I as promised some time ago I would give you an update on the CITES efforts at the International Orchid Conservation Congress 2004, held last week at Selby Gardens in Sarasota Florida. Overall the congress was a complete success and thanks all around were give to Wes Higgins PhD of Selby.
During the congress there was an afternoon set aside to discuss CITES. First Barry Walsh gave a history of CITES, then Robert Dressler PhD and Cal Dodson PhD each spoke. After that a panel discussion was held consisting of Ted Green, Alex Hirtz, Marv Ragan and Roddy Gable (from the USA fish and Wild life Service). After a brief opening statement questions from the floor were taken by the panel. The Closing remarks were made by Phil Cribb PhD and in doing so, he made two proposals. The first was that all herbarium specimuns, spirit collections, root tips etc... be specificly excluded from CITES and the second was that all hybrids be excluded from CITES and CITES Documentation. All attendees agreed with the first recommendation and all except one person agreed with the second proposal. The Orchid Specialist Group, SSC, IUCN held its plenary meeting on Thurday night and amoungest the agenda items were the two proposals made by Dr. Cribb. Both of these were adopted and Dr. Cribb will prepae the appropriate documentation with help for Dr. Dressler and others. So now the OSG is supporting these changes and some very well known and presigous individuals have agreed to push for the proposed changes in CITES. All in all a very satisfactory outcome to the congress. icones _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids
