CITES
Enhancing Capacities to Assess National Wildlife Trade Policies in Support of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

Project description

It is estimated that international wildlife trade is worth billions of dollars annually and includes hundreds of millions of plant and animal specimens. As one of the oldest multilateral environmental agreements, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) aims to ensure that international trade in these animals and plants does not threaten their survival. For many countries, wildlife trade policies have been developed in isolation from other government policies with limited coordination between relevant ministries and agencies. Yet there is increasing recognition that a coherent set of policy instruments is a prerequisite to achieving national trade, conservation and sustainable development objectives. Give this, CITES Member States have called for the review and assessment of national wildlife trade policies (COP Decisions 13.74 and 13.75).

In response to this mandate, the UNEP-UNCTAD Capacity Building Task Force on Trade, Environment and Development (CBTF), the CITES Secretariat, and the Graduate Institute of Development Studies (IUED) are undertaking a two-year initiative to enhance the capacities of developing countries to review, design and implement effective and sustainable national wildlife trade policies. This initiative is receiving financial support from the Geneva International Academic Network and the European Union.

The core of this initiative is the implementation of pilot country projects in four developing countries with balanced representation from all regions. As a first step, a Wildlife Trade Policy Assessment Framework will be developed, drawing on previous assessment methodologies developed by CITES and UNEP. National institutions in the pilot countries, working closely with relevant government ministries, will then select their preferred methodologies from the Framework, customize these to reflect particular national circumstances, and apply them in their review of national wildlife trade policies. Integrated national responses, including traditional regulatory policies and economic incentives will be developed to respond to the outcomes of the review.

IUED will undertake several studies concurrently with the implementation of the country projects to contribute to the development of national institutional capacity building and to evaluate the effectiveness of the initiative in achieving its goals. The outcomes from the country studies and the IUED research will be summarized in a Final Synthesis Report for wide dissemination.

Finally, an international meeting will be organized to disseminate results from the initiative and encourage the implementation of wildlife trade policy reviews in other countries.

	Date	Title of CITES project materials	Author	Handout	Ppt	Study
	24 March 2006	Enhancing National Capacities to Assess Wildlife Trade Policies in Support of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora	UNEP
	23 June 2006	Brief Overview of the Project	IUED-GREG
	23 June 2006	Next Steps	Secretariat
	23 June 2006	Overview of the Project	Secretariat
	23 June 2006	CITES mandate for wildlife trade policy reviews	CITES
	26 June 2006	Session 1: Overview of Wildlife Trade Policy Review Framework	IUED-GREG
	26 June 2006	Session 2: Policy Appraisal	IUED-GREG
	26 June 2006	Session 3: Developing Review Focus and Methodology	IUED-GREG
	26 June 2006	Session 4: Developing Policy Responses	IUED-GREG
	21 November 2006	Report	Secretariat

Project partners

CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora): www.cites.org

IUED (l'Institut Universitaire d'Etudes du Développement de Genève: web site link

Project sponsors

GIAN - Geneva International Academic Network GIAN: www.ruig-gian.org

The European Union: http://ec.europa.eu/comm/europeaid/index_en.htm

Coordinators