CYIL Vol. 5, 2014

CITES AT THE BEGINNING OF ITS FIFTH DECADE… concerned: the number of species listed in CITES appendices has risen from 1100 in the mid-1970s to more than 35 000 in 2014 and the trade control measures are widely applied by the contracting Parties. Even if some authors question its real effectiveness and consider it outdated, 4 the author of this paper – while consenting partially to this criticism – is convinced that CITES is a viable instrument with the potential to contribute in an important way to the conservation of biological diversity in the next decades, provided the contracting Parties want it to. The first part of this article reminds one that the aim of the CITES is not – as is sometimes wrongly assumed from its title – a strict protection of species endangered by extinction; it is therefore not appropriate to deem it ineffective just because the populations of some species it concerns continue to decline. The second part deals with the CITES compliance procedure; it shows that it can be highly effective but is probably not equally applied to all State Parties. The third part explores the lukewarm attitude of Parties to CITES to commercially valuable marine species and future challenges in this sense. 1. “The owls are not what they seem” 5 … or a convention with a misleading title Contrary to many other multilateral environmental agreements the aim of CITES is not provided for expressis verbis in its text; it can, however, be quite easily deduced from its Preamble stating that “international cooperation is essential for the protection of certain species of wild fauna and flora against over-exploitation through international trade”. 6 It is to be stressed that the aim of CITES is not the protection of wild species within their natural habitats. Although it can have (and it actually has) an indirect positive effect on in situ protection of the species concerned, it does not provide for any specific obligation in this sense. This paper’s objective is not a detailed analysis of the convention text; it is however appropriate to bear in mind that the scope of application of the CITES ratione materiae stretches far beyond its title. This confusion is partly due to the difference between the general meaning of the words used and their significance for the purposes of the convention, partly it results from the emphasis put by drafters of the convention on endangered species, which forty years later represent only a small portion of CITES-listed species. The words used in the title need precision in order for one to properly understand the limits and possibilities of the convention. CITES regulates ‘international trade’; this means the “export, re-export, import and introduction from the sea” 7 of specimens of animal and plant species listed in 4 Cf. for example COUZENS, E. CITES at Forty: Never Too Late to Make Lifestyle Changes . RECIEL, Vol. 22, Issue 3, 2013, p. 311. 5 Famous quote from the Mark Frost’s and David Lynch’s TV serial drama Twin Peaks. 6 CITES, Preamble, para. 4. 7 CITES, art. I (c). ‘Introduction from the sea’ means “transportation into a State of specimens of any species which were taken in the marine environment not under the jurisdiction of any State” [ ibid. , art. I (e)].

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