Managing zoonotic diseases in the international wildlife trade through the One Health approach: a future role for CITES?*

Abstract

The wildlife trade regime is largely governed by the framework established by the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The emergence of COVID-19 in late 2019 as a zoonotic disease, attributed to either bats or pangolins, might imply that the subsequent pandemic could have been prevented if wildlife trading under CITES was better regulated through provisions related to public health. Many species of bats and pangolins are indeed listed as endangered under Appendix I of CITES. But is CITES well equipped to deal with public health in the context of the wildlife trade? Given that the text of CITES does not primarily deal with health-related aspects of the wildlife trade, the treaty text may need to be amended. Even without significant amendments, however, the existing framework of CITES could conform to the One Health approach – integrating animal, human and environmental health – depending upon the willingness of States Parties to adopt national legislation that advances several health-related resolutions made under CITES and other relevant instruments that regulate human–wildlife interactions. As 60 per cent of the diseases in the world are zoonotic, and 13 zoonoses are responsible for close to 2.4 billion cases of sickness per year, the management of zoonotic diseases within the CITES framework could have important implications for the wildlife trade, international environmental law, and the future of global health.