Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species(CITES)

About CITES:

• It is an international agreement between governments.
• CITES regulates international trade in specimens of species of wild fauna and flora based on a system of permits and certificates issued under certain conditions.
  • It covers export, re-export, import and landing from the high seas of live and dead
    animals and plants and their parts and derivatives.
• CITES has now 183 Parties. Not all members of the United Nations are Parties to the Convention.
• The CITES Secretariat is hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Origin:

• It was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of IUCN (The World Conservation Union).
• The text of the Convention was finally agreed at a meeting of representatives of 80 countries in Washington, D.C, on 3 March 1973, and on 1 July 1975 CITES entered in force.

Legality:

• It is legally binding on the Parties – in other words they have to implement the Convention.
• It does not take the place of national laws. Rather it provides a framework to be adopted by parties in its own domestic legislation to ensure that CITES is implemented at the national level.

How CITES works:

• 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.

The species covered by CITES are listed in three Appendices, according to the degree of protection they need.

• Changes to Appendix III follow a distinct procedure from changes to Appendices I and II, as each Party’s is entitled to make unilateral amendments to it.

Funding:

The Convention is financed by core and external funds.

The core funding, known as the CITES Trust Fund (CTL), finances the administrative costs of the Secretariat, the Conference of the Parties and its subsidiary bodies, the Standing Committee and other permanent committees.

• The CITES Trust Fund is replenished from contributions of the Parties to the Convention based on the UN scale of assessment.

The external funds, known as the CITES External Trust Fund (QTL) funds the voluntary programmes/projects activities costs.

• The CITES External Trust Fund consists of extra budgetary contributions from Parties and other entities on a purely voluntary basis.
• Each offer of funding to the CITES External Trust Fund is negotiated and vetted by the Secretariat.