What is CITES?


CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between Governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

Widespread information nowadays about the endangered status of many prominent species, such as the tiger and elephants, might make the need for such a convention seem obvious. But at the time when the ideas for CITES were first formed, in the 1960s, international discussion of the regulation of wildlife trade for conservation purposes was something relatively new. With hindsight, the need for CITES is clear. Annually, international wildlife trade is estimated to be worth billions of dollars and to include hundreds of millions of plant and animal specimens. The trade is diverse, ranging from live animals and plants to a vast array of wildlife products derived from them, including food products, exotic leather goods, wooden musical instruments, timber, tourist curios and medicines. Levels of exploitation of some animal and plant species are high and the trade in them, together with other factors, such as habitat loss, is capable of heavily depleting their populations and even bringing some species close to extinction. Many wildlife species in trade are not endangered, but the existence of an agreement to ensure the sustainability of the trade is important in order to safeguard these resources for the future.

Because the trade in wild animals and plants crosses borders between countries, the effort to regulate it requires international cooperation to safeguard certain species from over-exploitation. CITES was conceived in the spirit of such cooperation. Today, it accords varying degrees of protection to more than 30,000 species of animals and plants, whether they are traded as live specimens, fur coats or dried herbs.

CITES was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of IUCN (The World Conservation Union). The text of the Convention was finally agreed at a meeting of representatives of 80 countries in Washington DC., United States of America, on 3 March 1973, and on 1 July 1975 CITES entered in force.

CITES is an international agreement to which States (countries) adhere voluntarily. States that have agreed to be bound by the Convention ('joined' CITES) are known as Parties. Although CITES is legally binding on the Parties - in other words they have to implement the Convention - it does not take the place of national laws. Rather it provides a framework to be respected by each Party, which has to adopt its own domestic legislation to make sure that CITES is implemented at the national level.

Not one species protected by CITES has become extinct as a result of trade since the Convention entered into force and, for many years, CITES has been among the largest conservation agreements in existence, with now 160 Parties.

MIKE and ETIS are monitoring tools used by CITES in the complex business of assessing policies for trade in elephant products. Much is at stake when trade controls for elephants are debated within CITES. The polarity of opinion among the Parties on the subject, together with associated passions, has threatened to skew the working of the Convention in practice and challenged the basis on which it operates. For these reasons, as well as for the benefit of elephant conservation itself, it is crucial that the decisions taken by CITES on elephant issues are based, and seen to be based, on the best possible information. MIKE and ETIS have been adopted by CITES as sources of such information, to support its decisions on elephants.

 

MIKE stands for Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants and ETIS for Elephant Trade Information System. Both emerged after the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties as systems for tracking illegal activities involving elephants [Resolution Conf. 10.10 (Rev.)]. The agreement at that meeting to transfer the African elephant populations of Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe from Appendix I to II was subject to several conditions. One of these was the establishment of international monitoring and reporting systems to track illegal killing of elephants in range States and illegal ivory -

MIKE stands for Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants and ETIS for Elephant Trade Information System. Both emerged after the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties as systems for tracking illegal activities involving elephants [Resolution Conf. 10.10 (Rev.)]. The agreement at that meeting to transfer the African elephant populations of Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe from Appendix I to II was subject to several conditions. One of these was the establishment of international monitoring and reporting systems to track illegal killing of elephants in range States and illegal ivory - MIKE and ETIS.

More information on MIKE and ETIS is available on this site.


Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE)

What is MIKE?

1. Purpose of MIKE

The overall goal of MIKE is to provide information needed for elephant range States to make appropriate management and enforcement decisions, and to build institutional capacity within the range States for the long-term management of their elephant populations.

More specific objectives within this goal are:

– to measure levels and trends in the illegal hunting of elephants;
– to determine changes in these trends over time; and

– to determine the factors causing such changes and to try and assess to what extent observed trends are a result of any decisions taken by the Conference of the Parties to CITES.



2. Background

The purpose of CITES is to regulate the international trade in wildlife and wildlife products of endangered species. So far, nevertheless, there has been no means to provide a systematic and detailed assessment of the impact of the Conference of the Parties’ decisions to allow or suspend trade in a particular species (and/or their parts and derivatives), both generally and in respect of specific countries.

At the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP10), Zimbabwe, 1997, the Parties passed an unprecedented resolution that a monitoring system be put in place across the entire range of the African and Asian elephants (Resolution Conf. 10.10). It was intended that this system would assist the dialogue among Parties and facilitate the decision-making by the Conference of the Parties regarding the protected status of elephants by providing reliable information.

Immediately after CoP10, work began on the required monitoring system and the result, now known by its acronym MIKE (Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants), was endorsed at the 41st meeting of the CITES Standing Committee (Geneva, February 1999). Click here to view the proposal on the establishment of the MIKE approved at that meeting.

Further consideration of the MIKE programme was provided at the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP11), Kenya, April 2000, which led to the revision of Resolution Conf.10.10. This revision makes direct reference to the implementation of MIKE and broadens the objectives previously agreed to include ‘establishing an information base to support the making of decisions on appropriate management, protection and enforcement needs’ and ‘building capacity in range States’.

3. Resolution 10.10 (Rev.)

Resolution 10.10 (Rev.) states that the system known as MIKE, established under the supervision of the Standing Committee, shall continue and be expanded with the following objectives:

i) measuring and recording levels and trends, and changes in levels and trends, of illegal hunting and trade in ivory in elephant range States, and in trade entrepots;

ii) assessing whether and to what extent observed trends are related to changes in the listing of elephant populations in the CITES appendices and/or the resumption of legal international trade in ivory;

iii) establishing an information base to support the making of decisions on appropriate management, protection and enforcement needs; and

iv) building capacity in range States;

The Resolution further states that the CITES Secretariat will request/subcontract technical support from appropriate experts, with advice of the MIKE Technical Advisory Group (TAG), to:

a) select sites for monitoring as representative samples;

b) develop a standardized methodology for data collection analysis;

c) provide training to designated officials in countries with selected sites and to CITES Management Authorities of elephant range States;

d) collate and process all data and information from all sources identified; and

e) provide a report to the CITES Secretariat for transmission to the Standing Committee and Parties to CITES.

4. Intended benefits and results

The main benefit will therefore include a much-increased knowledge of elephant numbers and movements and a better understanding of the threats to their survival.

Additional outcomes are anticipated as follows:

– Elephant populations and their ecosystems in Africa are managed in sustainable and benefiting ways.

– Observation reports and data about threatened and endangered species are regularly available in all elephant range States.

5. What MIKE is and what MIKE is not

MIKE is a site-based system to monitor elephant population trends and the illegal killing of elephants.
MIKE is a system based on data collection and analysis that will be standardized for all range States, including the time-frame for the delivery of such information.
MIKE is about capacity building, particularly at the national level, for more effective conservation management.
MIKE is designed to use state-of-the-art monitoring data and management techniques.
MIKE is not in itself an anti-poaching operation to stop the illegal killing of elephants, though the information MIKE produces may guide such effort.
MIKE is not a monitoring system advocating a particular model or system.

6. Site selection

A minimum of 45 sites in 27 range States have been initially selected in Africa and 15 sites in 11 range States in Asia, based on balancing criteria:

– forest vs. savannah;

– relative size of elephant populations;

– conflicts with neighbouring people;

– historical incidence of illegal killing;

– proximity to international borders;

– incidence of military conflict; and

– level of law enforcement.

This selection provides statistical confidence that any trends identified in sites spread across the whole region are representative of the overall trends in that region. It does not mean that this is the limit of MIKE sites. Indeed, resources permitting, many range States will be and are striving to extend MIKE processes to other significant sites, particularly as identifying national and sub-regional trends and causes will also be an important MIKE objective. Therefore it is important to understand that MIKE is here to assist analysis at site, national, sub-regional and continental levels.

7. Data requirements and collection

Given the goals of the monitoring programme, but to avoid jumping to the wrong conclusions, it will be necessary to assess:

– the number of elephants found dead and alive in a given site or, using a suitable proxy, the changes in elephant numbers over a realistic time-frame;

– the causes of such mortality (if possible); and

– the mortality levels relative to the law enforcement patrol effort expended.

.The Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS)


Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE)

What is MIKE?

1. Purpose of MIKE

The overall goal of MIKE is to provide information needed for elephant range States to make appropriate management and enforcement decisions, and to build institutional capacity within the range States for the long-term management of their elephant populations.

More specific objectives within this goal are:

– to measure levels and trends in the illegal hunting of elephants;
– to determine changes in these trends over time; and

– to determine the factors causing such changes and to try and assess to what extent observed trends are a result of any decisions taken by the Conference of the Parties to CITES.



2. Background

The purpose of CITES is to regulate the international trade in wildlife and wildlife products of endangered species. So far, nevertheless, there has been no means to provide a systematic and detailed assessment of the impact of the Conference of the Parties’ decisions to allow or suspend trade in a particular species (and/or their parts and derivatives), both generally and in respect of specific countries.

At the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP10), Zimbabwe, 1997, the Parties passed an unprecedented resolution that a monitoring system be put in place across the entire range of the African and Asian elephants (Resolution Conf. 10.10). It was intended that this system would assist the dialogue among Parties and facilitate the decision-making by the Conference of the Parties regarding the protected status of elephants by providing reliable information.

Immediately after CoP10, work began on the required monitoring system and the result, now known by its acronym MIKE (Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants), was endorsed at the 41st meeting of the CITES Standing Committee (Geneva, February 1999). Click here to view the proposal on the establishment of the MIKE approved at that meeting.

Further consideration of the MIKE programme was provided at the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP11), Kenya, April 2000, which led to the revision of Resolution Conf.10.10. This revision makes direct reference to the implementation of MIKE and broadens the objectives previously agreed to include ‘establishing an information base to support the making of decisions on appropriate management, protection and enforcement needs’ and ‘building capacity in range States’.

3. Resolution 10.10 (Rev.)

Resolution 10.10 (Rev.) states that the system known as MIKE, established under the supervision of the Standing Committee, shall continue and be expanded with the following objectives:

i) measuring and recording levels and trends, and changes in levels and trends, of illegal hunting and trade in ivory in elephant range States, and in trade entrepots;

ii) assessing whether and to what extent observed trends are related to changes in the listing of elephant populations in the CITES appendices and/or the resumption of legal international trade in ivory;

iii) establishing an information base to support the making of decisions on appropriate management, protection and enforcement needs; and

iv) building capacity in range States;

The Resolution further states that the CITES Secretariat will request/subcontract technical support from appropriate experts, with advice of the MIKE Technical Advisory Group (TAG), to:

a) select sites for monitoring as representative samples;

b) develop a standardized methodology for data collection analysis;

c) provide training to designated officials in countries with selected sites and to CITES Management Authorities of elephant range States;

d) collate and process all data and information from all sources identified; and

e) provide a report to the CITES Secretariat for transmission to the Standing Committee and Parties to CITES.

4. Intended benefits and results

The main benefit will therefore include a much-increased knowledge of elephant numbers and movements and a better understanding of the threats to their survival.

Additional outcomes are anticipated as follows:

– Elephant populations and their ecosystems in Africa are managed in sustainable and benefiting ways.

– Observation reports and data about threatened and endangered species are regularly available in all elephant range States.

5. What MIKE is and what MIKE is not

MIKE is a site-based system to monitor elephant population trends and the illegal killing of elephants.
MIKE is a system based on data collection and analysis that will be standardized for all range States, including the time-frame for the delivery of such information.
MIKE is about capacity building, particularly at the national level, for more effective conservation management.
MIKE is designed to use state-of-the-art monitoring data and management techniques.
MIKE is not in itself an anti-poaching operation to stop the illegal killing of elephants, though the information MIKE produces may guide such effort.
MIKE is not a monitoring system advocating a particular model or system.

6. Site selection

A minimum of 45 sites in 27 range States have been initially selected in Africa and 15 sites in 11 range States in Asia, based on balancing criteria:

– forest vs. savannah;

– relative size of elephant populations;

– conflicts with neighbouring people;

– historical incidence of illegal killing;

– proximity to international borders;

– incidence of military conflict; and

– level of law enforcement.

This selection provides statistical confidence that any trends identified in sites spread across the whole region are representative of the overall trends in that region. It does not mean that this is the limit of MIKE sites. Indeed, resources permitting, many range States will be and are striving to extend MIKE processes to other significant sites, particularly as identifying national and sub-regional trends and causes will also be an important MIKE objective. Therefore it is important to understand that MIKE is here to assist analysis at site, national, sub-regional and continental levels.

7. Data requirements and collection

Given the goals of the monitoring programme, but to avoid jumping to the wrong conclusions, it will be necessary to assess:

– the number of elephants found dead and alive in a given site or, using a suitable proxy, the changes in elephant numbers over a realistic time-frame;

– the causes of such mortality (if possible); and

– the mortality levels relative to the law enforcement patrol effort expended.

 

ETIS

As its name suggests, ETIS is a tool used to compile law enforcement data on seizures and confiscations of elephant specimens. Its main database holds details of such seizures that have occurred anywhere in the world since 1989. It shares the objectives similar to those of MIKE, as set out in Resolution Conf. 10.10 (Rev.), with the difference that its aim is to record and analyse levels and trends in illegal trade, rather than in hunting.

1. Background

The Conference of the Parties adopted Resolution Conf. 10.10 on Trade in elephant specimens (9-20 June 1997, Harare, Zimbabwe), which was later revised at the 11th meeting (10-20 April 2000, Gigiri, Kenya). Among other things, it calls for the establishment, under the supervision and direction of the Standing Committee, of a comprehensive international system to monitor the illegal trade in elephant specimens.

The objectives of this monitoring system are:

i) measuring and recording current levels and trends of illegal trade … in African and Asian range States and in trade entrepots;

ii) assessing whether and to what extent observed trends are a result of changes in the listing of elephant populations in the CITES appendices and/or the resumption of legal international trade in ivory; and

iii) establishing an information base to support the making of decisions on appropriate remedial action in the event of any problems with compliance or potential detriment to the species.

Annex 1 of the Resolution specifies how the monitoring of illegal trade in ivory and other elephant specimens is to be conducted. Specifically, the monitoring system is required to include the details of law enforcement records for seizures or confiscations of elephant specimens which have occurred anywhere in the world since 1989. Clearly, the Resolution envisages that the monitoring system will become the international instrument for monitoring the pattern and measuring the scale of illegal trade in elephant specimens.

TRAFFIC’s Bad Ivory Database System (BIDS) was designated as the appropriate instrument for these purposes, and the CITES Parties were mandated to communicate information on elephant ivory and other elephant product seizures to TRAFFIC via the CITES Secretariat.

2. Progress to date

Significant progress has been achieved since the adoption of the Resolution.

With the approval of the Standing Committee, TRAFFIC’s BIDS database has evolved into a more sophisticated monitoring tool called the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS). TRAFFIC subjected BIDS to an external evaluation process, the results of which were refined at a workshop of technical experts convened in Nairobi, Kenya in December 1997.

At its 40th meeting (March 1998) the CITES Standing Committee approved the basic design elements of ETIS. At that meeting, the Standing Committee agreed to make available CHF 30,000, from the CITES Trust Fund, to assist in the technical refinement and further development of ETIS.

To assist in the provision of information, the Secretariat circulated an "Ivory and Elephant Product Seizure Data Collection Form" to all Parties in Notification to the Parties No. 1998/10 on 31 March 1998. In reporting ivory seizures and confiscations, this form is to be completed and returned to the CITES Secretariat for transmission to TRAFFIC. Through Notification to the Parties No. 1999/36, of 30 April 1999, the Secretariat also circulated Explanatory Notes for the "Ivory and Elephant Product Seizure Data Collection Form". Through Notification to the Parties No. 1999/92, of 30 November 1999, these documents were re-circulated as a reminder.

A functional specification outlining the theory, structure and practical application of ETIS was produced by consultants at the University of Reading’s Statistical Services Centre. This facilitated the development of document Inf. SC.41.1 Development of the CITES Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS), presented at the 41st meeting of the CITES Standing Committee (Geneva, February 1999).

A new MS/ACCESS-based, ETIS software programme for the seizures database was designed and installed at the TRAFFIC East/Southern Africa regional office in Lilongwe, Malawi by technical consultants of the University of Reading's Statistical Services Centre. The database structure features a core seizures database held by TRAFFIC East/Southern Africa in Lilongwe, Malawi. A complimentary database on law enforcement effort is under development and will be housed at TRAFFIC International in Cambridge, U.K. Other subsidiary databases on related background information will be developed as appropriate.

The first step in making ETIS fully operational involved the conversion of all previous data from the former BIDS system into the new programme.

In the period between the 10th and 11th meetings of the Conference of the Parties, progress was made in the development of ETIS. One of the problems encountered was that levels of reporting to ETIS by Parties have been low. Nevertheless, at its 11th meeting, the Conference of the Parties reaffirmed its commitment to MIKE and ETIS as useful tools for building a platform of knowledge from which to make sound decisions within CITES regarding elephant trade.

3. The funding for ETIS

3.1 Support already provided

What is CITES?


CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between Governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

Widespread information nowadays about the endangered status of many prominent species, such as the tiger and elephants, might make the need for such a convention seem obvious. But at the time when the ideas for CITES were first formed, in the 1960s, international discussion of the regulation of wildlife trade for conservation purposes was something relatively new. With hindsight, the need for CITES is clear. Annually, international wildlife trade is estimated to be worth billions of dollars and to include hundreds of millions of plant and animal specimens. The trade is diverse, ranging from live animals and plants to a vast array of wildlife products derived from them, including food products, exotic leather goods, wooden musical instruments, timber, tourist curios and medicines. Levels of exploitation of some animal and plant species are high and the trade in them, together with other factors, such as habitat loss, is capable of heavily depleting their populations and even bringing some species close to extinction. Many wildlife species in trade are not endangered, but the existence of an agreement to ensure the sustainability of the trade is important in order to safeguard these resources for the future.

Because the trade in wild animals and plants crosses borders between countries, the effort to regulate it requires international cooperation to safeguard certain species from over-exploitation. CITES was conceived in the spirit of such cooperation. Today, it accords varying degrees of protection to more than 30,000 species of animals and plants, whether they are traded as live specimens, fur coats or dried herbs.

CITES was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of IUCN (The World Conservation Union). The text of the Convention was finally agreed at a meeting of representatives of 80 countries in Washington DC., United States of America, on 3 March 1973, and on 1 July 1975 CITES entered in force.

CITES is an international agreement to which States (countries) adhere voluntarily. States that have agreed to be bound by the Convention ('joined' CITES) are known as Parties. Although CITES is legally binding on the Parties - in other words they have to implement the Convention - it does not take the place of national laws. Rather it provides a framework to be respected by each Party, which has to adopt its own domestic legislation to make sure that CITES is implemented at the national level.

Not one species protected by CITES has become extinct as a result of trade since the Convention entered into force and, for many years, CITES has been among the largest conservation agreements in existence, with now 160 Parties.