A crucial UN meeting on global wildlife trade, postponed after a series of bomb blasts that killed 46 people in the Sri Lankan city of Colombo in April, has been shifted to Geneva.

The 18th Conference of Parties (CoP18) to Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), a global wildlife regulator, had been scheduled to be held in Colombo from May 23 to June 3.

Instead, “the 18th meeting of the Conference of the Parties and the 72nd meeting of the CITES Standing Committee will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from August 16 to 28, 2019,” Ivonne Higuero, Secretary-General of CITES, announced.

Susan Lieberman, Vice President of International Policy for Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), expressed concern over the postponement of the meeting.  

“This is the first time in its more than 45-year history that a CITES CoP has been postponed less than a month before the meeting,” Lieberman said.

The CITES Conference of the Parties meets once every three years to discuss the pressing issues fueling global wildlife trade. Governments submit their proposals and documents on a range of issues affecting wildlife.

During the meeting in Geneva, delegates would discuss 107 working documents and and the listing proposals of 57 species submitted by the countries.

“With a 20-percent increase in the number of agenda items, CoP18 is set to be the largest meeting of the Conference of the Parties in the history of CITES,” a statement released by the organization said.

Apart from proposals, demand by the pro-ivory bloc consisting of Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia to legalize the ivory trade to fund wildlife protection is likely to be one of the key contentious issues. The four countries are home to more than 60 percent of the global elephant population.

The demand comes at a time when a large number of countries, including China, have imposed a ban on domestic trade. While CITES has enforced a ban on the international trade of ivory, it has left the decision to governments to prepare similar policies in their own countries. 

But a group of 20 other African nations, led by Kenya, are opposing any attempt to legalize the ivory trade. Legalizing the trade would increase poaching in the region, they said.