ABSTRACT
More than 140 countries are now signatories to the CITES. There is little doubt that it has become the most important and influential conservation treaty now in force. It was the product of a growing concern on the part of the international community about the rate at which wild species were declining. The general feeling was that the main threat came from the unregulated international trade in wildlife and that the solution was to create a legal framework to regulate that trade. When the convention came into force in 1975 it established a regulatory system at the heart of which are two appendices on which species can be listed. Appendix I is for species that are considered to be threatened with extinction. These species can not be traded for commercial purposes. Appendix II is for those species which might become threatened if trade is not controlled. Trade in Appendix II species is subject to some regulation.
