Fisheries Department announces result of proposal to delist crocodile Appendix 1 to Appendix 2

On March 8, 2013, at the CITES CoP16 which is held at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, Bangkok, the proposal to amend the crocodile from being listed in Appendix 1 to Appendix 2 has been rejected at the meeting. The Siamese crocodile has received 69 votes out of 129 countries while the saltwater crocodile received 61 votes. Both species have not received two third of the votes under CITES regulation.

Dr Wimol Jantrarotai, director-general of the Department of Fisheries revealed that afterthe 16th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES : CITES CoP16 in which Thailand led by the Department of Fisheries proposed to amend crocodile being listed from Appendix 1 (International trade in specimens of these species is not permitted except onlybetween government to government forresearch and cultivation) to Appendix 2(species not necessarily threatened with extinction but trade must be controlled in order to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival and the export country must issue a permission document and guarantee that the export would not cause any damage to the nature) under the reason that Thailand has bred over 200,000 of both Siamese crocodiles and Saltwater crocodiles to compensate the diminishing number of wild crocodiles for trade and tourism purposes. As a result, the crocodile business industry has significantly grown, generating a massive income to the country, particularly when the `AEC` is implemented in the next two years. If Thailand could trade under 'CITES' regulations, it would open a huge opportunity for over 800 crocodile farms to conveniently export the products. The Department of Fisheries also insisted the exported crocodile would be purely bred crocodiles without any mix of wild crocodile in the trading system. The wild crocodiles are found in conservation areas such as Boraphet Lake, Kaeng Krachan National Park, Pang Sida, Phu Keaw, Khao Ang Ruenai where crocodiles are protected under the the Wildlife Reservation and Protection Act and internationally protected by Species Survival Commission or SSC and CITES which are international conservations organizations for wild plants and animals. Moreover, to ensure the trade partners that Thailand would not neglect the wild crocodile conservation, the department has held activities such as bringing crocodile back to nature. More importantly, Thailand could breed large numbers of crocodiles so it is unnecessarily to hunt wild crocodiles.

​However, the proposal to amend crocodile being listed in Appendix 1 to Appendix 2. The Siamese crocodile has received 69 votes from 129 countries; 49 votes have rejected the proposal and 11 no votes which is 58.47% while the Saltwater crocodile received 61 votes; 54 have rejected the proposal and 6 no votes which is 53.04% which have not met the regulation that the votes have to be at least two third of the parties