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CITES and Livelihoods

FFI has been working for several years to support the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to address the livelihood aspects of wildlife trade regulation. In 2004 we supported the recognition by the Parties that the implementation of CITES-listing decisions should take into account potential impacts on the livelihoods of the poor.

In 2006 we convened a workshop in Cape Town to consider ways in which this commitment might be put into practice. There were 43 participants from 27 countries at the workshop, including many representatives of national CITES authorities.

The recommendations that came out of that workshop influenced the subsequent meeting of the Parties in The Hague, the Netherlands in 2007. There, FFI held an event to publicise and win support for draft decisions, which were eventually passed by consensus. The decisions acknowledge that CITES is primarily a conservation treaty but recognise the need to take the livelihoods of the poor into consideration when implementing CITES decisions. The Parties decided to launch a process to help countries address the impacts of implementing CITES on poverty-stricken people. In fact, many of the measures needed to ensure that wildlife trade regulations are implemented in an equitable way will also contribute to the effectiveness of those regulations.

This approach is consistent with FFI’s mission to undertake conservation in ways that take account of human needs. The decisions call for the development of guidelines and rapid assessment tools to assist Parties to put this into practice. FFI is currently working with the CITES Secretariat and others to raise money for this process and its implementation.