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CITES CoP20 partially addresses amphibian trade with guidance documents and species listing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2026

Amaël Borzée Open the ORCID record for Amaël Borzée [Opens in a new window] ,
Amir Hamidy  and
Oliver Tallowin
Amaël Borzée*
Affiliation:
College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China Fergana State University, Fergana, Uzbekistan IUCN Species Survival Commission Amphibian Specialist Group
Amir Hamidy
Affiliation:
Biology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Cibinong, Indonesia
Oliver Tallowin
Affiliation:
IUCN, Cambridge, UK
*
(amaelborzee@gmail.com)
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Type
Conservation news
Information
Oryx , First View , pp. 1
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC BY 4.0.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International

CITES regulates international trade in wildlife to ensure it is legal, tracible, sustainable and does not threaten the survival of species in the wild. However, more than one-third of amphibians are threatened by over-exploitation (Luedtke et al., 2023, Nature, 622, 308–314); 11 species are already extinct and 1,793 are categorized as threatened on the IUCN Red List. Internationally traded amphibian species principally originate from Asia, Africa and South America, with the largest volume traded for exotic gastronomy. Two amphibian-related items were discussed at the 20th Conference of the Parties (CoP20) to CITES in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Document 75, adopted on 4 December 2025, reported on online technical workshops convened by the CITES Secretariat in 2023, focusing on the conservation of amphibians involved in international trade. The draft decisions in the document called for continued data gathering on amphibian trade, including developing guidance for non-detriment findings. The discussion resulted in the adoption of draft decisions, with amendments to include evaluating whether current trade levels are compatible with species conservation.

Proposal 27, adopted by vote on 2 December 2025, was to include four species of water frogs of the genus Pelophylax (P. epeiroticus, P. lessonae, P. ridibundus and P. shqipericus) in Appendix II, with a delayed inclusion of 18 months (on 5 June 2027). Opponents to the proposal cited unstable taxonomy, a lack of species-specific trade data and issues of practical implementation. Proponents argued the listing was a necessary precautionary measure that would help to address over-exploitation for the frog leg market. International trade in these four species will be subject to regulation under Appendix II, requiring the issuance of export permits based on non-detriment findings.

Conservation interventions such as those from CITES are critical for achieving positive conservation momentum for amphibians. The inclusion of the four species in CITES Appendix II aims to ensure all international trade in these species is legal, tracible and sustainable. However, the non-detriment finding process may prove challenging to complete. A potential outcome of this listing may be a shift in trade towards alternative species. Any such shift could also affect species threatened by international and unregulated trade and not currently listed on CITES Appendices.