ROMA (ITALPRESS) – On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Washington Convention, the Carabinieri Corps celebrated today “Cites: 50 years of global biodiversity protection”, half a century of commitment to the protection of endangered animal and plant species, with the official presentation of the CITES 2026 Calendar at the prestigious Carabinieri Office School, in the presence of Fabrizio Parrulli, Commander of CUFAA, (Comando Unità Forestali, Ambientali e Agroalimentari Carabinieri). The CITES Convention, ratified by Italy by Law No. 874 of 19 December 1975, today represents the most important international instrument to ensure a sustainable trade of more than 40,000 species of wildlife and protected flora. Adopted by the United Nations and ratified by 185 countries, the Convention is the regulatory pillar to prevent illegal markets, abuses and excessive withdrawals from the most vulnerable species. The CITES 2026 Calendar, created by the Carabinieri CITES Group of the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Biodiversity of CUFAA, traces the incessant work done before by the State Forestry Corps and, since 2017, by the Carabinieri Corps through the CITES Nuclei, in contrast to the illegal traffics and the safeguard of global biodiversity. The work accompanies the public on a journey through 12 emblematic stories, each dedicated to a protected species that, thanks to the action of the Carabinieri, has found a new possibility of life.
Among these, Edy and Bingo, two chimpanzees subtracted to severe mistreatment in circus and night clubs; leopard found in an illegal private zoo in Guspini (VS) and transferred to a suitable structure; Oscar, a rare white tiger recovered from conditions incompatible with animal welfare. The calendar also tells the return to the freedom of hundreds of specimens of Testudo graeca and Testudo hermanni, reimposed in their natural habitats after being seized to the illegal traffics, as well as the delicate repatriation of numerous plants of the genus Copiapoa in the desert of Atacama, in Chile. To close the story, the energy of the turbines, again free to swim in clean and adequate waters, testimony to the success of the recovery and transfer activities carried out by CITES specialists. Each story represents a symbol of the triumph of legality over suffering, abuse and illicit profit, and reflects the daily commitment of the Carabinieri in defending ecosystems, rare species and natural patrimonies belonging to the whole of humanity.
During the event, always inside the Carabinieri Office School, a photographic exhibition was organized by photographer Marco Lanza, entitled: “Vite broken: from the contrast to illegal trade in Italy, the confiscated finds of the central warehouse of the Carabinieri CITES”, with shots made in the Magliano dei Marsi warehouse (AQ), managed by the Carabinieri CITES Group, where a large part of the finds confiscated during the activities of contrast to illicit traffic of animals and plants in an endangered way. Each photograph shows animals that have become objects among objects, deliberately inserted by the author in a poor and essential context, which almost make sense unbelief in being in a place like this; animals that question the observer as they seem to want to go out and regain their role in nature. The 50th anniversary of CITES and the new Calendar 2026 are therefore an opportunity to reaffirm the value of international cooperation and the decisive role of Italy – and Carabinieri – in contrast to environmental crime and the protection of world biodiversity. A greeting was addressed by Minister for the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, present at the event.
– photo press office Carabinieri CITES –
(ITALPRESS).
