Notification to the Parties

CONCERNING:

Catch and export quotas for Acipenseriformes for 2001

1. Decision 11.58 states that "Starting from 1 January 2001, range States should declare coordinated intergovernmental level annual export and catch quotas per basin, or biogeographical region where appropriate, for all commercial trade in specimens of Acipenseriformes. Parties should inform the Secretariat prior to 31 December of the preceding year. Parties that fail to inform the Secretariat will automatically be treated as having a zero quota for the following year."

2. It is evident that this applies in all cases where two or more governments allow export of specimens originating in the same basin or biogeographical region. In those cases, catch and export quotas should be coordinated at an intergovernmental level and communicated to the Secretariat for the year 2001 before 31 December 2000. In the absence of such information it will be taken that the export quotas concerned are zero. Endemic species/populations/stocks exploited by a single country within its territorial waters are not covered by Decision 11.58 and need not be declared. The same applies to specimens produced through aquaculture. Quotas communicated for endemic species and captive breeding operations (aquaculture) are therefore considered to be communicated in accordance with paragraph f) of Resolution Conf. 10.12 (Rev.) and will be published separately with voluntary quotas for other species.

3. Countries that do not use quotas as a means to limit exports, because of specific administrative or legal requirements applicable in those countries, and that informed the Secretariat of such requirements were invited to provide explanatory statements. Responses received are included as Annex 2 to this document.

4. The catch and export quotas referred to in paragraph 1. must be coordinated between range States sharing the resource. The Secretariat presumes that quotas communicated to it have been coordinated with the other range States concerned as this is the responsibility of the Parties affected by the Decision. The Secretariat has no means or criteria to judge whether the level of coordination has been appropriate other than the information provided to it by Parties that submitted quotas. Range States objecting to quotas reported in this Notification should refer such objections to the range State(s) concerned.

5. As outlined in Notification No. 2000/061 of 3 November 2000, quotas allocated to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan by Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation are referenced under the entries for the latter two countries. Exports of specimens that are part of such quotas take place from either Kazakhstan or the Russian Federation or may appear in international trade as re-exports from Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan (or other countries).

6. Unless the Secretariat was provided with catch quotas for different categories of products, amounts for catch quotas were regarded as the total catch quota per species and per basin or biogeographical region. Catch quotas for some range States indicate separate amounts for caviar and meat, which the Secretariat interprets to be indicative amounts of caviar and meat that will be recovered from catches.

7. The Parties named in Annex 1 of this document have communicated to the Secretariat quotas for Acipenseriformes that they have established for the calendar year 2001 in compliance with Decision 11.58. All other range States should be treated as having a zero export quota for the year 2001.