The U.N. grants international protection to 40 new migratory species

Nearly half of the wild animals protected under the world’s primary international wildlife treaty are in decline — and last week, 132 nations decided to do something about it. On March 29, 2026, the UN Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals added 40 species to its protection lists at COP15 in Campo Grande, Brazil, pushing the treaty’s total to more than 1,200 protected species. The agreement came with urgency attached: a new UN report released at the summit found that 24% of those species now face extinction.

• Forty species — including the snowy owl, giant otter, striped hyena, and great hammerhead shark — received new or upgraded UN migratory species protections at the weeklong summit in Campo Grande, Brazil, which ended March 29.
• The State of the World’s Migratory Species: Interim Report (2026) found that 49% of populations covered under the treaty are in decline, up from 44% just two years ago.
• The CMS treaty has been legally binding for 47 years and now covers more than 1,200 unique species across 132 member nations and the European Union.

The conference drew more than 2,600 participants and adopted 39 resolutions spanning species conservation, habitat protection, and ecological connectivity. The decisions set conservation priorities that will shape international wildlife policy through at least 2029, when the next CMS conference is scheduled.

What these protections actually require countries to do

Not all species on the list receive the same level of coverage. The CMS uses two appendices, each with distinct obligations.

Appendix I covers species in immediate danger of extinction across all or most of their range. Countries where these animals live must strictly prohibit killing, capturing, or disturbing them — with only narrow exceptions. They must also restore degraded habitats, remove barriers to migration routes, and reduce threats across borders.

Appendix II requires international coordination for species that benefit from joint action — shared monitoring targets, cross-border action plans, and pooled research and data. The giant otter received listings on both appendices, reflecting the severity of its situation across South American freshwater systems.

The treaty’s legal binding nature distinguishes it from voluntary pledges. Member states face genuine obligations when a species appears on these lists, not just aspirational goals.

The species that made the list — and why they needed it

The 40 newly protected species span continents, ecosystems, and animal classes, but they share one thing: their survival requires more than one country to cooperate.

The snowy owl breeds in Canada’s Arctic and then fans out across North America, Europe, and Asia during winter. Its fate depends on protection across every country it visits. Zimbabwe’s cheetah population — already listed under CMS — received specific new attention because only 150 to 170 individuals remain. Several shark species joined the list, including the great hammerhead and three species of thresher shark, which face persistent pressure from commercial fishing bycatch and finning operations.

The flesh-footed shearwater, a seabird that crosses entire ocean basins, and the Patagonian narrownose smoothhound shark also received new coverage. These are not obscure species added for technical reasons. Each represents a population under accelerating pressure from habitat fragmentation, overexploitation, plastic pollution, and climate change.

Why migratory species face a harder path to survival

A cheetah on the Serengeti or a hammerhead shark in the Pacific does not recognize national jurisdiction. Protecting either requires the countries it passes through to agree on rules, share data, and enforce protections consistently — even when political priorities shift.

CMS Executive Secretary Amy Fraenkel put it plainly at the close of the summit: the populations of half the species already on the treaty’s protection list are in decline despite existing coverage. The new listings expand the protected group, but implementation is where conservation actually happens or fails.

The summit highlighted a growing set of threats that no single government can address alone: deep-sea mining, underwater noise pollution, fisheries bycatch, marine plastic pollution, and the disruption of migration corridors by infrastructure like roads and dams. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, working with CMS, unveiled a new Americas Flyways Atlas at the conference — an online tool designed to help governments visualize and manage the migration routes that cross their borders.

The gap between agreement and action

The CMS COP15 produced real commitments. It also surfaced a real tension. The United States did not send a representative to Campo Grande, and the Trump administration is separately exploring the removal of protections for endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico. The world’s largest economy and one of the most biodiverse nations on Earth sat out the conversation.

The 132 nations that did participate — along with the 27 EU member states — still represent the vast majority of the globe. Brazil, which hosted COP15, now holds the CMS presidency for the next three years and has committed to driving implementation across South America and beyond.

Conservation leaders at the summit were measured about what the agreement means in practice. “While there are advances and important steps forward, many migratory species are approaching critical thresholds,” said Susan Liberman of the Wildlife Conservation Society. The decisions, she said, represent both a warning and a pathway forward — but success will depend on governments following through.

The next CMS conference is planned for 2029 in Bonn, Germany, marking 50 years since the treaty was signed. For the snowy owl, the hammerhead shark, and the 38 other species added to the list last week, the question is not what was agreed in a conference hall in Brazil. It is what actually changes on the ground between now and then.

This story was originally reported by Good Good Good.