CITES Worked: The Three Appendices and the Permit

In one line

Three appendices with three levels of protection, and Chapter VB of the Indian Act is those levels written into a statute.

In exam wording: article II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Washington, 3 March 1973, provides that Appendix I shall include all species threatened with extinction which are or may be affected by trade, trade in specimens of which must be subject to particularly strict regulation in order not to endanger further their survival and must only be authorized in exceptional circumstances; that Appendix II shall include all species which although not necessarily now threatened with extinction may become so unless trade in specimens is subject to strict regulation to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival, and other species which must be subject to regulation in order that trade in specimens of the first may be brought under effective control; that Appendix III shall include all species which any Party identifies as being subject to regulation within its jurisdiction for the purpose of preventing or restricting exploitation and as needing the cooperation of other Parties in the control of trade; and that the Parties shall not allow trade in specimens of species included in Appendices I, II and III except in accordance with the provisions of the Convention.

The three appendices

Appendix I: threatened with extinction. Species which are or may be affected by trade. Trade must be subject to particularly strict regulation in order not to endanger further their survival, and must only be authorized in exceptional circumstances.

Appendix II: two classes. (a) species not necessarily now threatened with extinction which may become so unless trade is subject to strict regulation to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival; and (b) so-called look-alike species, which must be regulated in order that trade in the species in class (a) may be brought under effective control.

Class (b) is the one students miss. A species is listed not because it is at risk but because it cannot be told apart from one that is. That is the same reasoning as Balram Kumawat v. Union of India (2003) 7 SCC 628 on mammoth ivory.

Appendix III: a Party's own listing. All species which any Party identifies as being subject to regulation within its jurisdiction for preventing or restricting exploitation, and as needing the cooperation of other Parties in the control of trade.

So Appendix III is unilateral. One country lists a species, and the other Parties then help it enforce its own law.

Article II(4). The Parties shall not allow trade in specimens of species in the three appendices except in accordance with the Convention.