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Undoubtedly, the illegal trade in wild species in Australia and across the globe has received more media exposure in recent years. Illegal activity in Australia is most commonly associated with the exotic pet trade. Our country’s unique species means birds, reptiles, mammals and even insects are in high demand worldwide....

Over 50 years, and especially the last 30 years, the CITES has faced a death by a thousand cuts.

It has taken until CITES CoP20 for some stakeholders to finally realise that ignoring the predicament of this critically important regulator has brought it to the brink of what could be...

It has taken 6 years of lobbying to move the dial on just the first step of modernising the CITES regulator, namely trying to drag the CITES from its 1970s paper permits to a digital, real-time system which can more easily monitor supply chains.

After Nature Needs More first published...

The current stories of what defines ‘cool’ and gives people status are killing the planet. New narratives are needed to save wild species and the natural world. Will 2026 bring the needed shift?

The status-driven addiction to consumption is driving planetary collapse. At present this addiction is shared between all...

In 2017, when Nature Needs More decided that the illegal trade in wild species couldn’t be decisively tackled until the legal trade system under the CITES was modernised, we stumbled on the historic consideration of moving the CITES to a revise listing system.

For clarity, under the CITES model established...

Finally, some good news coming out of the CITES. In the days leading up to the start of CoP20, the map highlighting which countries are moving away from the obsolete 1970s paper permit system has been updated.

It would have been frankly ridiculous for the CITES to reach its 50th...

Nature Need More can with 100% certainty state that there is No Chance of achieving the CITES Strategic Vision 2030. Equally, there is No Chance of achieving the KMGBF Target 5 by 2030. Why do we say this? Because neither body is making any substantive effort to achieve a transparent,...

Plenty of conventions and IGOs deal with the rights of people, poverty and development; The World Bank and UNCTAD were created for this very purpose. So why, when there are so few that focus on non-human species does the corporate conservation sector and conservation academics want to bring these considerations...

The illusion and delusion of the supposed CITES effectiveness must end. While a modern and well-funded CITES is desperately needed, the convention cannot survive in its current state because it has long failed in its stated objective of protecting endangered species from overexploitation through international trade.

Over decades the CITES...

Given the CITES trade measures have never been enforced, the valid question is, has the CITES ever really been a regulator of the trade in wild species?

That CITES is believed to be a regulator in not in doubt. In a briefing session, John Scanlon, who was Secretary General of...

Over the years of researching the CITES listed legal trade in wild species, periodically the question arose, “What if Jeff Bezos ran Amazon Inc. with the same supply chain processes as the CITES?”.

Amazon Inc. is a perfect contrast of what can be achieved when it is in the business’...

No stakeholder is interested in validating the sustainable use model that the CITES is purportedly based on. After 50 years of the CITES, there is still no way to validate if the trade this regulator manages is sustainable.

Businesses and industries know genuine validation of sustainable use of wild species...