To implement the decision of the conference of the parties of CMS to list the gorilla on Appendix I of the convention and taking into consideration the unfavourable conservation status and the conviction that the gorilla would significantly benefit from international cooperation that could be achieved by a multilateral agreement, an Article IV Agreement was concluded in 2007.

[1] The text of this legally binding agreement was negotiated on a meeting in Paris between 22 and 26 October 2007, under the auspices of CMS and attended by nine of the ten gorilla range states.

The final act was signed on 24 October 2007 and entered into force on 1 June 2008, after ratification by three range states.

This should be reached by conserving and restoring the highly threatened gorilla populations in Central and West Africa through an action plan, covering education, research and forest protection.

[5] The parties represented were Congo, Gabon and Nigeria and non-party range states Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Uganda.

All ten range states planned to attend the meeting, but representatives of Angola, Central African Republic, DRC and Rwanda were not able to obtain visas in time.

In addition, in the event of an emergency affecting the conservation status of one or more gorilla taxa, the committee can call for steps to be taken to reduce this threat.

The plans contain a list of most important sites; reveal the main threats and identify priority actions needed per country.

Therefore, the parties decided, on the proposal of the interim secretariat, to take part in these processes and the updated action plans may be adopted by the next MoP.