As Born Free requires tighter restrictions on worldwide wildlife commerce when regulatory physique, CITES, meets in Geneva, we have a look at why CITES is essential and the way Born Free is concerned.
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In November final yr, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) held its triennial Conference of the Parties in Panama.
Born Free’s abstract of the outcomes of that assembly highlighted the significance of the measures agreed, as a raft of tree species, amphibians, reptiles, sharks and birds have been introduced underneath the safety of CITES for the primary time, or had their present safety standing improved. Other measures included ratchetting up efforts to forestall the devastating trafficking of pangolins and cheetah cubs, rising consciousness and limiting the impacts of commerce in stay wild animals, and contemplating the potential function that CITES can play in lowering the danger of future pandemics.
What is the CITES Standing Committee?
Between every Conference of Parties (involving round 2,000 delegates), the CITES Standing Committee meets yearly, and broadly oversees the implementation of the Convention, primarily based on the directions supplied by the Conference of the Parties.
From 6-10 November 2023, Born Free will likely be attending the 77th CITES Standing Committee assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. At that assembly, we’ll be working with our colleagues from internationally as a part of the Species Survival Network, of which we’re a founding member, to attempt to affect the outcomes on a complete vary of points together with, amongst others: the function of CITES in lowering the danger of future pandemics; the function of indigenous peoples and native communities in CITES decision-making; commerce in captive-bred CITES species; commerce in stay wild-caught elephants; commerce in huge cats, rhinos and nice apes; the principles round transport of stay animals; and compliance processes for Parties that could be breaking the principles.
Why is CITES essential?
CITES has many critics. It is, in spite of everything, primarily a global commerce settlement, designed to facilitate commerce in threatened species in a regulated approach. It’s not a prison justice settlement, neither is it an animal welfare settlement, albeit it has implications for each. It solely regulates cross-border commerce within the 41,000-odd species listed on its appendices (roughly 6,600 species of animals and 34,300 species of vegetation) and has no jurisdiction at a home degree. Since its measures are negotiated and agreed by nationwide authorities delegates, these decision-making processes are basically political in nature, and the diploma to which they’re successfully applied and enforced varies enormously.
Nevertheless, CITES is the one worldwide settlement designed completely to control wildlife commerce, which it does by attempting to make sure the legality, sustainability and traceability of any worldwide commerce transaction involving the species it covers. Some 184 international locations, comprising almost all of the world’s governments, are signed up as ‘Parties’, and are legally dedicated to implementing the Convention by their very own nationwide laws. There are additionally potential penalties for Parties that fail to stick to the Convention, within the type of commerce sanctions and even commerce suspensions.
Born Free’s involvement with CITES
Born Free has been concerned in CITES for the reason that late Nineteen Eighties, when our co-founder and Executive President, Will Travers OBE, travelled to Lausanne in Switz
erland to current a 610,000-name petition that helped safe the ban on worldwide business commerce in elephant ivory. Over the years, our achievements have included serving to to safe the worldwide ban on worldwide business commerce in pangolins, restrictions on commerce in African lion components, the regulation of commerce in giraffes, and the present moratorium on commerce in stay, wild-caught African elephants to zoos and different captive amenities, amongst many others.
We’ve notably focussed on implementation and compliance, and on strengthening restrictions on worldwide commerce in stay animals. This has turn into much more pressing within the wake of Covid-19, and the necessity to enhance the welfare of untamed animals in commerce to assist scale back future pandemic threat.
The discussions and negotiations that take place at these conferences may be fairly technical in nature, could appear to take without end, and we don’t all the time obtain the outcomes we want to see. Nevertheless, Born Free will proceed to struggle for better safety for wildlife from rampant exploitation, and advocating for better help to strengthen the effectiveness of CITES provisions is a vitally essential a part of that course of.
In the ultimate evaluation, CITES is way from good, however the world’s wildlife could be a lot worse off with out it.
