Senegal and Bangladesh Protect Sharks and Rays

Despite progress in conservation efforts recently, many shark populations still face significant threats and continue steadily to decline. Senegal and Bangladesh are among the countless countries trying to handle those threats by adopting policies to safeguard and sustainably manage vulnerable sharks and rays, especially those listed by the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The regions of West Africa and South Asia have led in shark conservation by co-sponsoring and advocating for new shark and ray listings at most recent CITES Conference of the Parties last August, where 18 species of sharks and rays were contained in Appendix II. Governments are in charge of ensuring international trade in Appendix II species is sustainable, legal rather than detrimental to populations in the open.

For the very first time since 1986, Senegal is amending its Hunting and Wildlife Protection Code, which, when approved by Parliament, will create a legal framework under which agencies can protect or manage all species listed under CITES and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of WILDLIFE (CMS), including sharks and rays. The amendment will fully protect all species listed on Appendix I and require management measures dependant on the permit for each and every Appendix II-listed species. Most crucial, all species listed in the future in CITES and CMS will automatically be put into their respective schedules within the code, thus further amendments won’t be had a need to include additional species. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT of Senegal held six workshops with the support of Humane Society International and The Pew Charitable Trusts to help ensure it consulted relevant departments and stakeholders within the country in amending its law. Consequently, there is broad support for the updated code.

CITES participants

Participants representing relevant ministries, including departments of water and forest, parks and wildlife, and marine protected areas, and stakeholders including district councils across Senegal at the February workshop in Dakar to go over the country’s Hunting and Wildlife Protection Code.

Similarly, Bangladesh is updating its Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, 2012, to safeguard CITES-listed sharks and rays. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Bangladesh Program, with support from Blue Resources Trust and Pew, is raising awareness on shark and ray conservation in Bangladesh and just why it’s important that the Government is taking action to save threatened species.

Within the Government’s World Wildlife Day celebration on 3 March, WCS Bangladesh launched an interactive exhibition called “Ocean Guardians: Protecting Threatened Sharks and Rays in Bangladesh.” The exhibition was hosted by the Forest Department and jointly inaugurated by the minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. It will travel to different parts of the country to teach Government officials and the general public on why sharks and rays are in big trouble and what's being done to protect them. Furthermore, a radio program series produced by WCS is airing through the entire coastal region of the country. The air programs showcase the initial features of whale sharks, hammerhead and thresher sharks, manta rays and sawfish and how these threatened species can be saved from extinction.

The Honorable Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Md. Shahab Uddin (center, in black vest) and other high government officials attending the inauguration of the “Ocean Guardians: Protecting Threatened Sharks and Rays in Bangladesh” exhibition on 3 March in Dhaka.

Senegal and Bangladesh, and also other countries in West Africa and South Asia, are firmly committed to successfully implementing all CITES shark and ray listings and maintaining the momentum to properly manage these imperiled species worldwide. Their ongoing leadership could have a essential positive effect on shark and ray species, whose populations are continuing to decline.

Workshops and outreach efforts were funded by the Shark Conservation Fund.