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www.CITES.org
The role of quotas in CITES
© Copyright CITES Secretariat 2005
Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
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Session overview
• In this session we will:
– Indicate the role of Scientific Authorities in establishing and
monitoring quotas
– Examine voluntary national quotas and CITES
– Discuss problems with implementation of quotas
– Examine quotas set by the Conference of the Parties
– Examine quotas established through the Review of
Significant Trade
– Look at the future of quotas in CITES
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What are quotas?
• Quotas in the context of CITES are the maximum
amount of specimens that can be exported per year
• Quotas can be determined by a Party or by the
Conference of the Parties to CITES
• Quotas have been used in CITES to limit the amount
of specimens of CITES-listed species entering
international trade, and have been established
through a range of different procedures
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Quotas and Scientific Authorities
• CITES export quotas should be, and in many
instances are, an outcome of:
– effective national conservation management programmes
designed to prevent unsustainable harvesting of wild
populations; and
– a determination by CITES Scientific Authorities in
compliance with Article III, paragraph 2 a), [for Appendix-I
species] or Article IV, paragraph 2 a), [for Appendix-II
species] of the Convention, that the number of specimens
that may be exported as part of a quota will not be
detrimental to the survival of that species
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Quotas and Scientific Authorities
• The Scientific Authority must also monitor the actual
levels of export
• This is to ensure that the species is maintained
throughout its range at a level consistent with its role
in the ecosystem, and above the level at which the
species might become eligible for Appendix I
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Voluntary national export quotas
• Many Parties routinely establish annual export quotas
on a voluntary basis for one or more Appendix-II and/or
–III species as a means of limiting exports in those
species
• The main purposes of such export quotas are to:
– establish a limit on yearly exports at levels that are sustainable,
or within the annual production capacity of ranching or captive
breeding operations
– announce the intended level of exports to both producers at
national level and importers for the purpose of facilitating trade
– establish a basis for allocating amounts to be exported per year
to individual exporters
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Controlling national quotas
• When a country has established an annual
export quota it should:
– indicate the quota amount of that species on each export
permit along with a running total of specimens that have
already been exported as part of that quota
– keep an account of the use of an annual export quota to
ensure that all specimens exported are reflected in the
running total that must be given on each export permit and to
avoid that annual quotas are exceeded
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Controlling national quotas
• Export permits for specimens subject to a quota
should indicate the total number of specimens of the
species exported to date (including those covered by
the permit) and the annual quota for the species, in
the following format:
11. Quantity (including unit)
250
11a. Total exported/Quota
1250/4000
– In this example 1250 specimens of the species
concerned have been authorized to be exported to
date (including those on the current permit), out of
an annual quota of 4,000 in the year concerned
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Do not exceed quotas!
• Exceeding an annual quota, even a voluntary annual
quota, is regarded as a serious CITES implementation
problem by the CITES community
• This has led to the suspension of trade in some
species from certain Parties
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Communicating national quotas
• It is recommended that a Party inform the Secretariat
when it has established export quotas
• The Secretariat no longer communicates a list of
national export quotas through Notifications, but
includes the information provided on its web site
• The quotas on the CITES website are being kept up
to date throughout the year to reflect late
announcements of quotas, corrections
or modifications
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Communicating national quotas
• The inclusion of quotas in this list does NOT imply
endorsement by the Secretariat, because the
Secretariat does NOT determine the level of national
quotas
• The Secretariat may request clarification and
supporting information from a Party whenever a
concern about a specific quota arises
• The Secretariat may decline to publish a quota when
it has inadequate information about the status of the
species concerned and its management
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Problems with establishing national
quotas
• Too many annual export quotas appear to be
somewhat arbitrary and not based on recent scientific
information about the status of the wild population or
the impacts of harvesting on this wild population
– Establishing a quota does not necessarily amount
to making a non-detriment finding
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Problems with establishing national
quotas
• Some Parties submit quotas for species that are not
known to occur in that country
– Quotas in such cases can only be accepted if the
specimens that would be exported as part of such
a quota originate in captive breeding operations or
from artificial propagation
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Problems with establishing national
quotas
• Some Parties submit quotas for taxa using common
names or scientific names that do not appear in the
CITES checklist or are contrary to the standard
nomenclature adopted by the Conference of the
Parties
– The Secretariat cannot publish a quota unless it is
clear what species the name refers to
– This problem may arise because some countries
use outdated references or have to use names
incorporated in their national legislation that are
now out of date
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Problems with establishing national
quotas
• Some Parties fail to indicate the source and type of
specimens included in a quota
– Some importing countries may not accept export
permits indicating a quota with a type or source of
specimen not specified in the quota
– Wrong impressions are created of high levels of
trade in wild specimens or live specimens if the
quota refers to specimens of captive bred or
ranching origin or consist of parts and derivatives
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Problems with establishing national
quotas
• Quotas for species that have not previously been
subject to a quota are often unrealistically high,
possibly due to a lack of understanding of what the
import market can absorb
– There is a real risk that stricter domestic measures
will be applied in major importing countries to
restrict trade in cases where very high quotas are
established for species by countries that have not
previously had quotas for such species
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Complying with national quotas
• Parties can issue export permits referring to quotas
from the previous year only when having informed
the Secretariat before 15 January of the new year
about the quantities still held in stock and the reason
why they had not been exported in the preceding
year
– The quotas for any year should not be set at a
level to include specimens that were obtained for
export in the previous year but for which no export
permit was issued in that year
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Carry-over of quotas
2008
2009
4000
Quota
=
4000
Harvest
=
3500
Export
=
3250
Not exported
=
250
If reasons are explained
to Secretariat before
15 January 2009
250
4000+250
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Complying with national quotas
• If annual export quotas are exceeded
– This may indicate inadequate quota management
and administration
– This may ultimately result in the suspension of
trade through the Review of Significant Trade,
recommendations by the Standing Committee or
stricter domestic measures by importing countries
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Complying with national quotas
• Actual exports are frequently much lower
than annual export quotas
– Exporting at levels far below a quota usually suggests that
the quota was set arbitrarily
– This may indicate a flexible, open-ended trade policy or
administratively established quotas
– This could result from unawareness of market trends,
inaccurate judgment of national levels of production, or
unrealistic expectations re. levels of trade
– It may however also indicate that a species has been
excessively harvested and that quotas can no longer be met,
which may result in actions to restrict further trade
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Complying with national quotas
• Several countries have established quotas for
specimens from sources other than wild populations
– It can be argued that export quotas for specimens from any
source other than a wild population in the country of export
are potentially confusing, particularly when referring to nonnative species
Chersina angulata Angulated tortoise (Photo: P.Dollinger)
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Quotas established by the COP
• At previous meetings, the COP established quotas
for several species, either through the adoption of
resolutions or the amendment of the Appendices to
include annotations to the listing of species that refer
to quotas for those species or some populations of
those species
• Such quotas can only be amended if a future
Conference of the Parties adopts by a two-third
majority a proposal to amend a listing or a resolution
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Quotas established by the COP
• Examples of such quotas are:
– In the Appendices
• Tanzania; Crocodylus niloticus (1600)
• Namibia: Acinonyx jubatus (150)
– Through Resolutions
• Leopard Panthera pardus
Resolution Conf. 10.14 (Rev. CoP14)
• Black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis
Resolution Conf. 13.5 (Rev. CoP14)
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Quotas for shared resources
• With the adoption of Resolution 12.7 (Rev. CoP14)
the Conference of the Parties recommend that catch
and export quotas for sturgeons are agreed among
the States sharing the resource
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Quotas for shared resources
• This bio-geographic approach may in future
be considered for other species as well
– Especially in cases where
national quotas may not be
sufficient to ensure that
migratory or shared populations
are harvested sustainably
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Quotas established through the Review of
Significant Trade (RST)
• Export quotas have also been established through the
Review of Significant Trade Resolution Conf. 12.8 (Rev. CoP13)
• In such cases the Animals Committee has
recommended Parties to conduct status assessments of
wild populations as the basis for future exports and
export quotas, and/or to establish cautious quotas
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Amending RST quotas
• Export quotas established through the
Review of Significant Trade can only be
amended if:
– a country has fully complied with the
recommendations of the Animals Committee; or
– in specific cases where the Standing Committee
has agreed that the Secretariat should guide
countries concerning quota levels and information
has been presented to justify an amendment to
such quotas
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What next?
• The expectation that annual quotas should be based
on detailed demographic information on the
harvested population and the use of some or other
harvesting model may be unrealistic or not possible
to accomplish
– In practice, such information is seldom available for more
than a few populations and then only for a limited number of
years
– Other options could be considered in cases where countries
are not able to intensively study harvested populations at an
appropriate scale and for long enough to show with high
probability that a particular level of offtakes can be
sustainable
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What next?
• In the absence of detailed information about harvested
populations, the following interim options could be
considered:
– Apply an adaptive management approach for quotas and
monitoring
– Combine quotas with other measures such as a tagging or
marking system, or restrictions on the locality and time of
harvesting or the minimum size of specimens
– Include monitoring programmes (e.g. catch per unit effort;
market surveys)
– Of “least risk” is to allow harvest of wild specimens only in a
portion of the species range; for a limited period; or targeting a
biologically less important class of specimens
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Summary
• Quotas limit the number of species in trade, for
different purposes
• Quotas must be communicated to be effective
• Quotas must be controlled
• Problems with the implementation of quotas can have
a negative impact on trade
• Quotas can be established by individual Parties; by
the COP; by all Parties sharing a particular resource;
and through the Significant Trade Review
• Practical and realistic approaches to quotas should
be found and used
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Useful references
• www.cites.org
Export quotas
• Resolution Conf. 9.24 (Rev. CoP14)
• Resolution Conf. 10.14 (Rev. CoP14)
• Resolution Conf. 10.15 (Rev. CoP14)
• Resolution Conf. 12.3 (Rev. CoP14)
• Resolution Conf. 12.8 (Rev. CoP13)
• Resolution Conf. 13.5 (Rev. CoP14)
• Resolution Conf. 14.7
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CITES Secretariat
Geneva