CITES in the new millennium - IUCN

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Seahorse products at a market in Hong Kong. Seahorses are the subject of an unusual pre-listing debate by CITES, since the taxa are not listed on any of the Appendices. Pregnant males set a precedent for CITES Amanda Vincent Hippocampus kuda is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, although its status is currently being re-assessed. Seahorses, and other syngnathid fishes – pipefishes, pipehorses and seadragons – are highly unusual in that the males alone brood their young on or in their bodies. It is perhaps no surprise that such quirky animals should lead CITES to think creatively about how best to address over-exploitation. Many syngnathids are heavily traded for traditional medicines, tonic foods, ornamental display and curiosities, to a level that has helped deplete many wild populations. These are valuable resources to thousands of subsistence fishers and medicinally important medicines to millions of other people. CITES’ approach to the issue of trade in these fishes was wonderfully novel, promoting conservation engagement without originally debating a listing proposal. Australia and the USA considered proposing trade controls at the 11 th Conference of the Parties in 2000, but finally decided that this action would be premature and might do more harm than good. Instead, they submitted a discussion document to promote action. Their caution was rewarded when the Parties decided unanimously to take action on behalf of syngnathids – an unusual consensus in the case of marine fish. The EDWARD G. LINES/SHEDD AQUARIUM Animals Committee has been busy ever since, collating trade data and management information submitted by Parties, facilitating a technical workshop in May 2002, and Project Seahorse is a marine conservation team that integrates research and management, while cooperating with diverse stakeholder communities around the world. Seahorses serve as wonderful flagship animals for grave problems with overexploitation, wasteful bycatch, and habitat loss. Visit http://www.projectseahorse.org developing a discussion document for consideration at the 12 th Conference of the Parties. The CITES consultative process led to new evidence that the seahorse trade and associated conservation problems had grown sufficiently to require government intervention. As well, it became clear that many stakeholder groups were requesting management guidelines for seahorse fisheries, although not necessarily through CITES. After considering a wide array of options, the CITES technical workshop on seahorses and other syngnathids, and the CITES Animals Committee, recommended – as a partial conservation contribution – Appendix II listing for all seahorses, thus supporting a proposal to this effect from the United States of America. The delay in proposing an Appendix II listing until the 12 th Conference of the Parties has fostered considerable dialogue on seahorses and their relatives. Such collegiate discussion should help promote collective international engagement in managing their trade. Indeed, it is a hopeful sign that the Hong Kong Chinese Medicinal Merchants Association helped fund the CITES technical workshop and called on its members to adopt conservation measures for syngnathids, although the Association remains wary of the Appendix II listing per se. Amanda Vincent holds the Canada Research Chair in Marine Conservation at the Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. She is also Director of Project Seahorse and Chair of the CITES Animals Committee’s Syngnathid Working Group. 26 World Conservation 3/2002 AMANDA VINCENT
Regional Good management makes good neighbours Malan Lindeque PERSPECTIVES Much of the international trade in CITES-listed species originates from shared populations that are distributed across national borders. Yet traditionally CITES has been administered at the national level. Wild species do not, of course, recognise geopolitical borders. Therefore, where shared populations are concerned, promoting CITES implementation at a regional rather than national level can have significant benefits. Moreover, limited human and financial resources can be used more effectively, scientific and socio-economic know-how can be pooled leading to better informed decisions about the possible use of these species, and regional management policies can be developed that are adapted to the ecological and biological characteristics of the resource. Regional approaches – sensible but rare From an environmental perspective, harmonized conservation policies and management regimes for species shared by different countries make sense. There are now many bilateral and multilateral agreements to conserve and manage marine wildlife resources, particularly those developed under the auspices of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). Such regional approaches usually include a common legal framework, institutional arrangements, regular consultations, funding, and monitoring and compliance. CITES not only encompasses these elements but has the added strength of measures such as trade sanctions, to ensure better compliance with its provisions. In spite of CITES’ apparent advantages for managing trade and harvest of shared populations, regional management is still relatively uncommon under the Convention. One notable exception, however, is the agreement among several South American States concerning the conservation of the vicuña (Convenio para la Conservación y Manejo de la Vicuña) . There are unfortunately many more instances where CITES-listed species are subjected to potentially conflicting, and sometimes clearly incompatible, national conservation and management policies in the different countries where they occur. Consequently, one of the greatest challenges facing CITES is to World Conservation 3/2002 develop effective mechanisms to ensure collaboration between countries that trade in products from shared wild populations. Beyond charisma Some of the most complicated debates in CITES involve shared populations of so-called ‘charismatic’ species, such as elephants, whales and marine turtles, where expectations differ about the most effective means of conservation and management. The Convention cannot necessarily contribute to setting up harmonized management regimes for such species, particularly when they are widely distributed through a large number of countries. But recently, by instituting the Dialogue Process (see box, page 5) the Convention has assisted in improving the understanding of both global and local conservation issues and in encouraging cooperative regional management decisions about shared resources. Dialogues have been held amongst the range states of the African elephant Loxodonta africana, and more recently the range states of the hawksbill turtle Eretmochelys imbricata in the Wider Caribbean. REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES Whether the topic is coral reef conservation, great ape extinctions, illegal trade or climate change, the environmental conventions are beginning to find more and more overlap in their interests, activities and sources of support. This is true at all levels, from global to local. CITES, like the other global treaties, is necessarily becoming more broad-based in its approach. Nowhere is this trend more evident than in CITES’ promotion of harmonization, standardization and communication at the regional level. A rare example of regional management of shared populations is the agreement among several South American countries to manage trade and harvest of the vicuña Vicugna vicugna. 27 WWF-CANON/HARTMUT JUNGIUS
Page 1 and 2: The IUCN Bulletin World Conservatio
Page 3 and 4: The green tree python Morelia virid
Page 5 and 6: is high, inclusion in Appendix I ma
Page 7 and 8: Never a dull moment An interview wi
Page 9 and 10: Confiscated elephant tusks and rhin
Page 11 and 12: SSC and CITES: change and adaptatio
Page 13 and 14: UNEP-WCMC: for the record Gerardo F
Page 15 and 16: conclusions could be drawn regardin
Page 17 and 18: Medicinal plants: just what the doc
Page 19 and 20: As a result of this harvesting, the
Page 21 and 22: population monitoring and species i
Page 23 and 24: CITES criteria and evaluation proce
Page 25: Sturgeon make a comeback Caroline R
Page 29 and 30: At the 4 th CITES COP in Gaborone,
Page 31 and 32: institution is most important or pe
Page 33 and 34: Inspector from the US Fish and Wild
Page 35 and 36: Between mind and heart Achim Steine

CITES in the new millennium - IUCN

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