How does cites protect animals

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Please install any of the modern browsers, for example:. Skip to main content. For species listed in Appendix I, commercial trade is basically prohibited, for species on Appendix II international trade may be allowed under certain controls and restrictions.

For other inquiries, email contact ensia. The post is now in your clipboard. Wildlife protection is rarely as dramatic as an ivory bonfire. What are the different levels of protection? Who exactly sets species listings and policy recommendations — and how? And what, if anything, happens if countries drop the ball on their commitments?

CITES dates back to , when attendees at an International Union for Conservation of Nature meeting realized that unregulated trade directly threatened certain species — yet the world had no way to control it. The convention now includes governments, and its listings have grown to some 35, species. Countries register around a million transactions per year, which range from a single specimen to hundreds or thousands. Appendix I is reserved for plants and animals threatened with extinction.

Appendix II species are those that are not deemed threatened with extinction, but — should they be freely traded — may enter the danger zone. Unlike Appendix I species, they require only an export permit and can be traded internationally for commercial purposes. Proposals require a two-thirds majority vote to pass and are supposed to be science based, taking into account evidence such as how many of the animals are left in the wild; how urgent the threats are to their survival; and how many, if any, can be removed sustainably.

For many species, experts lack even the most basic data, including population estimates, making it impossible to know what levels of trade are in fact sustainable. The process is far from perfect. But instead we continue with a business-as-usual scenario, trading until we can clearly see that we have gone too far. The scale of the trade is staggering: from to , 1. In fact, a minority of plants and animals are so lucky as even to be included under the treaty.

The volume of international trade in animals not categorized by CITES is about 10 times greater than the trade in listed ones, Nijman said, while the domestic trade is 10 times greater than that.

Look a bit closer at legal trade, however, and it begins to appear more and more illegal. For starters, legally binding rules are broken with impunity, including ones that govern harvesting quotas and capture methods, dictate who can sell what where, regulate transport, and stipulate required licenses.

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