CITES celebrates a half-century
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) celebrated its fiftieth birthday on March 3.
CITES was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of the World Conservation Union. The text of the Convention was agreed at a meeting of representatives of 80 countries in Washington DC on March 3, 1973. It entered into force on July 1, 1975.
Now based in Geneva, CITES aims to make sure international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants, and in their by-products, including exotic hides, skins and leather, does not threaten the survival of any species.
Since 2013, March 3 has also been World Wildlife Day. The United Nations picked this date because it marks CITES’s birthday.
