Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 2 • Number 5 • 21st March 2002

CITES Eases Trade Restrictions After Parties Pledge to Improve Wildlife Management

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CITES Eases Trade Restrictions After Parties Pledge to Improve Wildlife Management

At the close of a four day meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, the Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) agreed on 15 March to lift or modify imposed trade measures in response to pledges by United Arab Emirates, the Russian Federation, Fiji, and Vietnam to reform their wildlife management and practices. "As this week has demonstrated, the CITES regime is effective because we can create powerful incentives for motivating governments to follow the rules and cooperate with one another," said Kenneth Stansell of the US, chairman of the Standing Committee." CITES is an invaluable instrument for promoting the conservation and sustainable management of wild plants and animals," he added. According to sources, trade suspensions or threatened trade suspensions helped to prompt the United Arab Emirates, the Russian Federation, Fiji, and Vietnam to commit to enacting legislation that would conform with CITES standards.

In related developments, the CITES Secretariat announced on 6 March that it had accepted the Caspian littoral states’ proposal for a 2002 Caspian-wide quota of some 142 tons — i.e. 9.6 percent less than last year — of caviar from five sturgeon species as it considered the efforts undertaken by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan to comply with the requirements under the so-called Paris Agreement satisfactory. According to the Agreement, the five Caspian states had to suspend all further harvesting of sturgeon stocks for 2001 as well as conduct a stock assessment and develop a common sturgeon management plan before the end of 2001(see BRIDGES Weekly, 26 June 2001). CITES declared that "for the first time, the Caspian Sea’s wild sturgeons are being managed through a unified system rather than through competing national systems". Some conservation groups, however, had called on CITES not to lift the ban on caviar, as a recent survey had revealed a 40 percent drop in mature beluga sturgeon since 1995 in the Northern Caspian. Furthermore, no mature beluga sturgeon had been detected in the middle and southern Caspian Sea.

Background

CITES was adopted in 1973 to ensure the long-term survival of any species that are potentially threatened by international trade. Its 157 member countries regulate international trade in wild animal and plants covered by CITES via a permit system which differentiates between species listed in Annex I (species threatened with extinction), Annex II (potentially endangered species) and Annex III (unilaterally protected species). The Convention requires all Parties to refuse any import of specimens of CITES-listed species from, and any export or re-export of such specimens to countries whose legislation does not meet the requirements of implementation of CITES and that are engaged in significant amounts of international trade in endangered species.

Another important feature of CITES is that it includes provisions affecting non-parties. In particular, non-parties, where export or re-export is to or import is from, are required to provide similar documentation (eg export permits) to that required of parties (Article X). This provision was further elaborated in the non-binding resolution on trade with non-parties (see http://www.cites.org/eng/resols/9/9_5.shtml) which, inter alia, more clearly sets out the process behind and details of the required documentation. These provisions could potentially lead to a conflict with WTO rules as WTO Member not party to the Convention, which are affected by a trade measure under CITES, could challenge this measure as a hidden trade barrier at the WTO (provided that the country imposing the measure was also a WTO Member). While no trade measure imposed under an MEA has so far been challenged at the WTO, some fear that the unresolved relationship between MEAs and WTO rules might result in a ‘chilling effect’ in terms of developing new MEAs and implementing them effectively once they are adopted. As mandated by the Doha Ministerial Declaration, WTO Members will address this issue by negotiating on the relationship between MEAs and WTO rules in the Committee for Trade and Environment (CTE), but the Declaration effectively skirts the non-party issue by stating that these "negotiations shall not prejudice the WTO rights of any Member that is not a party to the MEA in question."

Additional Resources

For further details see the CITES Press Release.

"Trade Sanctions Motivate Change in Wildlife Mavericks," ENS, 18 March 2002; "CAVIAR: UN Asked To Reconsider Trade Ban", REUTERS, 8 March 2002; "Caspian Sea States To Resume Caviar Trade," CITES PRESS RELEASE, 6 March 2002; "Caspian Caviar Ban Lifted," BBC NEWS, 6 March 2002; "Avoid Eating Beluga Caviar - Conservation Groups," REUTERS, 8 March 2002.