HALTING THE ILLEGAL TRADE OF CITES SPECIES FROM WORLD HERITAGE SITES

The report highlights that illegal harvesting of CITES-listed species occurs in over 25% of all natural and mixed World Heritage sites, threatening biodiversity and the 'outstanding universal value' of these areas. It identifies a gap in the current approach: the World Heritage Convention is site-focused, while CITES operates at the national level. To address this, the report proposes a coordinated value-chain response involving source, transit, and consumer countries, alongside the integration of monitoring and reporting systems. Case studies from Indonesia, Madagascar, the DRC, and Thailand illustrate the devastating impact of poaching and illegal logging, as well as the potential for success through community engagement and inter-agency cooperation.

• Illegal harvesting of CITES-listed species, including poaching, illegal logging, and illegal fishing, is reported in more than 25% of all natural and mixed World Heritage sites.
• Illegal harvesting has contributed to the inscription of 14 World Heritage sites on the List of World Heritage in Danger, with 11 of those located in Africa.
• The current international response is fragmented because the World Heritage Convention focuses on individual sites while CITES focuses on national-level interactions between source, transit, and consumer countries.
• In the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania, elephant populations have declined by nearly 90% since its 1982 inscription, with an average loss of six elephants per day between 2010 and 2013.
• In Madagascar's Rainforests of the Atsinanana, illegal rosewood logging is driven largely by demand in China, which is estimated to import over 95% of all illegal logs.
• In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, militarized poaching linked to civil war has caused a 90% decrease in elephant populations in Virunga National Park over the last 20 years.
• Community-based management in Nepal's Chitwan National Park, where locals receive 50% of annual tourism revenues, has contributed to a period of 1,000 days without poaching of rhinos, elephants, and tigers as of January 2017.
• Thailand's coordinated action across the value chain for Siamese rosewood, including ranger training and regional dialogues, led to a reduction in rosewood seizures from 420,000 m3 in 2014 to 110,000 m3 in 2015.

APA

de Wit, W., Marsh, E., & Kjemtrup, A. (2017). HALTING THE ILLEGAL TRADE OF CITES SPECIES FROM WORLD HERITAGE SITES. WWF International. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/425/5hei86izjg_CITES_FINAL_ENG.pdf

Chicago

de Wit, Wijnand, Ellie Marsh, and Anders Kjemtrup. HALTING THE ILLEGAL TRADE OF CITES SPECIES FROM WORLD HERITAGE SITES. WWF International, 2017. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/425/5hei86izjg_CITES_FINAL_ENG.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=de Wit |first1=Wijnand |last2=Marsh |first2=Ellie |last3=Kjemtrup |first3=Anders |title=HALTING THE ILLEGAL TRADE OF CITES SPECIES FROM WORLD HERITAGE SITES |publisher=WWF International |date=April 2017 |url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/425/5hei86izjg_CITES_FINAL_ENG.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{dewit2017halting, author = {de Wit, Wijnand and Marsh, Ellie and Kjemtrup, Anders}, title = {{HALTING THE ILLEGAL TRADE OF CITES SPECIES FROM WORLD HERITAGE SITES}}, institution = {WWF International}, year = {2017}, month = apr, url = {https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/425/5hei86izjg_CITES_FINAL_ENG.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }