Canada's implementation of the CITES treaty is through the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act (WAPPRIITA), which is enforced by the CWS.
CITES and WAPPRIITA forbid the import, export, and interprovincial transportation of certain species, dead or alive, without special licences or permits. Primates are among the 30,000 species so protected.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, Canada's enforcement of CITES is woefully inadequate. From a news release 18 months ago:
quote:
Canada is not meeting its obligation to implement the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) – the most important and effective global wildlife conservation agreement in existence – according to a new [actually dated June, 2004 - M.S.] report by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, entitled CITES, Eh? [.pdf file]. CITES is an international agreement between 167 countries that protects more than 30,000 species of animals and plants from over-exploitation. Canada was the tenth nation to ratify CITES, bringing it into force on July 9, 1975. Thirty years later, Canada is still not providing the human and financial resources to adequately administer or enforce the Convention. “The inadequacies in Canada’s CITES programme can be traced to insufficient resources for administering and enforcing the convention”, stated Ernie Cooper, the National Representative of TRAFFIC in Canada.... “It appears that CITES is not a priority for the Canadian government as a whole or for Environment Canada, the department charged with ensuring that the Convention is effectively implemented. The offices for the CITES management and scientific authorities are understaffed and cannot carry out all of their responsibilities.”
There are about 50 federal wildlife enforcement officers in Canada. Less than half are dedicated to CITES enforcement and only about eight are actually involved in inspecting the movement of wildlife into Canada to try and catch illegal shipments of endangered species. “The government of Canada needs to provide Environment Canada with the resources to hire at least 100 more wildlife enforcement officers,” Cooper stated.
Canada is an exporter of its native wildlife and a significant importer of exotic species – sometimes including threatened and endangered species such as tigers and rhinos. “However, despite the good legislative base for implementing CITES, there is a long list of gaps in Canada’s administration and enforcement of the Convention – gaps that affect the conservation of wildlife around the globe and not just Canada,” said Cooper.
Examples of Canada’s wildlife trade include:
· In 2004, an Ontario man was convicted of illegally exporting bear gallbladders.
· Every year more than 10,000 black bears are exported as trophies.
· In 2003, authorities intercepted a shipment of more than 2,000 packages of medicine made from leopard bone (an endangered species).
· In 2002, approximately 400,000 kg of frogs’ legs were imported from Vietnam into Canada. This was done in more than 40 shipments, but Vietnam only issued permits for 8 of those shipments.
· In 2003, a Manitoba plant nursery was convicted of illegally importing more than 200 endangered orchid plants.
“Nobody really knows all the species of live animals and plants that enter Canada every year. This has implications not only for conservation, but for agriculture and even human health,” remarked Cooper, “In 2000, a Quebec man was convicted of illegally importing endangered butterflies in a ‘hollowed out’ hardcover book sent through the mail”.
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posted 18 November 2006 11:22 AM
