Endangered species receiving international support in November 2022, ahead of the 50th anniversary in March of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

The two-week gathering of more than 2,000 representatives from more than 150 nations, nongovernmental organizations, industry, and institutions for the 19th Conference of the Parties, known as CoP19, to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as CITES, met in November 2022 in Panama City, Panama, a release said.

“With 1 million species facing extinction around the world, international trade often represents the tipping point for wildlife already impacted by habitat loss and degradation, climate change, invasive species or disease,” Department of the Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Matthew Strickler said in the release. “No one country can solve these problems alone. Seeing nations come together and take a collaborative, strong stance for wildlife over the past two weeks gives me hope that together we can meet the challenge.”

Vaquita, a porpoise, and totoaba, a large species of fish, are both on the Appendix I of CITES that “includes species threatened with extinction and provides the greatest level of protection, including a prohibition on international commercial trade," the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s website said. The totoaba could face extinction too due to insatiable demand for its swim bladder, valued at tens of thousands of dollars.

The U.S. was the first of 21 original countries to sign the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora March 3, 1973, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s website said March 2. The signing came at the end of a three-week conference in Washington, D.C., in which 80 countries participated. 

More than 180 counties and the European Union have ratified the convention. The convention is implemented through the Endangered Species Act in the U.S., according to the FWS website.

FWS Director Martha Williams said being part of the U.S. delegation to the CITES CoP19 that it gave her insight into “how other nations and cultures value fish and wildlife species” and the importance of CITES’ success, according to a release.

“We are working to help every nation have what it needs to manage its wildlife trade to keep those celebrated species – and the ones most aren’t familiar with, like sea cucumbers – around for the benefit of future generations,” Williams said in the release. “Starting in 2018, we began providing financial assistance, in the form of scholarships for students representing areas with high biodiversity and limited capacity for wildlife management, to attend the CITES Masters Course offered at Spain’s Universidad Internacional de Andalucía.

"We have been able to support students from Latin America, the Caribbean, and, in partnership with the Department of the Interior's International Technical Assistance Program, Central and East Africa,” Williams added, according to the release.

Also, during CoP19, the U.S. proposed including “several North American turtle species in CITES Appendix II, a list of species that, although not necessarily threatened with extinction, may become so without trade regulation,” the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s website said. The proposed species are common snapping turtle, alligator snapping turtle, three species of softshell turtles, four species of musk turtles and five species of broad-headed map turtles.

Submitted turtle proposals were adopted, and the new inclusions to CITES Appendix II went into effect Feb. 23, the website said.