Biodiveristy Program Current Activities:
Strengthening International Conservation Law

CIEL's efforts to strengthen international conservation agreements emphasize the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), as well as international fisheries law (see section on Marine Conservation).

The Convention on Biological Diversity 

The 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity has been ratified by 176 countries, but not the United States.  The Convention provides a legal framework for a comprehensive ecosystem-based approach to conservation.

Since 1993, CIEL has worked to promote implementation of the Convention, with an emphasis on intellectual property rights, bioprospecting, benefit-sharing and international trade in genetic resources. We have participated in the Conferences of the Parties of the Convention, and have assisted the Convention Secretariat in preparing background information and papers on these issues.

The Convention affirms that countries have legal control over their biodiversity and a right to share in the benefits of its use.  It seeks to promote greater sharing of benefits with and assistance to developing countries, which are some of the most biodiversity-rich, yet often lack the resources and the incentives needed for conservation.

The Convention also calls on governments to help indigenous and local communities protect their traditional knowledge and practices relating to biodiversity, and to establish incentives to encourage fair sharing of the benefits from those traditions.

CIEL promotes the Convention's benefit-sharing principles through research, advocacy and advice to indigenous activists, environmental activists, and governmental officials.   For instance, at an intergovernmental workshop on traditional knowledge in 1997, we presented recommendations in a discussion paper, Using Intellectual Property as a Tool to Protect Traditional Knowledge.

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)

Trade in wildlife is thought to be the second or third most lucrative illegal trade in the world, and it poses a significant threat to the survival of many plant and animal species.  To address this problem, CIEL advocates strong implementation of CITES.  This  international agreement, which has 146 parties, limits international trade in products taken from plants or animals that are or may be threatened by trade. Examples include elephant ivory, rhinoceros horns, and sea turtle shells.

CIEL works at the periodic Conferences of the Parties to CITES to promote effective implementation and protect CITES' integrity against challenges from wildlife trade interests. In 1997, for instance, CIEL attended the tenth Conference of the Parties of CITES in Zimbabwe, where we advised environmental groups and governments on criteria for annotations (special listings of threatened species aimed at allowing limited sustainable trade) and the relationships between CITES and other international agreements such as the Biodiversity Convention and the agreements of the World Trade Organization.  

Currently, CIEL is working to ensure that CITES is applied effectively to protect fish and tree species threatened by large-scale commercial harvesting.  In fall 1999, we filed comments with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service calling on the United States -- the world's largest importer of mahogany -- to promote stronger  protection of big-leaf mahogany at the next Conference of Parties to be held in Nairobi in April 2000.  While the US government rejected a request from CIEL and other environmental groups  that they propose an Appendix II listing for mahogany, we continue to press the US and other CITES Parties to address the threat that both legal and illegal trade pose to this species.