Notification to the Parties

CONCERNING:

Procedure to register operations that breed Appendix-I
animal species for commercial purposes

1. The Conference of the Parties, at its fourth meeting (Gaborone, 1983), requested in Resolution Conf. 4.15 that the Secretariat "compile and update a Register of the operations which breed specimens of species included in Appendix I in captivity for commercial purposes …" After a series of revisions of the procedure, Resolution Conf. 12.10 on Guidelines for a procedure to register and monitor operations that breed Appendix-I animal species for commercial purposes was adopted at the 12th meeting (Santiago, 2002).

2. However, relatively few of these operations have been registered with the Secretariat (99 operations for 20 taxa by June 2003). Only 21 Parties have registered operations, most of which breed species of crocodilians or falcons, or Asian bonytongue fish. The majority of registered operations are located in Southeast Asian countries.

3. Decision 12.78 directs the Animals Committee to study and evaluate the process for registering operations that breed Appendix-I animal species for commercial purposes and report at the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties. It requires the Animals Committee to:

a) describe and analyse the specific problems that limit the wider use of the registration procedure;

b) provide recommendations to resolve these problems; and

c) study and evaluate how commercial captive breeding of Appendix-I species and the process for registration of breeding operations contributes to the conservation of Appendix-I species.

4. Parties and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations are invited to provide the Secretariat with information and comments on the process for registering operations that breed Appendix-I animal species for commercial purposes, particularly in relation to:

a) perceived or actual problems that would limit or prevent the use of the registration procedure at national level (these problems may for instance be of an administrative, legal, management, economic or scientific nature);

b) any experiences with the implementation of the registration process and the subsequent monitoring requirements (this would for instance concern Management and Scientific Authorities of Parties with registered operations, of Parties that objected to registrations or of Parties that had requests for registration rejected, and representatives of the relevant captive-breeding operations); and

c) unregistered operations that are breeding Appendix-I animal species for international trade (including the species concerned and the numbers produced).

5. Parties and organizations are also encouraged to obtain this information from other sources (e.g. hobby, amateur or commercial breeding associations).

6. The Secretariat wishes to receive the information requested in the present Notification by 31 January 2004 so that it can be discussed by the Animals Committee at its 20th meeting (tentatively scheduled for March 2004).