Skip to main content

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna & Flora (CITES)

The international trade of wildlife is estimated to be worth of billions of dollars, including hundreds of millions of plant and animal specimens. This trade ranges from live animals and plants to a vast array of wildlife products derived from them, including food products, exotic leather goods, wooden musical instruments, timber, tourist curios and medicines. Such a high level of exploitation and trade of some animal and plant species with various other factors such as habitat loss or destruction leads to severe depletion of their populations and even gets them close to extinction. While many wildlife species in trade are not endangered, but there is a need for an agreement to ensure the trade sustainability in order to maintain these resources for the future (You may also interested in Bonn Convention).


CITES

CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna & Flora), also known as the Washington Convention is an international agreement between governments which commits to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. It was conscripted as a result of resolution agreed at a meeting of members of the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1963. The text of convention was finally adopted in Washington D.C., the United States of America on 3rd March 1973 at a meeting of representatives of 80 countries but it came into force in July 1975. The CITES secretariat is located at Geneva, Switzerland and is administered by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).


As wildlife trade take place across borders, its regulation requires international cooperation to protect certain species from overexploitation. CITES was adopted in the essence of such cooperation. At present, it protects more than 37,000 species of plants and animal, whether they are traded as live specimens, fur coats or dried herbs. As of June 2019, there are 183 parties to the convention that have agreed to be bound by the convention. While CITES is legally binding on the Parties but it does not take the place of national laws. Rather it provides a framework to be respected by each Party, which has to adopt its own domestic legislation to ensure that CITES is implemented at the national level. You are also interested in: Bio-Diversity Loss.

Conference of Parties to CITES

The Conference of Parties to CITES is the supreme decision making body of the convention that meets every two-three year to review and make decisions on the regulation of trade in endangered species. The main purpose of these meetings is to consider new proposals for listing or removing species from appendices, to debate other decisions and resolutions about implementation of regulations, and to review conservation progress.

CITES Appendices

At present, there are about 5,800 species of animals and 30,000 species of plants safeguarded by CITES against over-exploitation. They are characterised into one of three appendices, depending on how at risk from trade they are.

Appendix I

It lists the species that are in danger of extinction and trade in specimens are acceptable only in exceptional circumstances. There are about 1200 species in this category. Examples are gorillas, sea turtles, most lady slipper orchids, and giant pandas.

Appendix II

It includes species that are not in danger of imminent extinction but requires strict monitoring so that the trade does not become a threat for their survival. Currently there are 34,419 species are included in this category. Examples include paddlefish, lion, American alligators, mahogany and many corals.

Appendix III

It lists species which are protected in at least one country and that party seeks assistance from other CITES parties in controlling unsustainable trade. Currently, 147 species are listed e.g. map turtles and cape stag beetles.


Role of CITES

·         It works by subjecting international trade in specimens of selected species to certain controls.

·         All import, export, re-export and introduction from the sea of species covered by the Convention has to be authorized through a licensing system.

·         Each Party to the Convention must designate one or more Management Authorities in charge of administering that licensing system and one or more Scientific Authorities to advise them on the effects of trade on the status of the species.

·         Appendices I, II and III to the Convention are lists of species got different types of protection against over-exploitation.

 

 

Thank you for reading this article, you can share your feedback in the comments section. You can also suggest the topics on which you want our analysis.

Please like and subscribe to this post for up-to-dated information on world affairs.

Follow our facebook page for more such articles at:- https://www.facebook.com/thecivilanalyst

 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Biodegradable Golf Balls: Eco-friendly Solution for every Golfer

Did you know that every year thousands of golf balls are lost in our planet's waterways? This probably does not surprise anyone who plays golf. What harm could a little golf ball do anyways? Well, new studies are coming to light that the little golf ball is a big problem. As they break down they release their contents into the ecosystem. A modern golf ball is made from the following: thermoplastics, zinc oxide, zinc acrylate, benzoyl peroxide, heavy metals, polybutadiene, and other secret combinations of exotic materials not disclosed by the manufacturer. These are not good for the planet! Don't forget about the plastic portion of the ball either. As it breaks down the plastic turns into microplastics. From the deepest depths of the ocean to the snow of the Artic microplastics have been found by pollution researchers to invade every corner of our planet. The size of the current microplastic pollution problem is huge! Estimates are between 15 trillion and 51 trillion microplasti...
2 comments
Read more

Urban Sprawl: An Emerging Issue

  Humans are becoming an increasingly urban species. They want to move to metropolitan cities and urban centres for better jobs opportunities or for the excitement of the city life. And this possess a really challenging developmental question of where are all these people going to go and if you live in a city, you might have noticed the expansion and the development of cities to suburbs and this is what we call urban sprawl. In 1937, Earle Draper - one of the first city planners in the south-eastern United States coined the term ‘sprawl.’ The urban sprawl is essentially the geographical expansion of a city or town and is often characterised as low density development, meaning housing is being built on really large land areas or scattered land locks, single use zoning and is also characterised by the increased reliance on private automobiles for each person transportation. The sprawl generally takes place in radial course around the city centre or in linear direction along the highw...
3 comments
Read more

Green Tax for a Greener Society

  Recently, Tesla has launched their electric cars in the Indian market. Though there has been a mixed reaction by the Indian consumers because of the price of the cars and lack of charging facilities. It is expected that Tesla will find it difficult to compete with the Diesel and Petrol variants as well as Indian electric car manufacturers. Talking about electric cars in order to curb environmental pollution and encourage people to switch to eco-friendly transportation mode, the Union Ministry for Road Transport and Highways of India has approved a proposal to levy a ‘Green Tax’ on old vehicles. Experts argues that, charging taxes on vehicles that cause environmental pollution will decrease environmental loss in a cost effective manner by encouraging behavioural changes among people. The Green Tax can be seen as a measure to strengthen India’s commitment to the Paris Agreement of 2015. As per the agreement India has targeted to reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33...
Post a Comment
Read more