WWF organises CITES training workshop

Being held on 11- 15 October at Dubai's Emirates Towers Hotel, the workshop is the fourth one of a series dealing with proper procedures and challenges of CITES.

The specific thrust of this particular workshop will be on training officials to become CITES Trainers so that they can later train others on effective implementation of CITES in the UAE. Representative officials from all emirates will attend this intense five-day programme that is being facilitated by members of the CITES Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland.

CITES, the international agreement between countries to control and regulate trade on species threatened with extinction, was signed by the UAE in 1990. Over the last two years, WWF/EWS has partnered organisations responsible for CITES work in the country - Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency (Abu Dhabi), Federal Environment Agency and Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries - in conducting activities aimed at increasing awareness about the Convention and facilitating its implementation and enforcement.

"Much has been accomplished towards fulfilling CITES objectives here in recent years; and the WWF/EWS has been part of the process," said Dr. Frederic Launay, director, WWF/EWS. "Help in establishing a Falcon Passport scheme, the UAE legislation for wildlife trade, which came into effect on April 26, 2003, and capacity building exemplified by training workshops such as the current one, have been just few of our activities."

Future workshops will target pet shops and customs officials. While awareness CDs, brochures, and booklets have already been prepared for the benefit of VIPs, the media as well as the general public, additional efforts will be made to educate travelers by displaying CITES information and regulations at airports. Wildlife profiles on 12 of the most commonly traded species relevant to the UAE have also been brought out by the WWF/EWS.