Trade in Lions, Eagles, Turtles, Elephants Under Scrutiny

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 14, 2004 (ENS) - The international trade in wildlife is big business, estimated to be worth billions of dollars annually and to involve more than 350 million plant and animal specimens every year. Unregulated international trade can push threatened and endangered species over the brink, especially when combined with habitat loss and other pressures.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) regulates this trade in some 30,000 plant and animal species. For its next meeting in Bangkok in October, the CITES Secretariat of has received over 50 proposals from its 166 member governments to adjust the rules governing the international trade in various species.

Governments will accept, reject or adjust these proposals for amending the CITES Appendices at the Bangkok conference. The Appendices list species that are at risk and whose import and export is controlled through a permit system on Appendix II and species that are already endangered and that may not be commercially traded at all on Appendix I.

CITES accords varying degrees of protection to depending on their biological status and the impact that international trade may have upon them.

Appendix I contains fewer than 600 animal species and a little more than 300 plant species, whereas Appendix II covers over 4,100 animal species and 28,000 plant species. Appendix III, which includes species that are protected within the borders of a member country, lists over 290 species.

The African elephant is a regular feature of the CITES agenda. Following a 1989 ban on the international ivory trade, CITES permitted some one-off sales in 1997 and again in 2002. The 2002 sales from Botswana (20 tonnes), Namibia (10 tonnes) and South Africa (30 tonnes) have not yet occurred pending the establishment of baseline data on poaching and populations.

Namibia has now submitted a proposal for an annual export quota of two tonnes of ivory. Both Namibia and South Africa are proposing to trade elephant leather commercially in addition to ivory.

Lions, like this male in Namibia, are proposed for greater CITES protection. (Photo by Peter Dollinger courtesy CITES)

Japan is recommending that three populations of minke whale be transferred from Appendix I to Appendix II. CITES currently forbids any international trade in whale products. Madagascar and Australia propose adding the great white shark to Appendix II. No sharks were included in Appendix II until two years ago, when the whale shark and the basking shark were added.

Marine turtles and land tortoises are under various degrees of threat around the world, and many are already listed in the CITES Appendices. Six additional species are now proposed for inclusion in Appendix II. They are the soft-shelled pig-nosed turtle, McCord's snake-necked turtle, the Malayan flat-shelled turtle, the Malayan snail-eating turtle, the Asian soft-shelled turtle and the flyriver turtle. In addition, the Malagasy spider tortoise is being proposed for Appendix I.

Sea animals on the agenda in Bangkok will include the humphead wrasse - a large and valuable reef fish occurring in the Indo-Pacific - southeast Asia's Irrawaddy dolphin and the Mediterranean date mussel.

A bird-bander holds a painted bunting in Texas (Photo courtesy NPS)

Other proposals call for easing the trade restrictions on the bald eagle and the southern white rhinoceros and introducing the permit system. The United States proposes removing the bobcat, now on Appendix II, from the CITES regime.

Three proposals concern crocodiles. Cuba proposes to transfer the Cuban crocodile from Appendix I to Appendix II. Namibia would like to do the same for its national population of the Nile crocodile. Zambia, whose population of the Nile crocodile is already listed on Appendix II, is now requesting an annual export quota of no more than 548 wild specimens.

Madagascar proposes adding the leaf-necked geckos and the coloured serpent - considered the country's most spectacular snake - to CITES via Appendix II. Kenya proposes the same listing for two species of viper.

The plant proposals would introduce Appendix II permit requirements for Asia's commercially valuable agarwood and ramin (or white wood) trees plus a number of Asian trees belonging to the Taxus genus. Also on the agenda are an orchid from Colombia and a cactus from southern Africa.

The United States wants to remove protection from some species and increase it for others. Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Craig Manson, said, "Our proposals reflect the evolving nature of the international wildlife trade that requires CITES nations to continually refine, update, and adapt the way the convention is implemented and enforced."

U.S. officials want to remove the bobcat from Appendix II because "the species is abundant and well-managed and therefore does not require CITES listing." The significant resources invested by states, tribes, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to comply with CITES requirements for export of bobcat could be redirected to other species with more immediate conservation needs, the U.S. proposal says.

Bald eagles on a nesting box in Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge (Photo courtesy U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)

The United States is proposing to remove peach-faced lovebirds, a small parrot, from Appendix II because nearly all of these birds in trade are captive-bred and therefore trade has little or no impact on wild populations.

The United States is sponsoring proposals to add five species of Asian turtles to CITES Appendix II. This is a continuation of efforts to include all species of Asian freshwater turtles and tortoises in the CITES Appendices, as agreed at a CITES-sponsored Technical Workshop on Conservation of and Trade in Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises in Asia, held in Kunming, China in March 2002. The United States co-sponsored similar proposals at the last two conferences of parties.

The United States will co-sponsor with China adding additional species of Asian yew trees to Appendix II. The extract from this tree is used for medicinal purposes and the United States is seeking to have additional species regulated under CITES, in line with consensus recommendations of the CITES Plants Committee.

Based on recent research on the effects of trade on the sustainability of this fish species, the United States is proposing adding the humphead wrassespecies to Appendix II.

Trade is adversely impacting a native North American songbird called the painted bunting, and wild populations are declining, U.S. officials say, therefore, the United States is proposing this species for Appendix II.

The CITES Secretariat will now review and analyze all of the proposals it has received. It will publish its preliminary technical and scientific assessment of the proposals together with its preliminary recommendations in early June.