns at the 40th meeting and 41st meetings of the Standing Committee (March 1998 and February 1999).

4. At its 41st meeting the Standing Committee agreed to defer until 30 September 1999 a recommendation to suspend trade in CITES specimens with Senegal and that there would be no suspension if the Committee agreed, at its 42nd meeting, on the basis of a recommendation from the Secretariat, that Senegal's enacted legislation generally meets the requirements for the implementation of CITES.

5. The Secretariat has continued to communicate with Senegal on this matter but, at the 42nd meeting of the Standing Committee (Lisbon, 28 September to 1 October 1999) it was unable to report any progress to the Standing Committee.

6. Therefore the Secretariat hereby informs the Parties that, pursuant to Decision 10.18, the Conference of the Parties recommends that, from 30 October 1999, all Parties should refuse any import from and export or re-export to Senegal of CITES specimens, until further notice.