1 - PEACE Institute Charitable Trust

CITES UPDATE
RRCC – Assisting CITES implementation
in South Asia
Monthly CITES update
Published by
Research and Resource Centre for
CITES (RRCC)
PEACE Institute Charitable Trust
178-F, Pocket IV
Mayur Vihar I
DELHI – 110091
INDIA
Telefax: 91-11-22719005
E-mail: manojmisra@peaceinst.org
Objectives of RRCC:
In tune with the strategic vision 2005 of
CITES, the RRCC shall endeavour to
become a third party facilitator to help
realise the following CITES vision:
• Enhance the ability of each Party
to implement the Convention.
• Strengthen the scientific basis of
the decision – making processes.
• Contribute to the reduction and
ultimate elimination of illegal trade
in wild fauna and flora.
• Promote greater understanding of
the Convention.
In addition RRCC proposes to:
• Facilitate the implementation of
the Convention in South Asia
• Facilitate interactions between
CITES and other related
multilateral agencies like CMS,
IWC, CBD and WTO
Volume II
Issue 1 January 2006
Advisor: Samar Singh
Editor: Manoj Kumar Misra
Research and production:
Pushp Jain, Sudha Mohan, Tanweer
Muntakhab, Manorama Goswami
Editorial…………
Any entity to function effectively requires
adequate financial and human resources.
CITES is no exception to this fact.
Unfortunately the funding of CITES is
often little understood or appreciated.
CITES being a Convention created for the
Parties and by the Parties requires to be
funded out of contributions made by the
Parties and from additional funds accessed
by the Secretariat from external sources.
A central fund called the CITES Trust
Fund, finances the core administrative
costs of the Secretariat, the Conference of
the Parties and its subsidiary bodies, the
Standing Committee and the other
permanent committees. This Trust Fund is
replenished from contributions from the
Parties to the Convention based on a
United Nations scale (adjusted) of
assessment (www.cites.org). For example,
in the case of Parties from South Asia the
annual contribution to CITES Trust Fund
ranges from USD 47 (Bhutan) to USD
15,983 (India).
The CITES Secretariat solicits funds from
national governments and other external
sources for projects and activities which
have been mandated by the Resolutions
and Decisions arrived at a CoP. Presently
funds from external sources have been
sought for 7 different activities resulting
from Decisions arrived at CoP 13 and
related developments.
It is a matter of concern that the budget
related debates at a CITES CoP are often
considered insipid and hence many Parties
at the CoP avoid attending or
understanding what it is purporting to
suggest / recommend. While numbers and
figures might seem daunting to some it is
imperative that Parties not only
participate but make adequate prior
preparations for the budget debates at
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CITES UPDATE
CoP for ensuring that CITES budget
approved at the CoP is not only cost
effective but also incorporates cost saving
measures.
It is also imperative that all Parties are
prompt in making their committed annual
contributions to the CITES Trust Fund. It
is heartening to note that the performance
of Parties in South Asia in making timely
contributions to the CITES Trust Fund has
improved considerably over time.
Congratulations.
Wishing all our patrons a VERY HAPPY
NEW YEAR 2006
Manoj Kumar Misra
Glossary of technical terms
(Here we explain in simple language selected
technical terms relating to the Convention which
require better understanding – Editor)
‘Pre – Convention Specimens’
Any specimen which pre dates the
Convention coming into force in 1975 is
termed pre – Convention Specimen in the
event of its entering later an international
commercial transaction. It is thus termed
since the relevant provisions of the
Convention would not get attracted in
respect of it.
Paragraph 2 of Article VII of the
Convention deals with a pre-convention
specimen as under:
‘Where a Management Authority of the
State of export or re export is satisfied
that a specimen was acquired before the
provisions of the present Convention
applied to that specimen, the provisions of
Articles III (Trade in specimens of
Appendix I species), IV (Trade in
specimens of Appendix II species) and V
(Trade in specimens of Appendix III
species) shall not apply to that specimen
where the MA issues a certificate to that
effect.’
In order to prevent misuse of preconvention
specimen clause and to clarify
related issues the matter has been
debated and resolved at various CoPs
(Conf. 4.11 and Conf. 5.11)
CITES News
The 54 th meeting of the CITES Standing
Committee (SC) has been scheduled from
2-6 October 2006 at Geneva
(Switzerland).
(The performance of most CITES Parties from South
Asia in relation to progress made by them in respect
of domestic CITES legislation would come up for
review at the said meeting of SC – editor)
CITES CoP 14 is fast approaching
The CITES CoP 14 has been scheduled to
be held from 3-15 June 2007 in
Netherlands.
(Now while 2007 may seem remote at this point of
time, in view of the fact that a Party wishing to
submit any proposal for consideration at the CoP
need submit the same at least 150 days in advance
of the start of the CoP, June 2007 is not that far
away – editor).
CITES Notifications
(Here we carry the operational part of such
notifications issued by the CITES Secretariat that
bear relevance to the Parties in South Asia – Editor)
Notification No. 2005/067 dated 8
December 2005 deals with Training
presentations
The Secretariat has sent to the Parties two
copies of an ID-ROM (card sized CD-ROM)
with training presentations on CITES. It
contains 16 training presentations in
PowerPoint format, the text of the
Convention, CITES Appendices I, II and
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CITES UPDATE
III (valid from 23 June 2005) and the
standard CITES export/import permit and
re export certificate.
The PowerPoint presentations include an
introductory section and cover the
following topics:
Definitions, roles of CITES Authorities, role
and function of the Scientific Authority,
permits and certificates, special
procedures, reading the Appendices, using
the Appendices, science, non-detriment
findings and data, role of quotas in CITES,
trade with non-Parties, permit
management systems, filling in permit
forms, reservations and plants.
The Secretariat is aware that a number of
non-governmental organizations now offer
CITES related training to CITES Parties.
Having reviewed some of the
presentations used in such training, the
Secretariat is concerned that in some
cases it appears that out-of-date or
incorrect advice is provided. The
Secretariat wishes to remind Parties that
CITES training conducted by nongovernmental
organizations using
materials other than those distributed by
the Secretariat or by a Party may contain
incorrect or biased interpretation of the
Convention.
Nevertheless, the Secretariat encourages
non-governmental organizations to
support CITES capacity building efforts,
and is willing to work with such
organizations wishing to develop CITES
training materials, to ensure the accuracy
of these materials.
The Secretariat has also updated the CD-
ROM training programme for Customs.
Two copies of this CD-ROM are provided
with the present Notification.
Additional copies of the above-mentioned
ID-ROM and CD-ROM are available on
request from the Secretariat.
Notification No. 2005/069 dated 8
December 2005 deals with
Implementation of Resolution Conf. 12.8
(Rev. CoP13) regarding suspension of
trade with specific Parties
(Recommendations of the Standing
Committee)
As part of the Review of Significant Trade,
the Animals and Plants Committees
regularly make recommendations to
States to ensure that trade in specimens
of Appendix-II species is not detrimental
to them. If Parties fail to implement the
recommendations, or fail to submit the
necessary information to the Secretariat,
the Standing Committee may recommend
that all Parties suspend imports from the
States concerned of specimens of a
particular species.
Over 20 States are currently affected by
such recommendations for suspension of
imports. These States, and the species
involved, are listed on the CITES website
in the section ‘Resources/Trade
suspensions’.
It appears, however, that there have been
a number of instances where Parties have
not implemented such recommendations.
This has led to a situation where the
offspring of specimens obtained against
the Standing Committee’s
recommendations are also now being
traded internationally.
The Secretariat understands that, in some
cases, imports of such specimens may
have occurred inadvertently; for example,
border control agencies may not have
been aware of the recommendation when
shipments were presented for import or
Management Authorities may have failed
to recognize that such recommendations
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CITES UPDATE
were in force if they were processing
import applications.
In order not to undermine the
recommendations of the Standing
Committee, the Secretariat encourages
Parties:
a) to take steps to ensure that they can
effectively
implement
recommendations of the Standing
Committee; and
b) not to authorize the re-export of any
specimens imported against such
recommendations.
Parties are requested to inform their
enforcement and Customs authorities of
the availability of the list of trade
recommendations on the CITES website in
order to avoid the inadvertent acceptance
of specimens subject to a
recommendation to suspend trade. Parties
that require the issuance of import
permits for trade in specimens of
Appendix-II species are also encouraged
to consult the list when processing
applications.
CITES Resolution
(Here we carry operational parts of such current
Resolutions made at various CoPs which are relevant
to CITES implementation by parties in South Asia –
Editor)
Consultation with range States on
proposals to amend Appendices I and
II (Conf.8.21 as amended at CoP 13)
NOTING that the provisions of the
Convention do not require the prior
support of range States for proposals to
amend Appendices I and II;
RECALLING that the format for proposals
laid down in Resolution Conf. 9.24 (Rev.
CoP13) adopted at the ninth meeting of
the Conference of the Parties (Fort
Lauderdale, 1994) and revised at its 12th
and 13th meetings (Santiago, 2002;
Bangkok, 2004), provides for comments
to be sought from the range States;
OBSERVING that many proposals have
been submitted without such comments
being sought;
RECOGNIZING, however, that for certain
taxa with extensive distributions such
consultation may be difficult;
CONSCIOUS that amendments to
Appendices I and II may affect the
interests of range States;
REMARKING that international treaties
rely for their successful implementation
upon cooperation and mutual respect;
MINDFUL that an additional period of time
may be required to consult with range
States;
THE CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES TO
THE CONVENTION RECOMMENDS that for
any submission of a proposal to amend
Appendix I or II of the Convention one of
the following two procedures be applied:
a) where the proposing Party intends to
consult the range States, it:
i) advises the Management Authorities of
the range States within which the
species occurs of its intention to
submit a proposal;
ii) consults with the Management and
Scientific Authorities of these States
on the substance of the proposal; and
iii) includes the opinions of these
Authorities in section 6 of the proposal
submitted in accordance with
Resolution Conf. 9.24 (Rev. CoP13)1
except that, where no response has
been received from a range State
within a reasonable period of time, the
proposing Party may instead simply
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CITES UPDATE
document its attempts to obtain these
opinions; or
b) where prior consultation with range
States will not take place:
i) the Party submits the proposal at least
330 days in advance of the next
scheduled meeting of the Conference
of the Parties;
ii) the Secretariat circulates the proposal
as soon as possible to all Parties; and
iii) interested Parties send their comments
to the proposing Party in order to
allow it to submit a revised proposal at
least 150 days prior to the meeting.
The revised proposal should incorporate
the comments received, in
compliance with Resolution Conf. 9.24
(Rev. CoP13) separating them into
two categories, reflecting the opinions of
range States and non-range States.
CITES Calendar
(Here we carry information about such events in the
CITES calendar which directly impact or relate to the
CITES Parties in South Asia region - Editor)
19 - 20 December 2005: Monitoring the
Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE), 3rd
Steering Committee for South Asia Sub
region. Chittagong, Bangladesh
31 December 2005: Deadline for
communication to the Secretariat of
information about export quotas for 2006
for raw ivory in compliance with
Resolution Conf. 10.10 (Rev. CoP12) on
Trade in elephant specimens.
31 December 2005: Parties requested to
submit to the Secretariat, details of
voluntary export quotas established under
the provisions of paragraph a), under
'RECOMMENDS' in section VIII of
Resolution Conf. 12.3 (Rev. CoP13) on
Permits and certificates; (See Notification
to the Parties No. 2005/008 for
background information and instructions).
31 March 2006: Deadline for Asian big cat
range States to submit to the Secretariat
reports describing their implementation of
Resolution Conf. 12.5 (Conservation of
and trade in tigers and other Appendix-I
Asian big cat species). (In South Asia India,
Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan would require to
submit the reports as above – editor)
8 July 2006: Deadline for Parties to
submit to the Secretariat proposals to
amend Appendices I and II at CoP14
(Proposals should not exceed 12 pages)
1) without the prior consultation of range
States of the species concerned (see
Resolution Conf. 8.21 on Consultation
with range States on proposals to
amend Appendices I and II)
2) pursuant to Resolution Conf. 11.16 on
Ranching and trade in ranched
specimens of species transferred from
Appendix I to Appendix II.
2 – 6 October 2006: 54 th meeting of the
CITES Standing Committee (SC), in
Geneva, Switzerland
3 – 15 June 2007: 14 th meeting of the
Conference of Parties (CoP), in the
Netherlands.
From CITES World
(Here we carry notable features from the CITES
World, the official newsletter of the CITES – Editor)
(Source: Issue 16, December 2005)
Handling confiscated specimens
The handling of confiscated specimens can
be made easier if one is well-prepared and
well-equipped. A suitably-equipped
location is of utmost importance, as in the
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CITES UPDATE
case of live specimens there will always be
a risk of an escape. Information should be
kept at hand, such as a list of experts in
animal and plant handling, identification
and care; a list of rescue centres; and the
telephone numbers where the
Management Authority can be reached
(keeping in mind that confiscations often
occur in the evening and at weekends).
Basic equipment can include a bird net,
leather gloves, snake hooks, facemasks,
protective eyewear, surgical gloves, cloth
sacks, a large clean container (such as a
rubbish container with a lid), towels and
blankets, and antibacterial soap.
Handling wildlife can be dangerous, and it
is important to take precautions for your
safety, that of your colleagues, and for the
safety of the specimens. Animals are often
faster and much stronger than might be
expected. Quite apart from the damage
that can be caused by claws, teeth, beaks,
toxins, spines or others, animals can also
carry infectious diseases such as hepatitis
A and B, psittacosis and salmonella. Dead
specimens may also pose a risk, for
instance, hunting trophies may have sharp
claws, talons, horns or antlers, and they
may have been treated with chemicals,
which are poisonous if inhaled. Handling
plants can also be risky, as plants may
secrete toxic substances or have sharp
spines, and they may have been treated
with chemicals and pesticides.
The Secretariat
CITES Resource
(We provide here reference to useful resource
material on CITES – Editor)
2005 Checklist of CITES species now
available (Source: CITES World, Issue 16
December 2005)
The Checklist of CITES species provides
the official alphabetical list of CITES
species, their scientific synonyms, their
common names in English, French and
Spanish (to the extent that these were
available to the compilers) and an
indication of the Appendix in which they
are listed. The publication includes a
CDROM that contains in PDF format all of
the information above as well as the
Annotated CITES Appendices and
reservations. The latter provides the
original listing date of all taxa (orders,
families, genera, species, and subspecies)
and populations specifically named in the
current or past Appendices.
It also indicates all reservations ever
made by Parties, with the dates on which
they entered into force and, in the case of
past reservations, the dates on which they
were withdrawn.
This book should be particularly useful to
CITES Management and Scientific
Authorities, Customs officials and all
others involved in implementing and
enforcing the Convention.
Paper copies can be ordered from the
CITES Secretariat (USD 60 per copy). An
electronic version can be downloaded in
PDF format from the website
(www.cites.org) at no cost.
Field Guide for identification of Fake
Skins of Tiger (Source: Regional Deputy
Director (Wildlife Preservation) Southern
Region, Chennai)
Fakes and counterfeits are the most
dreaded things in the commercial world.
They eat into the legitimate market share
of the genuine businessmen, and divest
the consumers of their hard earned
money. The law expects the enforcement
authorities to protect the interests of the
businessmen and the consumers by taking
action against the unscrupulous persons
introducing fakes and counterfeits in the
Issue No. 1 of Vol. II 6

CITES UPDATE
market. With a multi-billion dollar wildlife
trade in the world, it is not surprising to
find fakes of wildlife items in large
quantities in the market. But the concerns
of the enforcement authorities in this case
are more for protecting the wildlife species
in question than for safeguarding the
interests of the traders and the
consumers. Reckless trade has since long
been identified as a great threat to the
survival of wild fauna and flora. A large
number of countries including India have
enacted legislation that discourages both
sale and purchase of wildlife items.
Fakes are objectionable because they
keep the demand for wildlife items alive.
Fakes are dangerous because they can
mislead the investigators and provide a
cover to the clandestine wildlife trade.
Often it is seen that seizures involving
suspected wild life produce are rushed to
the press with endorsements by senior
levels of agencies effecting seizures. Upon
professional examination, many a time it
turned out to be a fake. The rushing to
press with a fake product at hand has
three consequences:
a) It aberrates the wild life crime scenario
and mars the crime analysis masking the
true trends with potential to cause
diversion of efforts on to wild goose chase
while potential points receive less
attention. In a nutshell it amounts to
calling wolf when it is actually not there
which upon repetition would weaken
response if the wolf actually arrives.
b) It artificially inflates the crime graph
and reflects badly upon the
professionalism of agency involved when
the product upon scientific examination
turns out to be a fake.
c) It adversely affects the investigation
and conduct of the case in the Court of
Law as the provisions and procedures of
law dealing with fake and real are totally
different.
It is, therefore, essential that the
enforcement authorities should be able to
distinguish the fakes from the genuine
wildlife items. It is now possible with the
help of the DNA based tools and other
sophisticated laboratory techniques to
identify any specimen being traded as a
wildlife item. But in many cases, simple
field techniques can provide quick, cheap
and reliable way of identification. A step in
this direction is a Windows based
application CD ROM prepared by Wild Life
Regional Office, Southern Region, titled
“Field Guide for Identification of Fake
Skins of Panthera Tigris” that deals with
the tricky issue of distinguishing genuine
tiger trophies from the fake ones. The
identification tips are based on some
common but unique physical attributes of
tigers, which one can look for on the
specimen under scrutiny with naked eyes.
The guide is divided into two Sections viz.,
LEARN, COMPARE. In the "Learn" section,
the user gets to know about the various
morphological features of tiger crucial for
differentiating genuine from the fake. The
"Compare" section consists of three parts
viz., Identification based on Morphological
Examination, Identification based on
Microscopic Examination of guard hair and
Identification based on Overall
Examination. For a virtual close-up of
various aspects of the fakes vis-à-vis the
genuine, the user can enlarge the images
by clicking the thumbnails. It has been
widely circulated to various Enforcement
Agencies and State Wild Life Departments.
It is hoped that it would be of help to the
field Enforcement officials during their
investigations. (rddsr@vsnl.com)
Recent notable seizures
(We carry here relevant information on recent
seizures of wildlife items from countries in South
Asia region – editor)
Red Sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus)
wood
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CITES UPDATE
New Delhi: Authorities in Hong Kong
have seized 60 tonnes of Red sanders
wood – used in making musical
instruments and ayurvedic medicine –
smuggled from India recently, pointing to
a large-scale racket operating from
Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The
seizures were based on intelligence
provided by the Directorate of Revenue
Intelligence (DRI) to its Hong Kong
counterpart.
In a similar operation in India, DRI seized
180 tonnes of similar wood. The
intelligence agency had notched up a
bigger seizure of 290 tonnes last year.
Sources said the racket has been going on
for last couple of years. The wood, mainly
sources from Rayalaseema region in
Andhra, is smuggled out of the country
using various ports to evade seizures.
(Source: Times of India, 25 Nov 2005)
(Red Sanders is a CITES Appendix II species –
Editor)
Reptile skin
Mumbai: In the largest ever haul in
western India the Directorate of Revenue
Intelligence (DRI) on Tuesday morning
seized 55,000 pieces of snake skin from a
container that was to be loaded onto a
vessel at Nhava Sheva port. The skins
worth Rs 3 crore (.6 million USD) were to
be sent to Singapore.
The consignment had been declared as
chilli powder. On examination the DRI
team found 75 gunny bags full of skins –
of cobra, viper and rat snake – concealed
behind packets of chilli powder. (Source:
Times of India, 22 Dec 2005)
Feedback:
Thanks a lot!
Channa Bambaradeniya, PhD
Coordinator - Regional Species
Programme
Ecosystems and Livelihoods Group 2
IUCN - Asia Regional Office
53 Horton Place
Colombo 7
Sri Lanka
I am extremely thankful to you for
sending me the CITES update.
Dr. S.P. Goyal
Scientist
Wildlife Institute of India
Dehradun, India.
Thank you. I am in Spain busy with my
Masters degree course on Wildlife Species
trade and CITES.
Samantha Gunasekhara
Dept. of Customs
Sri Lanka.
Thank for sending CITES UPDATE, It has
quite good information, which is useful for
our purposes. I am looking forward your
next CITES UPDATES.
H.D.Ratnayake
Deputy Director (Research and Training)
Dept. of Wildlife Conservation
Sri Lanka.
Issue No. 1 of Vol. II 8