Combatting the trade in endangered species

Encouraging sustainability in wildlife trade

Green iguana, Iguana iguana. Close up of eye. Agile climbers, adults are rarely found far from trees. They take refuge in water, and are good underwater swimmers. They are exploited for skins, sold as pets, for food and as an aphrodisiac. Found in tropical forests in central and northern South America CITES Appendix II.
© WWF-Canon / Martin HARVEY

Help End the Tiger Trade

The tiger is one of the most revered, feared and yet popular species on Earth. It is perhaps the most powerful symbol for all of our planet’s endangered wildlife.

Take action now and add your photo to WWF’s tiger photo mosaic and show your support for tiger conservation.

Through its global network and especially the work of TRAFFIC, WWF works to find and activate solutions to the problems created by illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade.

...Persuading consumers to make informed choices when buying wildlife-based products is potentially the most powerful conservation tool of all for addressing problematic wildlife trade. It is becoming easier to choose wildlife goods that are known to have been produced in a sustainable way and WWF offers advice on which these are.

...At the producer end of the trade - from fishing villages, to rainforests, to the African plains - much can be done to encourage people to use their local wildlife sustainably. Often the biggest problem to overcome is that of poverty, as poor people do not have the luxury of thinking about the future of wildlife when they are struggling to survive from day to day. WWF is working hand-in-hand with communities to provide practical help to overcome this hurdle.

...Private industry has a role to play in ensuring the sustainable use of wildlife resources and WWF works with the private sector to put across the argument that sustainable wildlife trade is best.

....Working with CITES. For three decades, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as CITES, has been the largest and by some accounts, the most effective international wildlife conservation agreement in the world. The treaty entered into force in Washington DC in 1975, in response to concerns that many species were becoming endangered because of international trade. Because this trade crosses national borders, international collaboration and co-operation is crucial to ensure this trade is sustainable and controlled and does not threaten or endanger wildlife.

Since the Convention entered into force, more than 30,000 species of animals and plants have been listed on its Appendices, from tigers and elephants to mahogany and orchids.

...At the 'top level' , dealing with trade and environmental issues in a wider sense, WWF is also actively involved. For example, WWF's Trade and Investment Programme works closely with selected national governments to ensure that the mandate of multilateral environment agreements, such as CITES, are not weakened or over-ruled by institutions, such as the World Trade Organisation, for whom economic priorities are pursued with little consideration for their long-term impacts.

WWF publishes Living Planet reports, which provide updates on the impact of humans on the world's natural resources. These give authoritative and convincing reminders that governments must act now to reduce degradation of the planet, including species loss as a result of wildlife trade.

Legislation and a scheme of deterrents must also play a part
... Encouragement of voluntary support of sustainable wildlife trade is the ideal, but laws regulating wildlife trade and penalty systems to back them up are also needed. Legislation has been seen as an important conservation tool for decades andcan be enormously important as a way of controlling wildlife trade, especially when used thoughtfully.

To be successful, laws need to be widely understood, accepted and practical to apply. WWF aims to discourage illegal and unsustainable trade bysupporting the enforcement of appropriate wildlife trade laws and helping to develop these where they do not exist.

WWF is active in supporting the enforcement ofappropriate wildlife trade laws by:

• supporting enforcement of CITES, the best-known international body for regulating international trade in wildlife;
• supplying training and tools and funds, especially in the developing world, where equipment and training for enforcement are often lacking. For example, WWF runs training workshops for government officers, scientists and traders around the world, channels money to anti-poaching agencies, and helps to publish identification manuals;
• encouraging cross-border co-operation. WWF has been active in forging regional initiatives to tighten legislation and enforcement in Southeast Asia (the ASEAN agreement) and the European Union (the EU Enforcement Group), for example;

• funding research. WWF funds and runs countless research projects to stay at the cutting edge of conservation for some of the world's most endangered species in trade, including by exposing weaknesses in enforcement of wildlife trade laws; and
• public awareness-raising. WWF publicizes wildlife trade laws, discourages purchases of certain wildlife goods, campaigns against wildlife trade crime and asks members of the public to report illegal wildlife trade

WWF is active in promoting new laws for the control of wildlife trade, when appropriate. WWF action helped to bring about revision of EU-wide wildlife trade regulations in 1997, for example, and through its close involvement with CITES, WWF fights for legal protection of several species threatened by international trade on a routine basis. Most recently WWF has contributed to achieving protection under CITES for several marine and timber species, such as the Humphead Wrasse, Great White Shark, and the Asian commercial timber species, ramin.

Besides its work with a specific wildlife trade focus, the WWF Global Species Programme runs other projects which also promote sustainability in wildlife trade. Through its 'flagship species' approach, for instance, WWF aims to draw attention to many aspects of species conservation, including wildlife trade. Additionally, it runs regional programmes for selected threatened species (African elephants and great apes, African and Asian rhinoceroses, and tigers) and these focus on conservation issues specific to these creatures, including wildlife trade.