http://www.nature.com/nsu/021118/021118-3.html
CITES comes of age
Wildlife convention takes on fisheries and forests.
19 November 2002
JOHN WHITFIELD
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is now a rather different beast compared with two weeks ago. During the meeting of governments and conservationists that just ended in Santiago, Chile, the convention changed its emphasis and broadened its reach.
CITES is now set to tackle big wildlife businesses such as fishing and forestry. Until this year the convention was concerned mainly with the export and exploitation of rare plants and animals, such as orchids and tigers. Such trade threatens the species' survival, but is not significant in economic terms.
"There's been a real change in the mood of the convention," says Jim Armstrong, CITES' deputy secretary general. The 160 signatory nations are showing a new willingness to apply it to "truly commercial" species, he says - "it's quite a watershed."
Timber and fisheries have traditionally been regulated by national governments and bodies such as the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. As fish populations around the world shrink and illegal logging continues apace, CITES may be moving to fill the gap.
"CITES has come of age," agrees Sabri Zain of Traffic, a UK-based charity that monitors the trade in wild species. He hopes that the convention will reduce the exploitation of natural resources.
One sign of the convention's new maturity was the decision - after a decade of arguing - to add the South American hardwood big-leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) to its Appendix II. Appendix II is a list of species that are not at immediate risk of extinction, but which soon will be if trade is not closely controlled. Permits are granted only to exporting countries showing that trade does not threaten the species' survival.
"It's a significant step forward," comments John Kress, head of botany at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. He thinks the convention should consider listing other tropical timbers, such as teak.
Sea change
Perhaps the best news for marine life was the listing of all 32 species of seahorse on Appendix II. The animals are much in demand for aquariums and traditional medicines. The main exporters are Indonesia, the Philippines and Brazil.
"It's a tremendous outcome," says Callum Roberts, a conservation biologist at the University of York, UK. A major factor was that conservationists worked with traders to convince them that regulation would protect their livelihoods, not destroy them, he says.
The meeting's final sessions also voted to list the basking and whale sharks, overturning a previous vote.
Conservationists had some frustrations. Initial proposals to list the Patagonian toothfish, also known as the Chilean sea bass, were dropped. The culinary popularity of this species is feared to be threatening its future.
Things are moving in the right direction, says Roberts, but getting a species listed is still too hard and can take many years. "A species needs to be endangered to be listed on CITES," Roberts says. "That's the wrong way round - I'd like to see it reinvented as a convention on international trade in all wild species."
The next CITES conference will be in Thailand in late 2004 or early 2005.
