Home » Homepage English » Nature and biodiversity » CITES Conference of Parties (CoP14)
The CITES 14th Conference of Parties (CoP14) was held from 3 to 15 June 2007 in The Hague, the Netherlands. The CoP is held every two to three years and this is the first time the conference will be held in the EU. The event will be hosted by the Dutch Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality. During the CoP resolutions can be passed or amended.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international convention aimed at ensuring that trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. The three CITES appendices list over 30,000 species of wild animals and plants, and the convention also establishes a system for permits and certification.
A hundred and seventy-one countries have signed up to the convention. The Netherlands ratified CITES in 1984, and the agreements it made are established in the Flora and Fauna Act.
The international trade in the species listed in one of the three CITES appendices is controlled according to an agreed set of terms and conditions. All information detailed in the permits, about species, numbers, origin and sex is stored in an international database. This allows prevailing trade patterns to be easily monitored, as well as excessive trading in any one species.
CoP14 was organised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and the CITES Secretariat. It was decided to hold the conference in the Netherlands for the following reasons:
As host country, the Netherlands took the initiative of organising a Ministerial Conference in the form of a Round Table Discussion. Ministers from the various CITES countries met on Wednesday 13 June.
