ABSTRACT

The Secretariats of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the Convention on Biological Diversity signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 23rd March 1996. The articles of neither treaty require this but it was a decision of the Parties to both conventions to move in this direction. 1 The memorandum provides for institutional cooperation between the Secretariats, exchange of information, coordination of work programmes and joint conservation action. At this stage, the understanding goes no further than this limited cooperation between the Secretariats and is careful not to commit the Parties beyond the decisions that they have already adopted. Nevertheless, the memorandum states: The secretariats will consult their Contracting Parties with a view to encouraging… effective conservation and promoting the sustainability of any use of wildlife as a part of the biological diversity of our planet…’. This is perhaps the first time that CITES has formally used the language of sustainable use and biological diversity. This language is central to the CBD. So, the memorandum provides some grounds for thinking that CITES and the CBD may be moving closer together.