CITES and lunacy

Erik Van Lennep erik@tepuidesign.com
Wed, 12 Nov 2014 09:04:27 PST
Following this discussion with great interest.

When I was doing a lot more plant exploration than recently (1970's and
1980's) it was standard practice for endangered plants seized at the point
of import without CITES papers to be sent to incineration. Endangered
animals were euthanised.If the border boys could say, "nope, we didn't let
none of them CITES things through", I guess that was 'job well done'.

Presumably that has changed a lot since then, but what happens to all the
plants and animals which are not taken in by botanic gardens or zoos? CITES
is designed by and administered by "bean counters", so applying the letter
of the law is what counts to them, not survival of the organisms as
individuals, nor the species as a whole.

It was started as a broken system, and seriously needs public and vocal
discussion leading to a thorough overhaul.

erik



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