The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international agreement which forbids commercial trade in endangered species, while allowing commerce in species, while that can withstand the pressure of trade, or even benefit from commercialisation.

Through the initiative of The World Conservation Union (IUCN), CITES was adopted on 3 March 1973, in Washington DC, and came into effect in 1975. There are 131 signatory countries worldwide at the moment, and all but three Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries have ratified it. The objective of CITES is to remove commercial trade as a factor endangered species.

CITES governs international trade not only in live animals and plants but also in parts, such as hides, shells and horns, and in products such as watch straps and ivory piano keys, if they are made from species covered by the convention.

At present, many species are declining in numbers because of floss of habitat and increased exploitation as human populations grow. However, commercial trade is often a significant factor in the decline. Both legal and illegal traders ship high value, live animals, and plants and their products all over the world.

For this reason, CITES established a world-wide system of international trade control for threatened wildlife and their products by stipulating that government permits are required for such trade. Security paper and stamps are used for the permits to prevent abuses such as forgery.

Central to CITES are three lists of species called "appendices". Species can be added to or moved from one appendix to another, with the approval of states which are party to the convention.

Appendix 1 – lists species facing extinction and prohibits commercial trade in such species or their products. The few special exceptions include trade for scientific research or museum purposes, and trophies from recreational hunting. Such transactions require both an import permit from CITES authorities in the recipient country and an export permit from authorities in the country of origin.

There are over 600 plant and animal species which are facing extinction and are listed in Appendix 1. These include the African elephant, cheetahs, leopards, black and white rhinos, whales, sea turtles, some orchids and cacti.

Appendix11 – includes species that are not yet endangered but are being monitored, to ensure sustainable utilisation. These species may be traded commercially, if the country of origin is assured that trade in non-detrimental to the species and if an export permit is issued.

Appendix 11 covers 2,300 species of animals, such as hippopotamus and the Nile crocodile, more than 24,000 plants, many butterflies, all wild cats and black corals. The seals from Namibia are also included in this appendix, although their population is huge and increasing fast.

Appendix 111 – is designed to help individual countries gain international assistance in protecting their native species. Any country may place a native plant or animal on this appendix, highlighting that the species is for special attention. No country should accept a shipment unless it has an export permit from its native country (if the country listed it in Appendix 111) or a certificate of origin (if it comes from a country which has not listed it). Botswana and Mauritius are two of the 12 SADC countries with species listed in this appendix.

Under CITES, the responsibility for trade control is placed on member nations, which are expected to police their own ports of entry and exit, report on trade, and punish violators. CITES does not apply to trade that goes on within a country nor does it usually affect internal issues such as hunting, whether legal or illegal. National laws and enforcement activities are crucial to CITES success and to the conservation of commercially valuable wild species.

The CITES Secretariat is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Convention and works with elected representatives between biennial Conferences of the Parties (COP).

The Wildlife Trade Monitoring Unit (WTMU), part of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, UK, collects and analyses data submitted by governments. Apart from this, WTMU also receives information from the IUCN/ WWF TRAFFIC (Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce) offices in several countries. WTMU and the TRAFFIC network are able to assist the CITES Secretariat and the Parties in spotting problem areas and prompting remedial action.

The non-commercial exchange of certain museum and herbarium specimens between scientists or scientific institutions is exempt from normal permit requirements, provided the scientists have been registered by the state in which they are located. Specimens owned by travelling zoos, circuses, menageries, plant exhibitions and other travelling exhibitions, if they are pre-convention, captive-bred or artificially propagated, can also be exempted from the usual permit and certificate authorising the international movements of live animals.

In the last few years, CITES has become a battle ground between North and South, on which developed countries – and those seeking their favours – assume all of the authority to impose trade bans on Southern resources, but none of the costs. For example, the depleted sturgeon (fish whose eggs are the delicacy caviar) and cod, are unprotected by CITES, and likely to remain so. In contrast, thriving seal populations in southern Africa are on Appendix 11 because the protection of marine mammals is the foundation on which many NGOs have built their power base.

Regarding this controversy around CITES, Dr. Mostafa Tolba, then Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), warned CITES in 1992, that "There are complaints from a number of developing countries that the rich are more interested in making the Third World a natural history museum than they are in filling the bellies of its people"

In 1989, the CITES Conference of Parties, accepted a proposal listing the African elephant in Appendix 1, banning trade in ivory. But CITES banned this trade because some elephant populations, not the species, were considered endangered! This resolution was based on the international demand for ivory which was an incentive for poachers to slaughter elephants, purely for the ivory trade. This threatened their survival, mainly in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Dissatisfied with the outcome of the conference, some southern African countries (Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe) formed the Southern African Centre for Ivory Marketing (SACIM), in June, 1991. In 1992, Zambia withdrew, following a change in government and strong pressure from British NGOs.

Based in Botswana, SACIM proposes to market legally acquired ivory to non-CITES countries. Since then, SACIM has boadened into an effective forum for the discussion of a whole range of wildlife management issues between neighbouring countries. In recognition of this, the name was changed to the Southern African Convention for Wildlife Management (SACWM). This change also recognises that elephant products cannot be marketed from just one location in the region. Each country will market its elephant products through a government- approved agency.

Ivory trade under the umbrella of SACWM would have two major advantages: first, it would benefit all its members financially since it is a cartel. Second, it would exert the strictest possible controls on the ivory trade. The advantages will lead to two important results: there would be more money available for elephant conservation, and illegal killing of elephants would be curbed.

But the elephant populations in some southern African countries, such as South African, Zimbabwe and Botswana, are growing. In Zimbabwe, the 66,000 elephants exceed the population of 40,000 that the ecological system can support.

In general, southern African countries do not oppose the ban just because they want to continue with a lucrative trade. They argue that the success of their programmes of elephant management depends on the animal having a financial value. South Africa and Zimbabwe have, for many years, culled their elephants annually, using every part of the carcass: the meat goes to the local people, skin and ivory of which are ploughed directly back into conservation.

Having the elephant in Appendix 1 can divert attention from the real underlying cause for the decline of the elephant in Africa, which is the loss of its range and habitat as it increasingly finds itself in competition with legitimate human activities.

IUCN initiated the idea of compiling lists of threatened wildlife, as a means of drawing attention to the plight of species facing extinction. These lists are known as Red Data Books – red stands for danger, and now many countries have produces their own national red data books.

The books show the degree of threat to various groups of living organisms, such as mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes and plants. Practical actions to protect the threatened species, and to preserve biodiversity on earth are also mentioned.

TRAFFIC East/ Southern Africa (TESA)

TESA, which is part of the worldwide TRAFFIC Network and is supported by WWF and IUCN, has been in existence since October 1991, and is the only coordinated regional wildlife trade monitoring programme in Africa. Its mandate is to monitor the trade and utilisation of wild animals and plants in 18 east and southern African countries, including all SADC countries except Mauritius.

The activities of TESA in the region are diverse, and vary from provision of assistance to government and wildlife authorities to improve implementation of national and international wildlife laws, for example, the CITES.

IUCN uses the following categories, in the red data books, to assess the status of the species within the area under review.

• EXTICNT: species for which there is historical record, but which no longer exist in a particular area. Fossil forms are not included. Some species may be locally extinct, but have existing populations elsewhere.
• ENDANGERED: species in danger of extinction, and whose survival is unlikely if the factors which cause their decline persist.
• VULNERABLE: species which it is believed will move into the endangered category if the factors which cause their decline continue to exist.
• RARE: species with small populations which are not at present endangered or vulnerable, but which are at risk. Often the available suitable habitat for a particular species may be so limited within a region that only small populations can exist. Certain species require such large territories, or may have very specialised habitat requirements, that they can only occour in low densities.
• OUT OF DANGER: species formerly listed in Red Data Books, but whose status has improved or has been reassessed.
• INDETERMINATE: species which might be worthy of inclusion in one of the threatened categories, but for which insufficient information is available to assess their status. Such species should be priorities for research effort.

Source: Fitzgerald S., International Wildlife Trade: Whose Business is it? World Wide Fund for Nature, Washington DC, 1989.

I also carries out investigation of key wildlife trade issues through analysis of trade date and reporting on the results, examination of wildlife markets, trade structures and patterns, illegal wildlife trade routes and raising public awareness about wildlife trade issues by collaborating with WWF and IUCN.

Currently, TESA is a sub-grantee within USAID’s Africa (IUCN-ROSA). The programme, The Regional Networking and Capacity Building Initiative for Southern Africa (NETCAB), is designed to support environmental planning and policy initiatives in the region.

The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme decision-making body of CITES. It holds ordinary meeting every two to three years and may hold extraordinary meetings on request of at least one-third of the parties. Zimbabwe is scheduled to host the next COP in 1997.

The COP reviews implementation of the convention and reports submitted by the secretariat, and may consider and adopt amendments to Appendices 1 and 11. The conference also makes recommendations to improve the effectiveness and implementation of the convention.

Secretaria de Estado do Ambiente Department of Environmental Affairs

Predio da Mutamba, 3 andar, Luanda and Tourism Environmental

Angola Conservation Branch

P. Bag X447, Pretoria 0001

Department of Wildlife and National Parks South Africa

P.O. Box 131, Gaborone

Botswana Ministry of Natural Resources

Land Utilisation & Energy

National Environment Secretariat P.O. Box 57, Mbabane

P.O. Box 527, Maseru Swaziland

Lesotho

Department of National Parks and Wildlife Ministry of Tourism, Natural

P.O. Box 30131, Lilongwe 3 Resources and Environment,

Malawi Wildlife Division

P.O. Box 1994,

National Parks and Conservation Service Dar es Sallam

Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources Tanzania

Fax: (230 – 4648749)

Mauritius National Parks and Wildlife

Service – CITES

Direccao Nacional de Florestas e Fauna Bravia Management Authority

Ministerio da Agricultura, CP 1406, Maputo P. Bag 1, Chilanga

Mozambique Zambia

Ministry of Environmnet and Tourism Department of National Parks and

Directorate of Resource Management Wildlife Management

P. Bag 13306, Windhoek P.O. Box CY 140 Causeway