The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) lifted sanctions against Mexico after the government met with officials to create a plan to protect the critically endangered vaquita and the endangered totoaba from illegal fishing.
On 27 March, CITES sanctioned Mexico for its failure to take action to protect the two endangered species, a move that would prohibit Mexican companies from exporting 40,900 wildlife products protected by CITES against overexploitation through international trade, including more than 3,000 commercially exported items including crocodile and snake skins, mahogany wood, pet reptiles and spiders, orchids, and cactuses.
CITES sanctioned the country after it failed to submit a compliance action plan to protect the two species that met CITES standards. CITES directed Mexico to prepare a compliance action plan in November 2022 to address its shortcomings in regulating the capture and trade of totoaba and the bycatch of vaquita – a cetacean species with less than a dozen individuals remaining in the wild. However, the plan that the country submitted on 27 February, 2023 didn’t do enough to keep the two species safe.
Since that time, according to a new notification from CITES, a “high-level delegation from Mexico” visited Geneva from 27 March to 30 March 2023 to worth with the CITES Secretariat to discuss ways to bring the action plan up to international standards.