Over 100 Countries Voted To Ban The Trade In Endangered Otters

August 26, 2019

More than 100 countries voted Sunday to ban the trade in the smooth-coated otter and placing it on the CITES most endangered list.

otter ban
Credit: Wikipedia Commons

The proposal was adopted at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in Geneva.

Ecologists say this is vital for the survival of the species which has seen numbers in the wild plummet by at least 30 percent in the past 30 years, a decline which has accelerated with the fad in Japan of owning otters as pets.

The smooth-coated otter and the Asian small-clawed otter are already listed as threatened under CITES Appendix II, but India, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Philippines are asking that they are moved to Appendix I, which would mean a full international trade ban.