Page - February 22, 2010
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international agreement between governments. The focus of CITES is to ensure that trade in plants and animals does not threaten the survival of the species. Each year the trade in wildlife is estimated to be worth billions of dollars. This provides a strong incentive for high volume trade and threatens the very existence of many of the world’s commercially valuable timber species. CITES is a voluntary international agreement that states agree to implement through their own domestic legislation when they become parties to the convention. There are approximately 30,000 species of plants and animals under some sort of protection from CITES. Currently there are less than 40 timber species listed, yet many additional species are threatened around the world.