Cambodian Parliament ratifies convention on int’l trade in endangered species

  PHNOM PENH, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia’s National Assembly on Friday unanimously gave ratification to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) despite the boycott by all the 26 members of parliaments (MPs) in the main opposition party.
  All the 78 MPs, who were present in the session, ratified the convention.
  “The convention is an important legal tool to protect endangered species of wild animals and plants from extinction in the wild and prevent them from being traded internationally,” Ouk Sokhon, secretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said during the assembly session.
  The CITES was opened for signature in 1973 in Washington D.C., United States of America. Cambodia became the 140th member of the convention on October 2, 1997, he said, adding that as of 2009, there are 175 countries have became the members of the convention.
 Under the CITES, roughly 5,000 species of animals and 29,000 species of plants are protected against over-exploitation through international trade, he said.