UN food agency panel suggests trade restrictions on sawfish and European eel

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) today announced that an expert panel it convened is supporting trade restrictions on sawfish and the European eel.

The proposals have been submitted to the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in a bid to protect stocks in the wild.

Once a species is listed by CITES, its trade can be banned completely in extreme cases or, in other situations, permitted only if exporters can certify that the species was legally harvested and that trading it will not be detrimental to its survival in the wild, the agency said in a news release.

The Convention was established to conserve species whose status is being directly impacted by trade. It is not designed to protect species that are endangered for other reasons.

CITES members will be ruling on proposals to list a number of species when they gather in The Hague next week for the Convention’s annual conference of parties.