An international conference on endangered species that was cancelled in Sri Lanka because of recent suicide attacks will instead be held in Geneva in August, the organisers said on Thursday.
The meeting of 182 countries who have signed on to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was supposed to be held from May 23 to June 3 in Colombo.
However, the plans shifted after 257 people were killed in suicide attacks in three churches, three luxury hotels and two other locations in Sri Lanka in April.
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The CITES Secretariat in Geneva said it decided to relocate the conference to the Swiss city, “considering the security and other concerns’’ expressed by many member countries.
It will now be held from August 17 to 28.
The 1973 CITES pact regulates trade with around 35,000 at-risk animal and plant species to ensure they do not become extinct.
A meeting is held every two to three years to update the list of species subject to trade restrictions. (NAN)
