USA: Reducing Illegal Wildlife Trafficking - CITES and Caviar

Wildlife trafficking ties together smugglers, gourmet food, police, exotic animals and covert operations. In spite of its sensational nature, few people have heard of the world's second largest illicit trade, estimated as being worth US$10-20 billion. Governments banded together in 1975 to create the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a permitting system to regulate international trade of threatened and endangered species listed in three CITES appendices. Despite significant achievements in the past 36 years, CITES has failed to eliminate the illegal wildlife trade, which persists largely because of the high demand for and difficulty in detecting such products. Meanwhile, the United States faced domestic pressures to spearhead the movement towards international regulation. The 1969 Endangered Species Conservation Act included a novel clause allowing international species to be placed on the endangered species list and the importation of those species to be banned.