The Conference of the Parties (CoP) has participants from all CITES Parties as well as non-governmental organizations. At CoPs, the CITES Appendices are formally amended and Parties make decisions on administrative and implementation issues regarding the treaty. Until CoP13, these meeting were held every two years; since then, CoPs are held every three years.

CoP16 is scheduled to occur from March 3-14, 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand.  For more information on CoP16, click here.

For more information on the structure and role of CoPs, visit the CITES website.

Learn how a non-government organization (NGO) can become an observer to a CoP, click here or view our factsheet found on the left.