The Washington Convention was adopted on 3 March 1973 in Washington, D.C. and
entered into force on 1 July 1975. Its overall aim is to protect certain endangered
species from over-exploitation by means of a system of import/export permits.
CITES contains import-export restriction on species of rare animals and plants,
living or dead, and on products from these animals. Species are listed in three
appendices according to their conservation status. Appendix I covers endangered
species, trade in which is to be tightly controlled; Appendix II covers species
that may become endangered unless trade is regulated; Appendix III covers species
that any party wishes to regulate and requires international cooperation to
control trade; and Appendix IV contains model permits
Marine mammals are found on all three appendices. Other listed marine animals
include sea turtles, dolphins and sharks.
Recently, the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species (Nairobi, Kenya; 9 - 20 April 2000)
voted to reject proposals by Japan and Norway that international trade in four
populations of whale be resumed. Read
the full press release.
The Parties also adopted a proposal from Australia to uplist the Australian
dugong population to Appendix I, eliminating the split-listing of the species.
Other proposals dealt with the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin, the hawksbill turtle,
great white shark, whale shark, and introductions from the sea.
For more, see the websites of
CITES or TRAFFIC.
Analyses of Proposals to amend
the CITES Appendices submitted to Conference is available from IUCN.
Read a UNEP summary
or the full
text of the Convention from ENTRI.