Mexico just got slapped with rare sanctions for its failure to protect wildlife. Here’s why.

The unusually harsh punishment will block the country from selling its regulated wildlife abroad as exotic pets or souvenirs.

CITES, the global treaty that regulates the wildlife trade, has imposed drastic sanctions on Mexico for its lackluster enforcement of protections for the totoaba, a giant croaker fish, and the vaquita, a critically endangered porpoise. In the Mexican fishing town of San Felipe, the carcasses of totoaba are discarded at this informal dump. Vaquita may get tangled and drown in nets intended for the giant fish.

Published March 27, 2023

3 min read

New sanctions imposed on Mexico under the global treaty that regulates wildlife prohibit the country from selling any of its regulated wildlife to the other 183 parties to the agreement.

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