The recommendation recognizes that international trade in corals, coral reef species and products is significant and that unsustainable harvest of coral and coral reef species adds to other stresses on coral reef ecosystems such as climate change, bleaching incidents, coral disease, and habitat degradation, and could reduce coral reef resilience to such stresses. It also recognizes the important role of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora (CITES). The recommendation encourages CITES Parties to adopt measures that improve conservation and management of corals, coral reefs and coral reef species. The recommendation will be sent to the CITES secretariat to be included as an information paper for the upcoming meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP15).
This recommendation was agreed following negotiations to address initial concerns of a small subset of ICRI members to the original draft of the motion.