392 CHAPTER 15 Biodiversity and Conservation
Terry Whitaker/Alamydiversity of that specific country. Despite an increase in
conservation efforts since the Earth Summit, however,
the loss of biological diversity loss is not diminishing.
The exploitation of endangered species is somewhat
controlled through legislation at the international level:
175 countries participate in the Convention on Interna-
tional Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and
Fauna (CITES), which went into effect in 1975. Origi-
nally drawn up to protect endangered animals and plants
considered valuable in the highly lucrative international
wildlife trade, CITES bans the hunting, capturing, and
selling of endangered or threatened species and regu-
lates trade of organisms listed as potentially threatened.
CITES protects at various levels more than 30,000 spe-
cies of plants and animals. Unfortunately, enforcement
of this treaty varies from country to country. Even where
enforcement exists, the penalties are not severe. As a
result, illegal trade continues in rare, commercially valu-
able species (Figure 15.14).
The goals of CITES often stir up controversy over
issues such as who actually owns the world’s wildlife and
whether global conservation concerns take precedence
over competing local interests. These conflicts often
highlight socioeconomic differences between wealthy
consumers of CITES products and poor people who
trade in endangered organisms.
The case of the African elephant, discussed earlier
in the chapter, is a good example of these controversies.
Listed as an endangered species since 1989 to halt the
slaughter of elephants driven by the ivory trade, the spe-
cies seems to have recovered in southern Africa. How-
ever, poaching rebounded in the 2000s. According to
wildlife specialists, by 2008 about 8 percent of the African
elephant population was being killed for ivory each year.
This level of slaughter is greater than the level in 1989,
when the ban went into effect.- What are the goals of the Endangered Species
Act? Why is the ESA considered controversial? - What is the World Conservation Strategy?
Illegal trade in products made from
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A merchant in Myanmar (Burma) deals in wildlife products.
World Conservation Strategy seeks to preserve the vital
ecosystem services on which all life depends for survival
and to develop sustainable uses of organisms and their
ecosystems.
The Convention on Biological Diversity was pro-
duced by the 1992 Earth Summit to decrease the rate of
extinction of the world’s endangered species. This treaty
requires that each signatory nation inventory its own bio-
diversity and develop a national conservation strategy, a
detailed plan for managing and preserving the biological