22/3/2002
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival, by requiring licensing
arrangements.

Annually, international wildlife trade is estimated to be worth billions of dollars and to include hundreds of millions of plant and animal specimens. The trade is diverse, ranging from live animals and plants to a vast array of wildlife products derived from them, including food products, exotic leather goods, wooden musical instruments, timber, tourist curios and
medicines. Levels of exploitation of some animal and plant species are high and the trade in them, together with other factors, such as habitat loss, is capable of heavily depleting their populations and even bringing some species close to extinction.

Today, it accords varying degrees of protection to roughly 5,000 species of animals and 25,000 species of plants against over-exploitation through international trade, whether they are traded as live specimens, fur coats or dried herbs.

Although CITES is legally binding on the Parties - in other words they have to implement the Convention - it does not take the place of national laws. Rather it provides a framework to be respected by each Party, which has to adopt its own domestic legislation to make sure that CITES is implemented at the national level.

The species are grouped in the convention's Appendices according to how threatened they are by international trade. They include some whole groups, such as primates, cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), sea turtles, parrots, corals, cacti and orchids. But in some cases only a sub-species or geographically separate population of a species (for example the population
of just one country) is listed.

Any type of wild plant or animal may be included in the list of species protected by CITES and the range of wildlife species included in the appendices extends from leeches to lions and from pine trees to pitcher plants.

Not one species protected by CITES has become extinct as a result of trade since the Convention entered into force and, for many years, CITES has been among the largest conservation agreements in existence, with now over 150 parties. Lithuania became the 156th party to the Convention on 9 March 2002.

The website of CITES at www.cites.org includes a fantastic photo gallery, where one can flick through beautiful pictures of the endangered species, from the Common Squirrel Monkey and the Grey-cheeked Mangabey to the Toco Toucan and the Chinese Pagolin. See
http://www.cites.org/photo_gallery/species