Geneva,
30 June 2010 - From medicine to musical
instruments and from fashion and beauty
products to delicacies, wildlife items in
trade must be properly regulated to ensure
the continued survival of animals and plants
in the wild.
This is the main message
coming from the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES), which celebrates its
35th anniversary on 1 July 2010.
"While not a single
one of some 34,000 CITES-listed species
has become extinct as a result of international
trade until now, growing pressures on biological
resources make regulating global wildlife
trade even more relevant today than it was
in 1975 when countries brought this unprecedented
global treaty into force", said CITES
Secretary-General John Scanlon.
Global wildlife trade
has increased significantly since 1975.
CITES Trade Database, which registers legal
trade in wildlife, holds over 10 million
records of trade, with an average of 850,000
permits to trade in a CITES-listed species
issued annually by the Convention's member
States.
With the forthcoming
accession of Bahrain announced today, CITES
will have 176 Parties, while it only had
10 Parties 35 years ago, including Switzerland,
which hosts the Convention's Secretariat,
and the United States where the text of
the Convention was adopted.
"By being a pioneer
in adopting trade measures to prevent overexploitation
and relying on scientific advice for the
authorization of wildlife trade, CITES has
put the machinery in place to contribute
to the improved management of the key natural
assets of our planet", declared Ambassador
Betty E. King, Permanent Representative
of the Mission of the United States of America
to the United Nations Office and other International
Organizations in Geneva.
"Switzerland is
very proud to host a biodiversity-related
Convention that is able to deliver concrete
conservation results. We hope that the international
community will build on its successes for
many more years to come to contribute to
alleviating poverty and stopping the decline
in global biodiversity", added Mr Thomas
Jemmi, Deputy Director General of the Swiss
Federal Veterinary Office, the CITES Management
Authority of Switzerland.
"This treaty was
visionary because it was able to put practical
trade rules in place for the use of terrestrial
and marine species, before the global boom
created by the liberalization of trade and
the acceleration of transactions via Internet.
CITES is thus part of the transition to
a resource efficient 21st century Green
Economy", said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and Executive Director of the United
Nations Environment Programme, which administers
the CITES Secretariat.
CITES-listed species
that are traded in significant volumes include
species as diverse as orchids, crocodiles
and sea shells. More recently, CITES has
been used to address the precarious situation
of marine and timber species, such as the
great white shark and mahogany.
The Web-based CITES
Trade Data Dashboards, unveiled on the occasion
of this anniversary, use the trade data
from the annual reports of the Parties to
provide an instant overview of the magnitude
of wildlife trade per country and per species
group, such as mammals, birds or fish. For
instance, the Dashboard provides a way to
see general trends, such as "trade
volume over time"; "top 10 trading
partners", "top 5 items"
and "trade by source (e.g. wild or
captive breeding)".
"The International
Year of Biodiversity offers an opportunity
to both reflect upon the past successes
and mobilize efforts to address current
and future challenges. CITES has a proven
track record in managing wildlife trade
internationally. Its ongoing relevance and
ability to adapt to changing circumstances
are essential to the conservation and sustainable
use of wildlife," concluded Scanlon.
Note to journalists:
Media representatives are invited to an
official reception on the occasion of the
35th anniversary of the entry into force
of CITES. The reception will take place
at the Natural History Museum of the City
of Geneva on 1 July 2010 from 15h00 to 18h00.
