Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

The 16th meeting of the Conference of Parties to CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), concluded in Bangkok, Thailand, after granting better protection to hundreds of threatened animal and plant species.
The eight countries accused of failing to do enough to tackle the illegal trade in elephant ivory escaped sanctions. The conference found that Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, and top markets China and Thailand are making insufficient efforts to curb the trade. However, the nations avoided sanctions after 6 of them submitted draft action plans in response and China and Tanzania committed to do so by a specific date.
Possible punishment option: Under the convention, member states can halt trading with offender countries in the 35,000 species covered by the convention.   

CITES is (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is also known as the Washington Convention.

It is an international agreement b/w governments to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. 

Currently 178 nations are members of CITES, Headquarter in Geneva, Switzerland. 

CITES was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of IUCN.

It is an effort towards regulation of cross-border trade in wild animals and plants b/w countries to safeguard certain species from over-exploitation. 

Although it is legally binding on all Parties to the agreement to implement the Convention, it does not take the place of national laws. Rather it provides a framework to be respected by each Party, which has to adopt its own domestic legislation to ensure that CITES is implemented at the national level.

International Heavy Haul Association (IHHA) Conference

• The 10^th International Heavy Haul Association (IHHA) Conference will be hosted by the Indian Railways in New Delhi.
• The conference is held once in every 4 years. The last conference was organized in Shanghai China in 2009. 
• The central theme of the conference is “Building Transport Capacity through Heavy Haul Operation”
• Heavy haul rail operation has evolved over the years as a technology to transport bulk commodities in large volumes and reduce the unit cost of transportation
• IHHA is a global non-government; scientific and technological association of Heavy Haul Railways incorporated in USA and is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in Heavy Haul operation, Engineering, maintenance and technology.
• India, USA, Canada, Brazil, Russia, China Sweden, South Africa, and Australia : Members
• Indian Railways have launched a huge programme of building Heavy Haul Lines having potential axle load of 32.5 tonnes under the programme name Dedicated Freight Corridors.
• The axle load of a wheeled vehicle is the total weight felt by the roadway for all wheels connected to a given axle. It can also be seen as the fraction of total vehicle weight resting on a given axle. 

World Economic Forum

• The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva. (2nd largest populous city of Switzerland)
•  It is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agenda

ASEAN: Association of South East Asian Nations

 Motto: One Vision, One Identity, One Community

• Economic organisation of 10 member countries : Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines,Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.