In News
- Recently, India decided not to vote against a proposal to re-open the international trade in ivory at the ongoing conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
- The proposal to allow a regular form of controlled trade in ivory from Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, was defeated 83-15 in Panama City.
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Agreement
- Aim:
- To ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten the survival of the species.
- Protection:
- Today, it accords varying degrees of protection to more than 37,000 species of animals and plants, whether they are traded as live specimens, fur coats or dried herbs.
- Enforceability of the Convention:
- CITES is an international agreement to which States and regional economic integration organisations adhere voluntarily.
- States that have agreed to be bound by the Convention (‘joined’ CITES) are known as Parties.
- Although CITES 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 respected by each Party, which has to adopt its own domestic legislation to ensure that CITES is implemented at the national level.
- Permit System:
- All import, export and re-export of species covered under CITES must be authorised through a permit system.
- Appendix:
- CITES Appendix I lists species threatened with extinction — import or export permits for these are issued rarely and only if the purpose is not primarily commercial.
- CITES Appendix II includes species not necessarily threatened with extinction but in which trade must be strictly regulated.
- Every two years, the Conference of the Parties (CoP), the supreme decision-making body of CITES, applies a set of biological and trade criteria to evaluate proposals from parties to decide if a species should be in Appendix I or II.
- Memberships:
- For many years CITES has been among the conservation agreements with the largest membership, with now 184 Parties.
- India became the 25th party — a state that voluntarily agrees to be bound by the Convention — in 1976.
Status of the International Ivory Trade
- Globally banned in 1989 when all African elephant populations were put in CITES Appendix I.
- The populations of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe were transferred to Appendix II in 1997, and South Africa’s in 2000 to allow two “one-off sales” in 1999 and 2008 of ivory stockpiled from natural elephant deaths and seizures from poachers.
- Subsequently, Namibia’s proposal for allowing a regular form of controlled trade in ivory by delisting the elephant populations of the four countries from Appendix II was rejected at CoP17 (2016) and CoP18 (2019).
Source: IE
