HSUS

Ivory statues

Every year, millions of wild animals and plants, and their parts, are traded internationally, both legally and illegally. This trade includes:

• elephant ivory
• whale meat and blubber
• wild cat fur
• bear gall bladders
• live birds, reptiles and mammals for the pet trade
• crocodile skin
• fish for human consumption and for aquaria
• coral jewelry
• tropical timber used for furniture and oils
• rare cacti and orchids used as ornamental plants
• herbs and roots used for medicine

Generating billions of dollars every year, wildlife trade has resulted in the decline of a number of animal and plant species. 

What is CITES?

The Conference to the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) governs international wildlife trade. Every two and a half to three years, delegates from more than 170 countries gather together to discuss and decide the fate of many of the world's wild species, and this June they will meet for the fourteenth time in The Hague, capital of the Netherlands.

CITES, first signed in 1973 and in force since 1975, is a United Nations treaty that seeks to protect certain species of wild fauna and flora against overexploitation in international trade. Species protected by CITES are listed on one of three Appendices to the treaty—most importantly, Appendix I, which bans commercial trade, and Appendix II, which only allows trade if the species will not be harmed and the trade is carefully monitored.

2007 Amendments to the CITES Appendices

At CoP14 (June 3-15, 2007), member countries will vote on 36 proposals to amend the CITES Appendices—a process that can give protection to wild species threatened by international trade, increase it, decrease it or even take it away. 

This year's proposals introduce measures that affect a number of high-profile species: bobcats, leopards, African elephants, sawfishes, corals and orchids among others. They will also vote on changes to the way CITES operates, including a proposed "strategic vision" that could alter the very purpose of this important wildlife convention.

Species Proposal Highlights

• Slow Lorises: Cambodia has asked to transfer five species of these nocturnal, stub-tailed, lemur-like primates—the slow lorises—from Appendix II to Appendix I, a move that would ban them from commercial trade. Slow lorises live in the tropical forests of south and southeast Asia where they are threatened by habitat destruction and trapping for the pet trade, for food and for use in traditional medicines.
  
  
• Bobcats: The United States has proposed deleting the bobcat from the CITES Appendices, thereby removing CITES protections.
  
  
• Leopards: Uganda has asked that its population of leopards be transferred from Appendix I to Appendix II so that the country can establish a quota of fifty animals a year for sport hunting.
  
  
• Elephants: Even though evidence shows that opening the legal trade in ivory will only increase poaching, Botswana and Namibia want to reopen an annual trade in ivory, a trade banned by CITES in 1989 after more than 50% of Africa's elephants were lost to poachers in a single decade. Sales would be made only to importing countries approved by the CITES Standing Committee, and the ivory would be taken from registered stockpiles only. 
  
  In contrast, Kenya and Mali have proposed a twenty-year moratorium on all new ivory sales. A proposal from Tanzania to transfer its elephant population from Appendix I to Appendix II has been, fortunately, withdrawn.
  
  
• Black Caiman: Brazil hopes to legalize trade in black caiman meat by having its population transferred from Appendix I to Appendix II. It claims that legalized trade will drive out illegal trade, a serious problem that claims thousands of animals each year even in protected areas.
  
  
• Sharks: Germany, on behalf of the European Union, seeks CITES protection for two heavily-overfished sharks, the porbeagle and the spiny dogfish. Porbeagle is one of the most highly-valued shark species, and global catches of both fishes are in serious decline.
  
  
• Sawfish: Kenya and the United States seek Appendix I protection for the entire sawfish family (Pristidae). All seven sawfish species are listed as Critically Endangered, the victims of both fishing and habitat destruction.
  
  
• Corals: The United States seeks a CITES Appendix II listing for red and pink corals of the genus Corallium, the sources for most coral jewelry. So valuable are these corals that population after population has been wiped out through over-collecting. High-quality coral beads can fetch up to US$50 a gram.
  

Other Proposals:

• Whales: As part of a discussion on the rules for the Periodic Review of the Appendices, a process which examines certain species to see if they are receiving the appropriate level of CITES protection, the Parties will discuss a proposal by Iceland to review the Central North Atlantic stock of fin whale (approved at the last meeting of the Animals Committee), and another by Japan to review all the great whales. Adding whales would breach a long-standing agreement that the review should not target controversial species or those subject to recent listing proposals.
  
  CITES has put all "great" whale species on Appendix I, which prohibits international trade in their products. These listings were in response to the species becoming protected by the IWC from commercial whaling. Lately however, Japan, Iceland, and Norway, unhappy with decisions made at the IWC, have been trying to move control of the management of whales to CITES, thereby undermining the authority of the IWC. These countries theorize that if they are able to move some species of whales to the less-restrictive CITES Appendix II—thereby allowing trade in whale parts such as meat and blubber—they will then be free to begin commercial whaling under the auspices of CITES.
  
  If Japan's proposal is adopted, the proposed draft decision would direct the CITES Animals Committee to review the current CITES listing status of all cetaceans covered by the IWC moratorium to assess whether each of these species satisfies the biological and trade listing requirements for listing under Appendix I. Although the adoption of Japan's draft resolution would not immediately open up the commercial trade in whales, it would be a significant step towards doing so. 
  
  
• Leopards: Mozambique is proposing to double its export quota for leopard skins from 60 to 120, despite the fact that there is almost no scientific data on Mozambique's leopard population and the country exceeded its own quota in 2005. Quotas for leopard, an Appendix I species, must be approved by the Conference of the Parties.
  
  
• Black Rhinoceros: Kenya proposes the repeal of export quotas granted to Namibia and South Africa for the highly endangered black rhinoceros, citing management problems in Namibia and high levels of poaching, particularly in South Africa.
  
  
• Crocodiles: Germany, on behalf of the European Union, is proposing a move that could exempt small leather goods from the rigorous CITES regulations governing trade in the skins of crocodiles and their relatives, even if these are manufactured in crocodilian range states. Doing so could make it much harder to control illegal trade in crocodilian skins, a trade that is still a problem in many countries.
  
  
• Expanding the scope of CITES to the detriment of wildlife: Ghana, as Chair of the Strategic Plan Working Group, proposes the adoption of the CITES Strategic Vision: 2008-2013, a broad policy document that, if followed, would take CITES into cultural, social and economic issues already being dealt with by other Conventions such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Some of the aims of the Strategic Vision, including ensuring "that CITES policy developments are aligned with changes in international environmental priorities", could alter the fundamental aims of the Convention and are likely to be hotly debated.
  
  Argentina, China, Nicaragua and Germany, on behalf of the European Union, are proposing initiatives that could involve CITES parties, when they implement the Convention rules, in detailed considerations of the impact their actions might have on the livelihoods of the poor. Poverty is, of course, a serious concern of great importance to both people and the environment, but these initiatives could make it harder for often under-funded and overstretched CITES officials to ensure that the Convention is adequately protecting wildlife.
  
  
• Wildlife Trade on the Internet: Germany, on behalf of the European Union, is proposing a Workshop to examine the growing trade in wildlife, both legal and illegal, over the internet, and how CITES could best address it.