The Significance of CITES for Biodiversity Conservation: Semi-century Experience

Abstract

Today, global smuggling of endangered animals and plants is second only to drug trafficking. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which came into force in 1975, was a major step in protecting our planet's biodiversity. It covers more than 40,900 species, including some 6,610 animal species and 34,310 plant species, as listed in its three annexes. The Convention is perhaps one of the most effective means of protecting biological diversity and its components in international law. The Russian Federation has been a party to CITES since 1992. Since then, the country has conducted a significant number of programs to control the number and turnover of rare and valuable species, and the area of protected areas is constantly expanding. In the 50 years since the Convention was signed, CITES has created a sustainable global structure that effectively ensures, that threats from legal trade to the survival of wild animal and plant species are minimized. It has also created a framework for combating illegal trade in wild species between states parties to the convention. Nevertheless, many issues still need to be resolved. National legal systems around the world must provide effective sanctions for illegal encroachments on wildlife components, as well as include measures to counteract new forms of illegal trade, in particular through the legal internet, as well as the illegal Darknet, where advertisements for goods and services that are not legally traded have moved in recent years.