Ivory Trade under CITES

Why in news?

• Recently, India has 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).

Global status of ivory trade:

• The ivory trade was globally banned in 1989 when all African elephant populations were put in CITES Appendix I.
• CITES allowed Namibia, along with Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa, to perform one-time sales of ivory accumulated from natural elephant deaths and poacher seizures in 1999 and 2008.
• Following that, Namibia's proposal to enable a regular form of restricted ivory trade by delisting the elephant populations of the 4 nations from CITES Appendix II was rejected at the CoP17 (2016) and CoP18 (2019).
• Namibia and other southern African governments say that their elephant populations have recovered and that their stored ivory can produce much-needed revenue for elephant conservation, if sold worldwide.
• India has been a vocal opponent of the international ivory trade for over three decades.

What is CITES?

• It is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals.
• It was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• The convention was opened for signature in 1973 and CITES entered into force on 1 July 1975.
• Secretariat of CITES is administered by UNEP.
• Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten the survival of the species in the wild.

Legal Status of CITES

• Although CITES is legally binding on the Parties, it does not take the place of national laws.
• Rather it provides a framework respected by each Party, which must adopt their own domestic legislation to implement CITES at the national level.

Categories of protection under CITES:

• It has three appendices.
  • Appendix I has species threatened with extinction. Trade in specimens of these species is permitted only in exceptional circumstances.
  • Appendix II has species not necessarily threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be controlled to avoid utilisation incompatible with their survival.
  • Appendix III contains species that are protected in at least one country, which has asked other CITES parties for assistance in controlling trade.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Consider the following statements regarding CITES:

1. Secretariat of CITES is administered by UNEP

2. CITES is legally binding on state parties to the convention.

3. Appendix III species of CITES are species that are in danger of extinction.

Which of the statement(s) given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 1 and 2 only

(c) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

                        B

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