34 different animal migratory species has received worldwide protection thanks to an agreement between 126 countries!

A huge wildlife summit has just taken place in Manila, Philippines where 126 different countries sat down to discuss if they should any add more species to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species Agreement, often known as the Bonn Convention. This agreement is an international agreement that is aimed at giving migratory species protection in all of the world, and thus preventing a certain country from killing the species while everyone else wants to protect it. This has proven very important for other species that have been on the list, including very many different bird species that migrate to different countries during the winter.

This year a total of 34 new species was added to the list, and I find the marine species to be a very good addition. One of the major species to be added was the gentle whale shark (Rhincodon typus). This megashark can grow to have a body mass of almost 20,000 kilograms, and reach 12 meter in length! Despite this, the shark is not harmful to humans or any large organism, since it feeds almost exclusively on plankton. The whale shark is considered endangered by the IUCN, and it has so far been very difficult to protect because it can migrate to almost any country in the world. This makes it a very good candidate to receive global protection like this agreement provides!

A large whale shark in an aquarium. Image by Zac Wolf, posted with the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

Other species that has gotten protection by being added to the agreement is dusky sharks, blue sharks, giraffes, lions, leopards, chimpanzees, gobi bears and Caspian seals, as well as lots of other species. All these face a certain threat of extinction, and this international protection could prove to be very important for conserving their species!

Thanks for reading

If you want to learn more about the Bonn Agreement, then their official website is a good start. The species list is found in the appendices, and a new version is most likely coming very soon.