| Grantee | Wildlife Conservation Society ↗ |
| Location | Global |
| Grant Amount | 1,395,496 |
| Duration | One year |
| Type of Grant | Core |
| Status: | Completed |
In 2019, 18 additional sharks and rays were listed on Appendix II of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora (CITES). The Convention has a track record of driving conservation success, but with 46 shark and ray species listed over the last decade, amounting to around 25% of the global trade in shark fins, countries are under increasing pressure to rapidly progress domestic implementation of these listings, and often lack the tools and capacity to do so.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), working with partners from around the world, will turn the CITES listings into mortality reductions on the water, in large shark and ray fishing countries, and key trading nations globally. This will be delivered via close work with governments, to deliver changes to fisheries management or species protection policies, underpinned by vastly improved data collection on shark and ray catch and trade.
The work will focus on a wide range of countries -- Colombia, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Gabon, Congo, Liberia, Senegal, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore.
The grant will also support the development of a wide range of technical materials and papers associated with CITES shark listings, including refined implementation tools, research into implementation impacts to date and an analysis of potential additional species that would benefit from CITES listing.