1973 CITES Convention & Approaches to the Marine Environment: New Science, Old Treaties & Regional Governance

1/3 Read the text of the basic CITES treaty and sample Appendices 1, 2 and 3, noting the decreasing regulatory restraints on export at each level, as well as exceptions such as animals raised in captivity (and individual states can choose to schedule the same species proposed for inclusion under the CITES scheme under differing appendices, effectively dictating the associated level of protection, that may differ from state to state, or may exclude species from coverage based upon individual circumstances):

a. Official CITES website (run administratively via UNEP in Geneva)

b. CITES going full steam ahead to ensure sustainable use of marine resources: Hard work begins after more shark species are listed under CITES (Geneva, 08/29/19)

c. Traffic, “Future of sustainable wildlife management: CITES considers links to post-2020 biodiversity framework” (Geneva, 08/23/19; note both the possibility of linking CITES to the CBD, at least informally, and take a look at the website since TRAFFIC is the CITES equivalent NGO to BAN for the Basel Convention)

2/3 Compare concerning the still variable meanings of conservation, environmentalism (or preservation) and sustainability, which discourse is over 100 years old, at this point:

a. UN Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform, A contribution to the global follow-up and review in the 2017 Hi-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on the work of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (2017, UN view)

b. Folk, “Sustainability vs. Conservation: Key Similarities and Differences” (Conservation Folks blog, 05/26/20)

c. Westover, “Conservation versus Preservation” (USDA Forestry Service Forest blog, 02/21/17)

d. Favre, “Debate Within the CITES Community: What Direction for the Future?”, 33 Natural Resources Journal 875 (1993)

3/3 Concerning approaches to the marine environment:

a. Read “Conservation of Marine Living Resources” in Birnie & Boyle, International Law and the Environment 490-542 (1992)

b. Silver, Acton, Campbell & Gray, “How a global ocean treaty could protect diversity in the high seas” (The Conversation, 06/04/20)

c. Scan the website for the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) as regional ocean governance body under the 1982 LOS, as well as its latest (21st special) meeting in 2019, since it too has been closed down for the COVID-19 pandemic. Understand that ICCAT and similar LOS-approved regional bodies constitute part of the international fisheries governance structure, in particular for determining the total allowable catch on an annual basis for valuable commercial species (here Atlantic tuna, tuna-like species, and pelagic sharks). Basically, the job of ICCAT is periodically to gather scientific data, then make annual allocations in terms of total allowable catch for participating countries. If you want to know how enforcement might follow, under trade law (GATT/WTO) importing countries can exclude fish caught outside of quota. The key importing country for tuna is probably Japan, since in the Tokyo fish market an individual high quality sashimi-grade tuna will sell for the price of a small car, but only if there is documentation that it was caught within quota. The inducement for a country becoming a member of ICCAT and receiving a quota is that it then can sell fish “certified” as coming within its quota. Otherwise, it may wind up as much cheaper cat food.

d. [if you are red hot and are really interested, beyond the kind of renewable resource management questions on fish, in the marine environment you have a pollution and hazardous waste dumping problem which you can see summarized at “The Regulation of Marine Pollution” in Birnie & Boyle, International Law and the Environment 251-99 (1992) and “The International Control of Hazardous Waste,” in Birnie & Boyle, International Law and the Environment 300-44 (1992) (read 300-32 for the marine hazardous waste issues)]

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