15 October 2025, Apia - E koekoe te tūī, e ketekete te kākā, e kuku te kererū. In English, it translates to ‘by appreciating all our voices, our different songs, we make good music for the future.’
The Māori proverb quoted by Ms Sarah Bagnall, Advisor with the New Zealand CITES Management Authority and Oceania Standing Committee Representative, set the scene for the Oceania Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Twentieth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Held at SPREP headquarters from Tuesday to Friday, 14-17 October 2025, the gathering allows officials to prepare for the upcoming CITES COP20 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, scheduled for 24 November – 5 December 2025.
“Oceania Parties have an undeniable connection to their natural environment, resources, livelihoods, faiths, cultural values and traditional knowledge,” said Ms Bagnall.
“And CITES plays a really important role regulating international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants to ensure the trade does not threaten the survival of the species, or their contributions to ecosystem processes and resilience of our environment. CITES implementation can be complex and for new members to our team this pre-COP is an ideal opportunity to build a strong understanding of CITES.”
The Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora is the largest and most influential meeting of its kind, where member countries meet to discuss and negotiate international wildlife trade regulations to ensure it does not threaten the survival of species.
The upcoming gathering in Uzbekistan has been described as “one of the most important conservation meetings on the planet”, with critical decisions on the list of wild species protected from unsustainable exploitation through international trade.
“CoP20 has an enormous agenda, over 100 agenda items and 51 proposals to amend the appendices,” added Ms Bagnall. “These include items of particular significance to Oceania such as the listing proposals for eels, sharks, reptiles and sea cucumbers, and agenda items on engaging with indigenous people and legal acquisition associated with trade in Oceania’s endemic species.”
SPREP Members attending the Oceania Regional Preparatory Meeting are Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.
The meeting was officially opened by SPREP’s Officer in Charge, Mr Anthony Talouli, who is also the Director of Waste Management and Pollution Control (WMPC). He reiterated that building the capacity and supporting policy coordination in the Pacific region are key cross-cutting missions of SPREP and the CITES pre-COP20 meeting in Samoa exemplifies these.
“With almost all Pacific CITES Parties, plus one non-Party attending, and more than 40 participants in total, this meeting also highlights SPREPs as convening institution: bringing together experts and decision makers to support science-based biodiversity conservation policies at a global level,” he said.
“We believe that few CITES regions have as consistently succeeded to build capacity and coordinate policies in advance of CITES COPs in the same way the Pacific does. It is one of the examples in which the Pacific leads the way for other regions.”
Pacific Islands Parties to CITES are Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. The CITES pre-COP20 Oceania coordination meeting provides an opportunity for Oceania CITES Parties, and CITES Committee representatives to discuss and coordinate policy positions of relevance to before Uzbekistan.
Added Mr Talouli: “This work would not be feasible without our donors. In the case of the pre-COP, SPREP appreciates the financial support provided through the EU-funded ACP MEA III programme, and we are particularly grateful for support provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of New Zealand that enabled us to employ a dedicated CITES-CMS Pacific Officer.”
The Oceania Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Twentieth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is held in Samoa from 14-17 October 2025.
SPREP Members attending are Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.
The Meeting is coordinated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Programme (SPREP) in partnership with the CITES Secretariat, New Zealand and Australian CITES officials funded through the ACP MEA Phase 3 Project funded by the European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States for the ACP countries.
Pacific Islands Parties to CITES are Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.