| Grantee | Wildlife Conservation Society ↗ |
| Location | Global |
| Grant Amount | 1,482,504 |
| Duration | One year |
| Type of Grant | Core |
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 grant will also focus efforts on the upcoming CITES CoP 19. The project will support Government led measures to offer protection to shark and ray species via additional shark and ray listings at that meeting, to ensure progress towards more comprehensive regulation of the global shark fin 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.