Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international agreement aimed at conserving endangered animal and plant species through the regulation of international trade. Opened for signature on March 3, 1973, and effective from July 1, 1975, CITES represents a significant commitment by its parties, establishing legal obligations to protect species threatened by exploitation. The convention categorizes species into three appendices based on their vulnerability, with Appendix I listing those at risk of extinction, Appendix II including species that could become endangered without regulation, and Appendix III featuring species subject to trade restrictions identified by individual parties.
CITES employs a system of trade permits and sanctions to monitor and enforce these regulations, while also allowing countries to implement stricter conservation measures if desired. The agreement has been ratified by 184 nations and unions as of January 2023, demonstrating widespread international support for wildlife conservation. Regular conferences are held to assess implementation and adopt necessary amendments, involving not only parties to the convention but also non-party states and various organizations. Despite its achievements, challenges remain, including loopholes that allow certain states to bypass regulations for economic reasons, and ongoing issues in protecting species like whales amid conflicting interests.
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
THE CONVENTION: International agreement aimed at conserving endangered animal and plant species
DATE: Opened for signature on March 3, 1973
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species was the first international agreement concerning the conservation of wildlife that constituted a legal commitment by the parties to the convention and also included a means of enforcing its provisions.
Until the 1970s, international agreements that had been made to address the preservation of species did not include any binding legal commitment on the part of the countries signing them; thus they were ineffectual in protecting the species they were written to protect. In 1969, however, the United States passed the Endangered Species Conservation Act, which contained a provision that gave the secretaries of interior and commerce until June 30, 1971, to call for an international conference on endangered species. The resulting conference, which was held in Washington, DC, in March 1973, resulted in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
The United States was the first country to ratify the convention, which entered into effect on July 1, 1975; by January 2023, 184 nations or unions in total were parties to the agreement. CITES is intended to conserve species and does this by managing international trade in those species. It was the first international convention on the conservation of wildlife that constituted a legal commitment by the parties to the convention and also included a means of enforcing its provisions. This enforcement includes a system of trade sanctions and an international reporting network to stop trade in endangered species. However, the system established by CITES does contain loopholes through which states with special interest in particular species can opt out of the global control for those species.
A major feature of CITES is its categorization of three levels of vulnerability of species. Appendix I includes all species that are threatened with extinction and whose status may be affected by international trade. Appendix II includes species that are not yet threatened but might become endangered if trade in them is not regulated. It also includes other species that, if traded, might affect the vulnerability of the first group. Appendix III lists species that a signatory party identifies as subject to regulation to restrict exploitation of that species. The parties to the treaty agree not to allow any trade in the species on the three lists unless an exception is allowed in CITES.
The species listed in the appendixes may be moved from one list to another as their vulnerability increases or decreases. According to the convention, states may implement stricter measures of conservation than those specified in the convention or may ban trade in species not included in the appendixes. CITES also establishes a series of import and export trade permits within each of the categories. Each nation designates a management authority and a scientific authority to implement CITES. Exceptions to the ban on trade are made for scientific and museum specimens, exhibitions, and movement of species under permit by a national management authority.
The parties to CITES maintain records of trade in specimens of species that are listed in the appendixes and prepare periodic reports on their compliance with the convention. These reports are sent to the CITES secretariat in Switzerland, administered by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which issues notifications to all parties of state actions and bans. The secretariat’s functions are established by the convention and include interpreting the provisions of CITES and advising countries on implementing those provisions by providing assistance in writing their national legislation and organizing training seminars. The secretariat also studies the status of species being traded in order to ensure that the exploitation of such species is within sustainable limits.
The CITES Conference of Parties meets every two or three years to review implementation of the convention. The meetings are also attended by nonparty states, intergovernmental agencies of the United Nations, and nongovernmental organizations considered “technically qualified in protection, conservation or management of wild fauna and flora.” The meetings are held in different signatories’ countries: The first took place in Berne, Switzerland, on November 2–6, 1976. At the conference, the parties may adopt amendments to the convention and make recommendations to improve the effectiveness of CITES.
CITES has been incorporated into Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living. This strategy was launched in 1991 by UNEP, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Other nongovernmental groups working to support CITES are Fauna and Flora International (FFI), Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC International), and the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC).
Some of the species protected by CITES have received additional protection under later agreements. However, in certain cases states have allowed trade in listed species to continue for economic purposes or have refused to sign CITES because of the extent to which they trade in a species or species part, such as ivory. Others have signed because they needed help in stopping illegal trade and poaching of species within their borders. Whales have proven to be a difficult species to protect. Whales are given protection under CITES according to the status of specific species. The moratorium on commercial whaling instituted in 1986 by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was intended to strengthen the CITES protection by species, but the whaling states have disagreed on the numbers of whale populations, and some have withdrawn from the IWC and resumed their whaling activities.
Bibliography
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Hutton, Jon, and Barnabas Dickson, eds. Endangered Species, Threatened Convention: The Past, Present, and Future of CITES. Sterling: Earthscan, 2000. Print.
International Union for Conservation of Nature. Conserving the World’s Biological Diversity. Washington, DC: Island, 1990. Print.
Song, Annie Young, and Yanran Yao. "To Ban or Not to Ban: China's Trade in Endangered Species." Journal of Contemporary China, vol. 31, no. 133, 2022, DOI: 10.1080/10670564.2021.1926103. Accessed 19 July 2024.
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