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CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a
multilateral treaty A multilateral treaty is a treaty to which two or more sovereign states are parties. Each party owes the same obligations to all other parties, except to the extent that they have stated reservations. Examples of multilateral treaties include the ...
to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of international trade. It was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of the
International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...
(IUCN). The convention was opened for signature in 1973 and CITES entered into force on 1 July 1975. Its aim is to ensure that international trade (import/export) in specimens of animals and plants included under CITES, does not threaten the survival of the species in the wild. This is achieved via a system of permits and certificates. CITES affords varying degrees of protection to more than 38,000
species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
. , Secretary-General of CITES is
Ivonne Higuero Ivonne Higuero has been the Secretary General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 2018. Life Ivonne Higuero is from Panama. She was educated in the United States, earning her degre ...
.


Background

CITES is one of the largest and oldest conservation and sustainable use agreements in existence. There are three working languages of the Convention (English, French and Spanish) in which all documents are made available. Participation is voluntary and countries that have agreed to be bound by the convention are known as Parties. Although CITES is legally binding on the Parties, it does not take the place of national laws. Rather it provides a framework respected by each Party, which must adopt their own domestic legislation to implement CITES at the national level. Originally, CITES addressed depletion resulting from demand for luxury goods such as furs in Western countries, but with the rising wealth of Asia, particularly in China, the focus changed to products demanded there, particularly those used for luxury goods such as elephant ivory or rhinoceros horn. As of 2022, CITES has expanded to include thousands of species previously considered unremarkable and in no danger of extinction such as manta rays or pangolins.


Ratifications

The text of the convention was finalized at a meeting of representatives of 80 countries in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, United States, on 3 March 1973. It was then open for signature until 31 December 1974. It entered into force after the 10th ratification by a signatory country, on 1 July 1975. Countries that signed the Convention become Parties by ratifying, accepting or approving it. By the end of 2003, all signatory countries had become Parties. States that were not signatories may become Parties by acceding to the convention. , the convention has 184 parties, including 183 states and the European Union. The CITES Convention includes provisions and rules for trade with non-Parties. All member states of the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
are party to the treaty, with the exception of Democratic People's Republic of Korea,
Federated States of Micronesia The Federated States of Micronesia (; abbreviated FSM) is an island country in Oceania. It consists of four states from west to east, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosraethat are spread across the western Pacific. Together, the states comprise a ...
, Haiti,
Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...
,
Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Intern ...
, Nauru,
South Sudan South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the ...
,
East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-west ...
,
Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...
, and
Tuvalu Tuvalu ( or ; formerly known as the Ellice Islands) is an island country and microstate in the Polynesian subregion of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. Its islands are situated about midway between Hawaii and Australia. They lie east-nor ...
. UN observer the
Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...
is also not a member. The
Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...
, an autonomous region in the Kingdom of Denmark, is also treated as a non-Party to CITES (both the Danish mainland and
Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...
are part of CITES). An amendment to the text of the convention, known as the Gaborone Amendment allows regional economic integration organizations (REIO), such as the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
, to have the status of a member state and to be a Party to the convention. The REIO can vote at CITES meetings with the number of votes representing the number of members in the REIO, but it does not have an additional vote. In accordance with Article XVII, paragraph 3, of the CITES Convention, the Gaborone Amendment entered into force on 29 November 2013, 60 days after 54 (two-thirds) of the 80 States that were party to CITES on 30 April 1983 deposited their instrument of acceptance of the amendment. At that time it entered into force only for those States that had accepted the amendment. The amended text of the convention will apply automatically to any State that becomes a Party after 29 November 2013. For States that became party to the convention before that date and have not accepted the amendment, it will enter into force 60 days after they accept it.


Regulation of trade

CITES works by subjecting international trade in specimens of listed
taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...
to controls as they move across international borders. CITES specimens can include a wide range of items including the whole animal/plant (whether alive or dead), or a product that contains a part or derivative of the listed taxa such as
cosmetics Cosmetics are constituted mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either natural sources, or synthetically created ones. Cosmetics have various purposes. Those designed for personal care and skin care can be used to cleanse or protect ...
or traditional medicines. Four types of trade are recognised by CITES - import,
export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...
, re-export (export of any specimen that has previously been imported) and introduction from the sea (transportation into a state of specimens of any species which were taken in the marine environment not under the jurisdiction of any state). The CITES definition of "trade" does not require a financial transaction to be occurring. All trade in specimens of species covered by CITES must be authorized through a system of permits and certificates prior to the trade taking place. CITES permits and certificates are issued by one or more Management Authorities in charge of administering the CITES system in each country. Management Authorities are advised by one or more Scientific Authorities on the effects of trade of the specimen on the status of CITES-listed species. CITES permits and certificates must be presented to relevant border authorities in each country in order to authorise the trade. Each party must enact their own domestic legislation to bring the provisions of CITES into effect in their territories. Parties may choose to take stricter domestic measures than CITES provides (for example by requiring permits/certificates in cases where they would not normally be needed or by prohibiting trade in some specimens).


Appendices

Over 38,000 species, subspecies and populations are protected under CITES. Each protected taxa or population is included in one of three lists called Appendices. The Appendix that lists a taxa or population reflects the level of the threat posed by international trade and the CITES controls that apply. Taxa may be split-listed meaning that some populations of a species are on one Appendix, while some are on another. The African bush elephant (''Loxodonta africana'') is currently split-listed, with all populations except those of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe listed in Appendix I. Those of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe are listed in Appendix II. There are also species that have only some populations listed in an Appendix. One example is the
pronghorn The pronghorn (, ) (''Antilocapra americana'') is a species of artiodactyl (even-toed, hoofed) mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is known colloquially in North America as the American a ...
(''Antilocapra americana''), a ruminant native to North America. Its Mexican population is listed in Appendix I, but its U.S. and Canadian populations are not listed (though certain U.S. populations in Arizona are nonetheless protected under other domestic legislation, in this case the Endangered Species Act). Taxa are proposed for inclusion, amendment or deletion in Appendices I and II at meetings of the Conference of the Parties (CoP), which are held approximately once every three years. Amendments to listing in Appendix III may be made unilaterally by individual parties.


Appendix I

Appendix I taxa are those that are threatened with
extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
and to which the highest level of CITES protection is afforded. Commercial trade in wild-sourced specimens of these taxa is not permitted and non-commercial trade is strictly controlled by requiring an import permit and export permit to be granted by the relevant Management Authorities in each country before the trade occurs. Notable taxa listed in Appendix I include the
red panda The red panda (''Ailurus fulgens''), also known as the lesser panda, is a small mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It has dense reddish-brown fur with a black belly and legs, white-lined ears, a mostly white muzzle ...
(''Ailurus fulgens''),
western gorilla The western gorilla (''Gorilla gorilla'') is a great ape found in Africa, one of two species of the hominid genus ''Gorilla''. Large and robust with males weighing around , the hair is significantly lighter in color than the eastern gorilla, '' ...
(''Gorilla gorilla''), the chimpanzee species (''Pan spp.''),
tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on ...
s (''Panthera tigris'' subspecies),
Asian elephant The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living species of the genus ''Elephas'' and is distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India in the west, Nepal in the no ...
(''Elephas maximus''), some populations of African bush elephant (''Loxodonta africana''), and the Monkey puzzle tree (''Araucaria araucana'').


Appendix II

Appendix II taxa are those that are not necessarily threatened with extinction, but trade must be controlled in order to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival. Appendix II taxa may also include species similar in appearance to species already listed in the Appendices. The vast majority of taxa listed under CITES are listed in Appendix II. Any trade in Appendix II taxa standardly requires a CITES export permit or re-export certificate to be granted by the Management Authority of the exporting country before the trade occurs. Examples of taxa listed on Appendix II are the
great white shark The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large Lamniformes, mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major ocean ...
(''Carcharodon carcharias''), the American black bear (''Ursus americanus''),
Hartmann's mountain zebra Hartmann's mountain zebra (''Equus zebra hartmannae'') is a subspecies of the mountain zebra found in far south-western Angola and western Namibia, easily distinguished from other similar zebra species by its dewlap as well as the lack of strip ...
(''Equus zebra hartmannae''), green iguana (''Iguana iguana''), queen conch (''Strombus gigas''),
Emperor scorpion The emperor scorpion, ''Pandinus imperator'', is a species of scorpion native to rainforests and savannas in West Africa. It is one of the largest scorpions in the world and lives for 6–8 years. Its body is black, but like other scorpions i ...
(''Pandinus imperator''),
Mertens' water monitor Mertens' water monitor (''Varanus mertensi''), also called commonly Mertens's water monitor, and often misspelled Mertin's water monitor, is a species of lizard in the family Varanidae. The species is endemic to northern Australia, and is a wide ...
(''Varanus mertensi''), bigleaf mahogany ('' Swietenia macrophylla''),
Lignum Vitae Lignum vitae () is a wood, also called guayacan or guaiacum, and in parts of Europe known as Pockholz or pokhout, from trees of the genus ''Guaiacum''. The trees are indigenous to the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America (e.g: Col ...
(''Guaiacum officinale'') and all stony corals (''Scleractinia'' spp.).


Appendix III

Appendix III species are those that are protected in at least one country, and that country has asked other CITES Parties for assistance in controlling the trade. Any trade in Appendix III species standardly requires a CITES export permit (if sourced from the country that listed the species) or a certificate of origin (from any other country) to be granted before the trade occurs. Examples of species listed on Appendix III and the countries that listed them are the
two-toed sloth ''Choloepus'' is a genus of xenarthran mammals of Central and South America within the monotypic family Choloepodidae, consisting of two-toed sloths, sometimes also called two-fingered sloths. The two species of ''Choloepus'' (which means "la ...
(''Choloepus hoffmanni'') by Costa Rica,
sitatunga The sitatunga or marshbuck (''Tragelaphus spekii'') is a swamp-dwelling antelope found throughout central Africa, centering on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, parts of Southern Sudan, Equatorial Guinea ...
(''Tragelaphus spekii'') by Ghana,
African civet The African civet (''Civettictis civetta'') is a large viverrid native to sub-Saharan Africa, where it is considered common and widely distributed in woodlands and secondary forests. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 200 ...
(''Civettictis civetta'') by Botswana, and alligator snapping turtle (''Macrochelys temminckii'') by the United States of America.


Exemptions and special procedures

Under Article VII, the Convention allows for certain exceptions to the general trade requirements described above.


Pre-Convention specimens

CITES provides for a special process for specimens that were acquired before the provisions of the Convention applied to that specimen. These are known as "pre-Convention" specimens and must be granted a CITES pre-Convention certificate before the trade occurs. Only specimens legally acquired before the date on which the species concerned was first included in the Appendices qualify for this exemption.


Personal and household effects

CITES provides that the standard permit/certificate requirements for trade in CITES specimens do not generally apply if a specimen is a personal or household effect. However there are a number of situations where permits/certificates for personal or household effects are required and some countries choose to take stricter domestic measures by requiring permits/certificates for some or all personal or household effects.


Captive bred or artificially propagated specimens

CITES allows trade in specimens to follow special procedures if Management Authorities are satisfied that they are sourced from captive bred animals or artificially propagated plants. In the case of commercial trade of Appendix I taxa, captive bred or artificially propagated specimens may be traded as if they were Appendix II. This reduces the permit requirements from two permits (import/export) to one (export only). In the case of non-commercial trade, specimens may be traded with a certificate of captive breeding/artificial propagation issued by the Management Authority of the state of export in lieu of standard permits.


Scientific exchange

Standard CITES permit and certificates are not required for the non-commercial loan, donation or exchange between
scientific Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
or forensic institutions that have been registered by a Management Authority of their State. Consignments containing the specimens must carry a label issued or approved by that Management Authority (in some cases Customs Declaration labels may be used). Specimens that may be included under this provision include museum, herbarium, diagnostic and forensic research specimens. Registered institutions are listed on the CITES website.


Amendments and reservations

Amendments to the Convention must be supported by a two-thirds majority who are "present and voting" and can be made during an extraordinary meeting of the COP if one-third of the Parties are interested in such a meeting. The Gaborone Amendment (1983) allows regional economic blocs to accede to the treaty. Trade with non-Party states is allowed, although permits and certificates are recommended to be issued by exporters and sought by importers. Species in the Appendices may be proposed for addition, change of Appendix, or de-listing (i.e., deletion) by any Party, whether or not it is a range State and changes may be made despite objections by range States if there is sufficient (2/3 majority) support for the listing. Species listings are made at the Conference of Parties. Upon acceding to the Convention or within 90 days of a species listing being amended, Parties may make reservations. In these cases, the party is treated as being a state that is not a Party to CITES with respect to trade in the species concerned. Notable reservations include those by
Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
, Japan, and
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
on various baleen whale species and those on
Falconiformes The order Falconiformes () is represented by the extant family Falconidae (falcons and caracaras) and a handful of enigmatic Paleogene species. Traditionally, the other bird of prey families Cathartidae (New World vultures and condors), Sagitt ...
by Saudi Arabia.


Shortcomings and concerns


Implementation

As of 2002, 50% of Parties lacked one or more of the four major CITES requirements - designation of Management and Scientific Authorities; laws prohibiting the trade in violation of CITES; penalties for such trade and laws providing for the confiscation of specimens.Reeve, Policing International Trade in Endangered Species: The CITES Treaty and agreement. London: Earthscan, 2000. Although the Convention itself does not provide for arbitration or dispute in the case of noncompliance, 36 years of CITES in practice has resulted in several strategies to deal with infractions by Parties. The Secretariat, when informed of an infraction by a Party, will notify all other parties. The Secretariat will give the Party time to respond to the allegations and may provide technical assistance to prevent further infractions. Other actions the Convention itself does not provide for but that derive from subsequent COP resolutions may be taken against the offending Party. These include: *Mandatory confirmation of all permits by the Secretariat *Suspension of cooperation from the Secretariat *A formal warning *A visit by the Secretariat to verify capacity *Recommendations to all Parties to suspend CITES related trade with the offending party *Dictation of corrective measures to be taken by the offending Party before the Secretariat will resume cooperation or recommend resumption of trade Bilateral sanctions have been imposed on the basis of national legislation (e.g. the USA used certification under the Pelly Amendment to get Japan to revoke its reservation to hawksbill turtle products in 1991, thus reducing the volume of its exports). Infractions may include negligence with respect to permit issuing, excessive trade, lax enforcement, and failing to produce annual reports (the most common).


Approach to biodiversity conservation

General limitations about the structure and philosophy of CITES include: by design and intent it focuses on trade at the species level and does not address habitat loss, ecosystem approaches to conservation, or poverty; it seeks to prevent unsustainable use rather than promote sustainable use (which generally conflicts with the
Convention on Biological Diversity The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is a multilateral treaty. The Convention has three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity (or biodiversity); the sustainable use of its ...
), although this has been changing (see
Nile crocodile The Nile crocodile (''Crocodylus niloticus'') is a large crocodilian native to freshwater habitats in Africa, where it is present in 26 countries. It is widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, occurring mostly in the central, eastern, ...
, African elephant, South African white rhino case studies in Hutton and Dickinson 2000). It does not explicitly address market demand.Hill, 1990, "The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species: Fifteen Years Later," ''Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Journal'' 13: 231 In fact, CITES listings have been demonstrated to increase financial speculation in certain markets for high value species. Funding does not provide for increased on-the-ground enforcement (it must apply for bilateral aid for most projects of this nature). There has been increasing willingness within the Parties to allow for trade in products from well-managed populations. For instance, sales of the South African white rhino have generated revenues that helped pay for protection. Listing the species on Appendix I increased the price of rhino horn (which fueled more poaching), but the species survived wherever there was adequate on-the-ground protection. Thus field protection may be the primary mechanism that saved the population, but it is likely that field protection would not have been increased without CITES protection.Hutton and Dickinson, Endangered Species Threatened Convention: The Past, Present and Future of CITES. London: Africa Resources Trust, 2000. In another instance, the United States initially stopped exports of bobcat and lynx hides in 1977 when it first implemented CITES for lack of data to support no detriment finding

However, in this Federal Register notice, issued by
William Yancey Brown William Y. Brown (born August 13, 1948) is a zoologist and attorney, currently the chief environmental officer of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in the Department of the Interior. He is a former nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings In ...
, the U.S. Endangered Species Scientific Authority (ESSA) established a framework of no detriment findings for each state and the Navajo nation and indicated that approval would be forthcoming if the states and Navajo nation provided evidence that their furbearer management programs assured the species would be conserved. Management programs for these species expanded rapidly, including tagging for expor

and are currently recognized in program approvals under regulations of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Servic


Drafting

By design, CITES regulates and monitors trade in the manner of a " negative list" such that trade in all species is permitted and unregulated ''unless'' the species in question appears on the Appendices or looks very much like one of those taxa. Then and only then, trade is regulated or constrained. Because the remit of the Convention covers millions of species of plants and animals, and tens of thousands of these taxa are potentially of economic value, in practice this negative list approach effectively forces CITES signatories to expend limited resources on just a select few, leaving many species to be traded with neither constraint nor review. For example, recently several bird classified as threatened with extinction appeared in the legal wild bird trade because the CITES process never considered their status. If a "positive list" approach were taken, only species evaluated and approved for the positive list would be permitted in trade, thus lightening the review burden for member states and the Secretariat, and also preventing inadvertent legal trade threats to poorly known species. Specific weaknesses in the text include: it does not stipulate guidelines for the 'non-detriment' finding required of national Scientific Authorities; non-detriment findings require copious amounts of information; the 'household effects' clause is often not rigid enough/specific enough to prevent CITES violations by means of this Article (VII); non-reporting from Parties means Secretariat monitoring is incomplete; and it has no capacity to address domestic trade in listed species. In order to ensure that the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was not violated, the Secretariat of GATT was consulted during the drafting process.


Animal sourced pathogens

During the
coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...
in 2020 CEO
Ivonne Higuero Ivonne Higuero has been the Secretary General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 2018. Life Ivonne Higuero is from Panama. She was educated in the United States, earning her degre ...
noted that illegal wildlife trade not only helps to destroy habitats, but these habitats create a safety barrier for humans that can prevent pathogens from animals passing themselves on to people.


Reform suggestions

Suggestions for improvement in the operation of CITES include: more regular missions by the Secretariat (not reserved just for high-profile species); improvement of national legislation and enforcement; better reporting by Parties (and the consolidation of information from all sources-NGOs, TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network and Parties); more emphasis on enforcement-including a technical committee enforcement officer; the development of CITES Action Plans (akin to Biodiversity Action Plans related to the
Convention on Biological Diversity The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is a multilateral treaty. The Convention has three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity (or biodiversity); the sustainable use of its ...
) including: designation of Scientific/Management Authorities and national enforcement strategies; incentives for reporting and timelines for both Action Plans and reporting. CITES would benefit from access to
Global Environment Facility The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a multilateral environmental fund that provides grants and blended finance for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, persistent organic pollutants (PO ...
(GEF), funds-although this is difficult given the GEFs more ecosystem approach-or other more regular funds. Development of a future mechanism similar to that of the Montreal Protocol (developed nations contribute to a fund for developing nations) could allow more funds for non-Secretariat activities.


TRAFFIC Data

From 2005 to 2009 the legal trade corresponded with these numbers * 317,000 live birds * More than 2 million live reptiles * 2.5 million crocodile skins * 2.1 million snake skins * 73 tons of
caviar Caviar (also known as caviare; from fa, خاویار, khâvyâr, egg-bearing) is a food consisting of salt-cured roe of the family Acipenseridae. Caviar is considered a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or a spread. Traditionally, the te ...
* 1.1 million beaver skins * Millions of pieces of
coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and ...
* 20,000 mammalian hunting trophies In the 1990s the annual trade of legal animal products was $160 billion annually. In 2009 the estimated value almost doubled to $300 billion. Additional information about the documented trade can be extracted through queries on th
CITES website


Meetings

The Conference of the Parties (CoP) is held once every three years. The last Conference of the Parties (CoP 18) was held in
Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
, Switzerland, 17–28 August 2019 and the one before it (CoP 17) was held in
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...
,
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
, 2016. The next one (CoP 19) will be in
Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...
,
Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
, in 2022. The location of the next CoP is chosen at the close of each CoP by a secret ballot vote. The CITES Committees (Animals Committee, Plants Committee and Standing Committee) hold meetings during each year that does not have a CoP, while the Standing committee meets also in years with a CoP. The Committee meetings take place in Geneva, Switzerland (where the Secretariat of the CITES Convention is located), unless another country offers to host the meeting. The Secretariat is administered by
UNEP The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on ...
. The Animals and Plants Committees have sometimes held joint meetings. The previous joint meeting was held in March 2012 in
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
,
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, and the latest one was held in
Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...
,
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, in May 2014. A current list of upcoming meetings appears on the CITES calendar. At the seventeenth Conference of the Parties (CoP 17), Namibia and Zimbabwe introduced proposals to amend their listing of elephant populations in Appendix II. Instead, they wished to establish controlled trade in all elephant specimens, including ivory. They argue that revenue from regulated trade could be used for elephant conservation and rural communities’ development. However, both proposals were opposed by the US and other countries.


See also

*
Environmental agreements This is a list of international environmental agreements. Most of the following agreements are legally binding for countries that have formally ratified them. Some, such as the Kyoto Protocol, differentiate between types of countries and each n ...
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Illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corruption, corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, o ...
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IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...
* Ivory trade * Lacey Act * List of species protected by CITES Appendix I *
List of species protected by CITES Appendix II This is a list of species of plants and animals protected by Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, commonly abbreviated as CITES. There are no fungi listed in any appendix. *List of s ...
* List of species protected by CITES Appendix III *
Shark finning Shark finning is the act of removing fins from sharks and discarding the rest of the shark back into the ocean. This act is prohibited in many countries. The sharks are often still alive when discarded, but without their fins.Spiegel, J. (2000 ...
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Wildlife conservation Wildlife conservation refers to the practice of protecting wild species and their habitats in order to maintain healthy wildlife species or populations and to restore, protect or enhance natural ecosystems. Major threats to wildlife include habita ...
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Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System The Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System (WEMS) Initiative, brainchild of environment policy researcher Remi Chandran, is an environmental governance project developed for assisting in monitoring the effectiveness of enforcement and complia ...
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Wildlife management Wildlife management is the management process influencing interactions among and between wildlife, its habitats and people to achieve predefined impacts. It attempts to balance the needs of wildlife with the needs of people using the best availabl ...
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Wildlife smuggling Wildlife smuggling or trafficking involves the illegal gathering, transportation, and distribution of animals and their derivatives. This can be done either internationally or domestically. Estimates of the money generated by wildlife smuggling ...
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World Wildlife Day On 20 December 2013, at its 68th session, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), in itresolution UN 68/205 decided to proclaim 3 March, the international day of the adoption of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of ...


Footnotes


References


Further reading

*Oldfield, S. and McGough, N. (Comp.) 2007. A CITES manual for botanic garden
English versionSpanish versionItalian version
Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI)


External links

*
CITES Profile on database of market governance mechanisms
;Member countries (Parties)
Chronological list of Parties
* Alphabetical list of Partie
at CITES
and at th
depositary

National contacts
;Lists of species included in Appendices I, II and III (i.e. species protected by CITES)
Explanation of the Appendices

Number of species on the Appendices

Species lists (Appendices I, II and III)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cites Environmental treaties Endangered species Treaties concluded in 1973 Treaties entered into force in 1975 Wildlife smuggling 1975 in the environment Treaties of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan Treaties of Albania Treaties of Algeria Treaties of Angola Treaties of Antigua and Barbuda Treaties of Argentina Treaties of Armenia Treaties of Australia Treaties of Austria Treaties of Azerbaijan Treaties of the Bahamas Treaties of Bahrain Treaties of Bangladesh Treaties of Barbados Treaties of Belarus Treaties of Belgium Treaties of Belize Treaties of the People's Republic of Benin Treaties of Bhutan Treaties of Bolivia Treaties of Bosnia and Herzegovina Treaties of Botswana Treaties of the military dictatorship in Brazil Treaties of Brunei Treaties of Bulgaria Treaties of Burkina Faso Treaties of Burundi Treaties of Cambodia Treaties of Cameroon Treaties of Canada Treaties of Cape Verde Treaties of the Central African Republic Treaties of Chad Treaties of Chile Treaties of the People's Republic of China Treaties of Colombia Treaties of the Comoros Treaties of the Republic of the Congo Treaties of Costa Rica Treaties of Ivory Coast Treaties of Croatia Treaties of Cuba Treaties of Cyprus Treaties of Czechoslovakia Treaties of the Czech Republic Treaties of Zaire Treaties of Denmark Treaties of Djibouti Treaties of Dominica Treaties of the Dominican Republic Treaties of Ecuador Treaties of Egypt Treaties of El Salvador Treaties of Equatorial Guinea Treaties of Eritrea Treaties of Estonia Treaties of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Treaties of Fiji Treaties of Finland Treaties of France Treaties of Gabon Treaties of the Gambia Treaties of Georgia (country) Treaties of West Germany Treaties of East Germany Treaties of Ghana Treaties of Greece Treaties of Grenada Treaties of Guatemala Treaties of Guinea Treaties of Guinea-Bissau Treaties of Guyana Treaties of Honduras Treaties of the Hungarian People's Republic Treaties of Iceland Treaties of India Treaties of Indonesia Treaties of Pahlavi Iran Treaties of Iraq Treaties of Ireland Treaties of Israel Treaties of Italy Treaties of Jamaica Treaties of Japan Treaties of Jordan Treaties of Kazakhstan Treaties of Kenya Treaties of Kuwait Treaties of Kyrgyzstan Treaties of Laos Treaties of Latvia Treaties of Lebanon Treaties of Lesotho Treaties of Liberia Treaties of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Treaties of Liechtenstein Treaties of Lithuania Treaties of Luxembourg Treaties of Madagascar Treaties of Malawi Treaties of Malaysia Treaties of the Maldives Treaties of Mali Treaties of Malta Treaties of Mauritania Treaties of Mauritius Treaties of Mexico Treaties of Monaco Treaties of Mongolia Treaties of Montenegro Treaties of Morocco Treaties of the People's Republic of Mozambique Treaties of Myanmar Treaties of Namibia Treaties of Nepal Treaties of the Netherlands Treaties of New Zealand Treaties of Nicaragua Treaties of Niger Treaties of Nigeria Treaties of Norway Treaties of Oman Treaties of Pakistan Treaties of Palau Treaties of Panama Treaties of Papua New Guinea Treaties of Paraguay Treaties of Peru Treaties of the Philippines Treaties of Poland Treaties of Portugal Treaties of Qatar Treaties of South Korea Treaties of Moldova Treaties of Romania Treaties of Russia Treaties of Rwanda Treaties of Samoa Treaties of San Marino Treaties of São Tomé and Príncipe Treaties of Saudi Arabia Treaties of Senegal Treaties of Serbia and Montenegro Treaties of Seychelles Treaties of Sierra Leone Treaties of Singapore Treaties of Slovakia Treaties of Slovenia Treaties of the Solomon Islands Treaties of the Somali Democratic Republic Treaties of South Africa Treaties of Spain Treaties of Sri Lanka Treaties of Saint Kitts and Nevis Treaties of Saint Lucia Treaties of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Treaties of the Democratic Republic of the Sudan Treaties of Suriname Treaties of Eswatini Treaties of Sweden Treaties of Switzerland Treaties of Syria Treaties of Tajikistan Treaties of Thailand Treaties of North Macedonia Treaties of Togo Treaties of Tonga Treaties of Trinidad and Tobago Treaties of Tunisia Treaties of Turkey Treaties of Uganda Treaties of Ukraine Treaties of the United Arab Emirates Treaties of the United Kingdom Treaties of Tanzania Treaties of the United States Treaties of Uruguay Treaties of Uzbekistan Treaties of Vanuatu Treaties of Venezuela Treaties of Vietnam Treaties of Yemen Treaties of Yugoslavia Treaties of Zambia Treaties of Zimbabwe Animal treaties Treaties extended to Aruba Treaties extended to the Netherlands Antilles Treaties extended to Greenland Treaties extended to Portuguese Macau Treaties extended to British Honduras Treaties extended to Bermuda Treaties extended to the British Indian Ocean Territory Treaties extended to the British Virgin Islands Treaties extended to the Cayman Islands Treaties extended to the Falkland Islands Treaties extended to Gibraltar Treaties extended to Guernsey Treaties extended to British Hong Kong Treaties extended to Jersey Treaties extended to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Treaties extended to the Isle of Man Treaties extended to Montserrat Treaties extended to the Pitcairn Islands Treaties extended to Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Treaties entered into by the European Union