4 September 2014 Last updated at 03:52
By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, BBC News
All trade in five named species of sharks is to be regulated from now on, in a significant step forward for conservation.
Without a permit confirming that these sharks have been harvested legally and sustainably, the sale of their meat or fins will be banned.
The regulation was agreed last year at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in Thailand.
The rules also apply to manta rays.
Shark numbers have been under severe pressure in recent years as the numbers killed for their fins soared.
The oceanic whitetip was once a widespread large shark species, but its numbers show a drastic decline. It appears as bycatch in pelagic (open sea) fisheries, but its large fins are highly prized, used in shark's fin soup and in traditional medicine
Hammerhead sharks are known for their distinctive head shape which may have evolved in part to enhance vision. The great and scalloped varieties are endangered; the smooth hammerhead is considered vulnerable. All have been given added protection
Porbeagles are found in cold and temperate waters of the North Atlantic and Southern Hemisphere. Targeted commercial fishing and unintentional catches pose the biggest threat to this shark, which has a low reproductive rate
Scientific estimates put the number at about 100m a year, with demand driven by the fin soup trade in Hong Kong and China.
Campaigners have been seeking to stop the unregulated trade in sharks since the 1990s but it was only at the Cites meeting in Bangkok last year that they finally managed to achieve sufficient votes to drive through the ban.
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