ELEPHANTS, rhinos, sharks, tigers, lizards, crocodiles, turtles, snakes, monkeys, various birds and plants all made an appearance on the agenda of the triennial conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

At the meeting, held this year in Bangkok from March 4th-14th , governments of 178 member states agreed to add 343 species of plants and animals to CITES’ appendices I and II. There they joined 33,000 species (5,000 animals and 28,000 plants) that already crowded it. All of these species are in danger of extinction. Listing by CITES ensures that trade in them is either banned or strictly monitored.

At least that is the theory. But the abiding impression left by a CITES meeting is that no one knows how best to protect beleaguered wildlife. CITES has failed to curtail, let alone prevent, illegal trade—especially in species for which demand and market price are extremely high, and they climb ever higher, the closer to extinction a species becomes.

Demand is growing fast in some of the world’s most dynamic economies, notably China, where parts of many endangered species are used in traditional medicine. As Chinese spending power grows, time is running out for CITES to stem the flow that is endangering, for example, elephants, rhinos and tigers—all traded for their body parts and mainly sold to markets in China, Vietnam and Thailand.

Elephants and rhinos, which bounced back from the brink of extinction in the 1970s, are again under threat. The illegal ivory trade is reported to have more than doubled sine 2007, and increased threefold since 1998. An estimated 25,000 to 30,000 elephants are killed every year in Africa, from a population of 400,000.

Kenya says it plans to raise the problem at the UN Security Council, and to ask for help in a war against international crime syndicates that use sophisticated weapons and even helicopters. The syndicates have been able to operate with relative impunity. There is almost no evidence of successful arrests, prosecutions or convictions.

CITES this time put eight countries on notice for not doing enough to curb the trade: three where elephants are poached (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda); three “transit countries” (Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam); and the biggest markets, China and Thailand. But all of them escaped sanctions after six came up with draft action plans and China fiercely attacked the West for double standards and cultural bias. Trade sanctions will be CITES’s last resort, says John Scanion, its secretary-general.

Sell it to save it?

Two duelling lobbyist groups stalked the cavernous corridors of the convention centre in Bangkok. A pro-trade lobby, comprised of a handful of white South African game-reserve owners (who have a large stock of rhino horns), crocodile farmers, hunters, economists and a smattering of other international consultants (some on China’s payroll) are convinced that bans do not work. On the contrary, they say, they only drive the price up and make smuggling even more lucrative.

They argue that a properly monitored and legal ivory and rhino-horn trade, with proceeds going to the seller, will ensure that the money is reinvested in the animals. Similarly, they claim the farming of tigers in China will protect the wild tiger. An estimated 5,000 farmed animals are providing tiger bones for medication that is said to cure rheumatism. Plans are afoot in south-west China to diversify into rhino farming.

The opposing stance was vocalised loudest by a consortium of ten wildlife-conservation groups. They say that even discussing legalising trade will stimulate poaching. They point out that two legal sales of ivory in 1999 and 2007 led to new rounds of killings, as it became easier to launder illegally obtained ivory and rhino horn. The consortium argues that the only way to save the elephant is to force China to agree to an “immediate, comprehensive, and indefinite ban” and “severely punish its citizens engaged in illegal ivory trade.”

CITES did not have much to celebrate, but there were a few successes. After 40 years of fruitless discussion CITES has at last been able to agree how to regulate commercially fished oceanic species. This paved the way for a vote to include three sharks and two manta-ray species on Appendix II. Not surprisingly, shark-consuming nations such as China and Japan put up fierce resistance to the listing. But unlike at previous CITES meetings, they could not drum up enough support to overturn the decision. They were confronted by a united front of South American nations that, as one delegate put it, were “fed up with China eating us up”.

Another ruling, one that offered a flicker of hope for the besieged elephants, is that countries will be forced to register the DNA of all confiscated ivory. According to Dr Samuel Wasser, a professor at the University of Washington who developed the DNA technology to identify the origin of elephant tusks, this will make it possible to trace samples back to their places of origin.

Green groups hailed the listing of the sharks and rays as a breakthrough. But as with other CITES rulings, the problem will be implementation. That rests on people working on the front line, such as forest rangers and customs officers. They are vulnerable to bribery—or even murder—at the hands of the syndicates that dominate the trade CITES wants to curb.

As if to remind the well-meaning delegates of the brutal reality over which they are wrangling, poachers in the bush killed a young female elephant even while the conference was happening. They took her infant, too: to sell to the tourist market that flourishes in Thailand.

(Picture credits: WikimediaCommons)