Samarkand, 24 November 2025 – The next two weeks, I will be in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for the Conference of the Parties (CoP20) to CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), as part of our team at Fondation Franz Weber. The world gathers to decide the fate of Earth’s most vulnerable species, negotiating protections that may determine whether they survive—or vanish forever.
I am here to advocate for the protection of marine ornamental fishes, which have been traded for over 100 years with hardly any monitoring or protection. At this conference, it will be decided whether the global community will at least begin thinking about monitoring the trade of species already threatened by the loss of their coral reef habitats.
Coral reefs—home to one-third of marine fish species and vital to the livelihoods of 500 million people—are collapsing at unprecedented rates. They are now at a tipping point that could trigger rapid and permanent loss. If global warming exceeds 2°C above pre-industrial levels, over 99% of reefs could disappear, taking countless fish species with them.
