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Izgrev Topkov, secretary-general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), has been removed from his post after six years at the helm of one of the United Nations' most controversial secretariats.

Two members of the CITES secretariat in Geneva have also been dismissed for their role in awarding permits to organizations that wanted to trade in plants and animals on the CITES list of banned species.

The dismissals have been authorized, following two investigations, by Klaus Töpfer, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which is responsible for the CITES secretariat.

A UNEP spokesman confirmed that Topkov has “been moved”, and that two of his staff have been dismissed “for improper behaviour in handing out permits”. But Topkov's eventual fate is uncertain; he may take up another post within the UN.

Topkov was personally not implicated in any wrong-doing, according to UNEP sources. But his failure to prevent the permits being given out for trading in banned species meant that he had to take ultimate responsibility. “If you have responsibility to manage something, and you are unable to exercise that authority properly, you have to go,” sources say.

Topkov's deputy, Jim Armstrong, has taken over temporarily as secretary-general of CITES. Topkov's responsibilities will eventually be looked after by a senior UNEP official until a more permanent replacement can be found.

The unauthorized granting of permits is believed to have taken place over at least two years. Two separate investigations — one by a CITES committee of country representatives, and another by the UN — are understood to have reached the same conclusions.

Topkov is a former Bulgarian diplomat, and became secretary-general of CITES six years ago. He was previously a member of the intergovernmental negotiating committee responsible for the UN climate convention.

The investigation into the CITES secretariat was completed last December, and Topkov's position has been looking increasingly precarious ever since. But a decision about his fate could be taken at the time only by the then executive director of UNEP, Elizabeth Dowdeswell, whose own contract was coming to an end.

CITES is one of the oldest UN conventions, having come into force in 1975. Its 143 member states agreed to ban commercial international trade in endangered species listed by CITES.