Giving wild animals a voice at CITES

Born Free has just attended the 78th Standing Committee meeting of the United Nations’ Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Geneva, Switzerland.  

We fought for wildlife alongside our colleagues from across the world, as part of the Species Survival Network – of which we’re a founder member. Together, we worked to influence the best possible outcomes on a range of key issues including:

• Elephants – countries with elephants were asked to improve efforts to stop poachers and close down domestic ivory markets
• Rhinos – some countries need to do more to provide reports on how they are addressing poaching and trafficking of rhino horn
• Cheetahs – the challenges of the ongoing illegal trade in cheetahs were highlighted

Born Free has been attending CITES meetings since the late 1980s, doing everything we can to reduce the impact of international trade on wild fauna and flora.

The international trade in wildlife is vast. Hundreds of millions of animals and plants, from the entire range of species, are taken from the wild each year and traded for various purposes as part of the global wildlife trade, which is valued in hundreds of billions of dollars. Legal wildlife trade is estimated to be worth 100 billion euros (£83bn) annually in the EU alone each year, with illegal trade (excluding fish and timber) valued at around US$20 billion (£16bn) globally.

This trade represents one of the biggest threats to the conservation and welfare of wild animals.

CITES acts as the global regulator of wildlife trade. Established over 50 years ago, its 184 signatory governments, or ‘parties’, commit to implementing its requirements with the aim of ensuring that international trade does not threaten the survival of the more than 40,000 species of animals and plants it regulates.

From 3-8 February, Born Free attended the 78th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee in Geneva, Switzerland. The Standing Committee is concerned with the implementation of the Convention and the management of its budget, as well as shaping recommendations for the triennial Conference of the Parties, the Convention’s main decision-making body. The 20th Conference of the Parties will take place in Uzbekistan in November/December 2025.

In Geneva, the Standing Committee was asked to consider 87 agenda items, some of which proved complex and controversial. As always, Born Free’s aim, alongside that of our Species Survival Network partners, was to influence the discussions and the positions taken by governments to secure the best possible outcome for wildlife.

See our breakdown of the outcomes below…

Elephants

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As always, elephants featured heavily in the discussions. While the downward trend in elephant poaching is encouraging, increases in recent ivory seizures reflect the need to maintain enforcement efforts to protect elephant from poachers and pressure on countries to close their domestic ivory markets.

To this end, elephant range States were asked to step up efforts to achieve the goals of their National Ivory Action Plans. The Committee could not come to an agreement on how CITES should recognise the existence of two separate species of African elephants which could have implications for trade – this decision will be deferred to the Conference of the Parties.

Disappointingly, only one country submitted information to the Committee on its activities to address the trade in Asian elephants, even though several CITES Parties are heavily implicated in poaching and trafficking of the species for ivory. Elephant skins are also traded, for used in Asian medicines, while live Asian elephants are trafficked across borders to be used in tourism and entertainment.

The Committee was persuaded to retain specific reporting requirements for trade in Asian elephants, so long in the shadow of their African counterparts when it comes to international attention.

Rhinos

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The heightened awareness of the poaching crisis facing rhinos over recent years led to the development of targeted, country-specific measures under CITES. However, lack of detailed reporting suggests that some countries are still not implementing key CITES provisions aimed at addressing rhino poaching and the trafficking of rhino horn.

One critical concern that was not discussed at the Standing Committee meeting is the South African government’s plan to encourage domestic trade in rhino horn. The implications could be extremely serious, given most of the demand for rhino horn exists in Asia, which would inevitably lead to illegal trade as tourists attempt to take rhino horn out of South Africa.

Such a move by South Africa could seriously undermine efforts under CITES to control rhino poaching, and once again increase the risks to vulnerable rhino populations in Africa and Asia. Born Free is working hard to persuade the South African authorities to rethink their plans.

Cheetah

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Since 2020, the trafficking of live cheetahs through the Horn of Africa to the Arabian peninsula has increased by around 40%, with over 500 live cheetah being trafficked each year, further threatening the already endangered northeastern subspecies.

The Born Free sanctuary in Ethiopia is home to a fortunate few young cheetah rescued from the traffickers. Most aren’t so lucky. Even against this grim backdrop, governments have been really poor in their reporting to CITES on cheetah poaching and illegal trade.

The Standing Committee agreed to provisions aimed at addressing this deadly activity through improved law enforcement and review of relevant legislation.

Long-tailed macaques

The highly lucrative international trade in long-tailed macaques to supply the cruel biomedical research and toxicology industries is having devastating impacts on wild populations. For years, Born Free and our partners have been providing evidence to CITES clearly demonstrating that several south-east Asian countries are flouting CITES regulations by taking long-tailed macaques from the wild.

The Standing Committee agreed to retain trade suspension on all animal species from Lao PDR, but sadly decided not to impose an export ban on macaques from Cambodia, one of the worst offenders over recent years. Instead, information provided by the Cambodian authorities about its macaque breeding centres will be considered by the CITES Animals Committee, alongside information from Viet Nam and the Philippines, and recommendations will be forwarded to CITES later in 2025. In the meantime, this deadly and devastating trade looks set to continue.

Live trade issues

Of course, trade in live animals isn’t limited to cheetahs and macaques. Literally millions of live animals from all kinds of species are traded every year for use in zoos, to supply the seemingly inexhaustible demand for exotic pets, and for a multitude of other purposes. Born Free works hard to ensure that the trade in live animals is legal, sustainable, humane and safe, while working towards our ultimate objective of ending such trade for good.

The Standing Committee in Geneva considered documents on live animal transport, the management of confiscated live animals, the trade in live elephants, the trade in CITES-listed species that are bred in captivity, and the measures CITES should take to minimise the risk of infectious diseases emerging from wildlife trade that could spark the next global pandemic. Some progress on these issues was made, and further discussions will take place at the Conference of the Parties later in the year.

Threats to the Convention

CITES, while far from perfect, is the only international mechanism that specifically addresses trade in threatened species. It also has sanctions at its disposal in the form of trade suspensions which it can impose on countries that fail to adhere to its rules. As such, it is vitally important to our efforts to protect wildlife from the damaging impacts of international trade.

However, there are those who seek to undermine the protections afforded to many species by CITES, through the incorporation of economic considerations into its mechanisms and decision-making, and to undermine the sanctions system. At Born Free we fully appreciate the importance of engaging people who live alongside, and in many cases depend on, wildlife, in its management and in the implementation of CITES.

However, this cannot be used by those who advocate for wildlife trade as a way of undermining the core purpose of the Convention, which is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten the survival of the species. Born Free and our allies are committed to ensure that attempts by those who seek to reduce rather increase the regulation of wildlife trade, when it places the survival of species at risk, are successfully opposed at CITES meetings.

You can find Species Survival Network’s detailed briefing to governments for the 78th CITES Standing Committee meeting , to which Born Free contributed, here.

BORN FREE’S WORK ON WILDLIFE TRADE