Used to demarcate content as an overview, distinct from News, Feature posts.
These items are displayed in specific places e.g. Species Overview pages.
Sea turtles are an at risk species that on several occasions IWMC has recommended for listing in CITES’ appendices. For example, in 2000 at CITES’ CoP-11 in Gigiri, Kenya, IWMC supported the listing of the Spotted turtle in appendix II because the sustainability of this species is genuinely at risk, including by international trade. It… Continue reading Turtles overview
The founders of CITES – including IUCN – never intended the Convention to become deeply involved with the conservation of marine species. That explains why when CITES held its first Conference of the Parties in 1976, sharks were not an agenda item. It took until 2002 at CoP-12 in Santiago, Chile, before the first listing of… Continue reading Sharks overview
Seal hunting : a multi-millenary activity For centuries, seal hunting has been a major economic activity linked to the cultural core of the Indians, Inuit and Euro-Canadians living along the shores of the cold water seas (Arctic, Labrador, Gulf of St. Lawrence) of Canada. In the last two regions, traces of this activity have been… Continue reading Seals overview
Trade bans can work. In the short term, they can provide breathing space for species in sudden and immediate danger, so that the drivers of trade can be identified and remedial actions implemented. This can be the case where the volume of trade is so large and the velocity so high that a trade ban… Continue reading Wild Cats overview
Global concern about the threat of climate change has turned polar bears into a flagship ‘endangered’ species that can be exploited by animal activist NGOs skilled in the art of tugging people’s heartstrings to raise funds. In 2013, animal rights NGOs, supported by the USA, tried unsuccessfully to list polar bears in CITES’ appendix I… Continue reading Polar Bears overview
Each year the over 30 alligator farms in Florida alone produce 300,000 pounds of meat and 15,000 skins. This prime example of a sustainable resource yields the farmers between $5 and $7 per pound depending on the cut while hides average about $25 per foot wholesale. In addition to the production of a wildlife product,… Continue reading Reptiles overview
At the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), held in Harare, Zimbabwe from 9 to 20 June 1997, the status of the African elephant Loxodonta africana has been changed. While the whole species was included in Appendix I… Continue reading Elephants overview
A Regulated Trade in Rhino Horn By Mike Eustace There were said to have been 100.000 rhino in Africa in 1960. That number should have grown to 1.6 million today, at a growth rate of 6% p.a., but poaching has reduced it to less than 25.000, or 1.6% of what it should have been. About… Continue reading Rhinos overview
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