The Wildlife Justice Commission welcomes the historic decisions taken at CITES CoP20 over the past two days to significantly strengthen global protections for threatened shark and ray species. These measures include the uplisting of oceanic whitetip sharks and whale sharks to Appendix I; new Appendix II listings for gulper sharks, smooth-hound sharks and tope sharks, and increased protections for ray species. These actions represent a major step forward in global efforts to combat illegal marine wildlife trade.
The global market for fins, meat, and liver oil has contributed to population declines across all species. By placing restrictions on international trade, these decisions help close legal and enforcement loopholes that have been exploited by organised criminal networks.
At CITES CoP20, Wildlife Justice presented operational insights from its investigations into shark fin trafficking, which have revealed systematic misdeclaration of exports, the use of fraudulent permits, concealment of fins within legal shipments, and persistent trafficking of requiem sharks, particularly oceanic whitetip sharks, despite their previous listing on Appendix II. These findings underscore the scale and sophistication of the illegal trade and the urgent need for stronger global protections.
“We welcome all shark and ray uplistings adopted this week, as these strengthened protections are vital for safeguarding vulnerable populations. In particular, the ban on all international trade in products derived from oceanic whitetips is an essential and long-overdue recognition of the scale of illegal trade threatening this species,” said Olivia Swaak-Goldman, Wildlife Justice Executive Director
“These decisions will make enforcement clearer and simpler, and harder for traffickers to evade. The more species are protected, the fewer loopholes criminal networks can exploit to move shark fins across international borders.”
To ensure effective implementation of these new measures, Wildlife Justice urges governments to intensify inter-agency cooperation, expand intelligence sharing, and prioritise coordinated law enforcement operations to disrupt the transnational criminal networks driving this illegal trade.
Since launching its marine investigations in 2022, Wildlife Justice achieved several major breakthroughs. Acting on Wildlife Justice intelligence, in 2024, Latin American authorities seized more than one tonne of sea cucumber valued at USD 500,000 and 39 unprocessed shark fins, and arrested a key trafficking kingpin and four associates. Additional joint operations in Asia led to the seizure of 106 kg of sea cucumber, 100 kg of shark fins, and 25 kg of dried seahorses, with six suspects arrested. Strong collaboration with law enforcement authorities to combat marine species trafficking continues.
These operations reveal the scale of marine trafficking and reinforce the importance of the decisive protections adopted at CoP20.
CITES—the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora—is a global agreement between 184 countries and the EU. The Conference of the Parties, held this year in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, is the forum where governments set species protection levels, agree enforcement priorities, and shape the international response to wildlife crime.
Wildlife Justice remains committed to working with governments to ensure these new protections are effectively implemented, particularly where organised crime is involved, and to ensure they translate into real impact for endangered species
