WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/CTE/GEN/6
20 November 2002
(02-6441)
Committee on Trade and Environment Original:  English
ECONOMIC INCENTIVES AND TRADE POLICY
Communication from the CITES Secretariat
Items 1 & 5
This background paper was presented by the representative of the CITES1 at the last Regular
Session of the CTE, on 8 October 2002.  It is circulated to Members for their information.
_______________
1. This document has been prepared by the CITES Secretariat pursuant to Objectives 1.1, 5.1
and 5.4 of the Strategic Vision through 2005 adopted at the 11th meeting of the Conference of the
Parties.
2. Objective 1.1 is to assist in the development of appropriate domestic legislation and policies
that encourage the adoption and implementation of social and economic incentives allied to legal
instruments; Objective 5.1 is to ensure an optimal working relationship with UNEP, as well as close
coordination and synergy with Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and other relevant
multilateral environmental agreements; and Objectiv e 5.4 is to ensure continuing recognition and
acceptance of CITES measures by WTO and to ensure the mutual supportiveness of the decision-
making processes between these bodies.
A. BACKGROUND
3. Over the past few decades, there has been an increasing recognition that economic incentives
could make an important contribution to achieving the goals of the Convention. Although CITES has
engaged in using balanced packages of measures, including both incentives and various forms of tradefacilitating and restricting regulations, the measures it has adopted have so far been mainly focused on
command and control regulations aimed at controlling international trade in listed species as a
separate, free-standing concern.
4. Command and control regulations allow relatively little flexibility in the means of achieving
goals and heavily rely on monitoring and evaluation, complex administrative systems, as well as a
high capacity for enforcement. By combining command and control regulations with incentive
measures targeted to specific situations, there is a greater likelihood that the objectives of the
Convention will be achieved in a cost-effective manner.
5. The Strategic Vision through 2005 endorses this approach, stressing the importance of the
economic dimension and recognizing the need for economic incentives to ensure that wildlife trade is
carried out in a responsible and sustainable manner. Furthermore, Objective 1.1 of the Strategic
                                                     
1 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora (CITES).WT/CTE/GEN/6
Page 2
Vision urges the Parties to develop appropriate domestic legislation and policies that encourage the
adoption and implementation of economic incentives.
B. ECONOMIC INCENTIVES
6. Economic incentives could be defined as any measure that creates or improves upon the
available markets and price signals for CITES-listed species to encourage the conservation or
sustainable use of wild fauna and flora. Economic incentives include the assignment of well-defined
property and use rights, tradable catch and export quotas, export taxes, access fees and user charges,
as well as the use of positive incentives like compensation schemes for wildlife-generated damages.
Generally, they complement rather than replace the regulatory system.
7. Policy-makers may also strive to remove or mitigate so-called perverse incentives, that is,
those policy measures that jeopardize the conservation status of CITES-listed species and theirhabitats and ecosystems. Three common types of perverse incentives can be identified:
environmentally perverse government subsidies (e.g. forest or fisheries subsidies consisting of direct
cash transfers or market price controls); persistence of environmental externalities (e.g. open-access
resource exploitation and inappropriate commercial captive breeding and artificial propagation); and
laws or customary practices governing the use of wild fauna and flora (e.g. laws mandating speciesprotection in private land without compensation).
8. If properly chosen, designed and implemented, economic incentives will contribute to protect
and use wild fauna and flora in a sustainable and efficient manner. They will incite “dynamic
efficiency” that is the ongoing incentive to innovate and create new opportunities (e.g. taxes and
tradable quotas). In some cases, they may also lead to reduced implementation costs and, possibly, tothe generation of revenues for the conservation and management of wildlife populations. Furthermore,
possible shortcomings like negative distributional impacts can often be avoided through the careful
choice and design of targeted economic incentives. The effects of economic incentives depend on the
instrument, its design and the context in which it operates. Well-designed incentives should allow
prices to reflect costs more fully, including conservation costs. However if discriminatory or not welldesigned, these incentives could negatively affect market access or reduce economic welfare.
9. An economic incentive that could be used by Parties to reduce implementation costs and
generate revenues for conservation is the allocation of tradable catch and export quotas which are the
rights or allowances to undertake sustainable harvesting and non-detrimental exports restricted to a
given species and location. These quotas are transferable and can be traded between interested traders
through a market and may ensure that only a sustai nable number of species are caught. The quotas can
be increased or decreased by the Government depending on the health of the wild populations.
Regardless of the approach adopted by the Party concerned, it is important to establish an equitable
ownership allocation process in achieving the final outcome of sustainability.
10. Another example of economic incentive that has been used by some Parties is the assignment
of well-defined property rights to the local comm unities. Property rights include the right to use a
particular species, to permit or exclude its use by others, to collect the income generated by the
species, and to sell or otherwise dispose of the species. It is well known that poachers harvesting
specimens of wild species under open access conditions often enjoy profit margins that make any
effort to elude enforcement controls worthwhile. The assignment of property rights to localcommunities can help to reduce enforcement costs by providing resource owners with an incentive to
protect the species. Those rights could include self-administration of resource use and the right to sell
hunting licenses.
11. Economic incentives can of course also be applied to non-consumptive forms of resource use
like wildlife-related eco-tourism. To generate appr opriate incentives for local communities to invest in
wildlife conservation, Governments may introduce mechanisms to share benefits arising from tourismWT/CTE/GEN/6
Page 3
with local communities, for instance, through employment guarantees, compensation fees and social
service programmes.
12. The use of economic incentives is the prerogative of the Parties. Each Party decides how and
to what extent to incorporate those incentives in its legislation, in accordance with its constitution andother components of its legal system. However, given the above examples, Parties should consider
using economic incentives and remove or mitigate perverse incentives when developing national or
regional strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of wildlife. An integrated approach, which
includes the use of well-targeted economic incentives based on a thorough analysis of the underlying
socio-economic causes for species loss, will often be key for achieving the goals of the Convention.
C. S
TRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS FOR FURTHER COOPERATION ON ECONOMIC INCENTIVES
13. The Secretariat considers that the achievement of the Objectives described in the Strategic
Vision through 2005, in terms of economic incentives, requires the development of strategic
partnerships and a sustained exchange of information with international organizations, civil society
and the private sector.
14. The Secretariat has continued its constructive partnership on the issue of economic incentives
and trade policy with the CBD Secretariat. It has also exchanged information and views with global
and regional organizations working on wildlife-trade -related issues such as TRAFFIC; IUCN; the
UNCTAD-BIOTRADE Initiative; the Andean Community; the UNEP-Economics and Trade Branch
(ETB) Working Group on Economic Instruments; the Organization for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment (OECD); the World Bank; the Division on Trade and Environment of the WTO, the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Fauna and Flora International, the
World Resource Institute, the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD);
as well as leading academic and research institutions and experts assembled under the European
Union-funded project Bio-diversity and Economics for Conservation (BIOECON).
15. The Secretariat has invited these organizations to exchange information on progress
concerning the potential use of economic incentives for wildlife conservation and has established
links with the secretariats or representatives of those organizations. Some of them provided many
documents containing case-studies and theoretical frameworks for the use of such incentives.
D. C
OOPERATION WITH CBD
16. The work plan for the implementation of joint activities, as annexed to the Memorandum of
Cooperation concluded between the Secretariats of CITES and CBD, calls for an analysis of the
possibilities to using economic incentives to promote the sustainable use of wild flora and fauna or
reduce pressure for over-exploitation of these species. It envisages a study of the potential use of
labelling, green certification, and other measures to denote products derived from populations that aremanaged in a sustainable way and suggests a compilation of case-studies, best practices and lessons
learnt, as well as the development of practical principles, operational guidance and associated
instruments for the sustainable use of wild flora and fauna.
17. The CITES Secretariat is in close contact wi th the CBD Secretariat and has maintained a
regular exchange of information and views with its division of Social, Economic and Legal Matters.
The CITES Secretariat recognizes the value of the recent work of the CBD on economic incentives
and, most notably, the proposals for design and implementation of economic incentives adopted by
the Conference of the Parties to CBD during its si xth meeting in the Hague, the Netherlands, in its
decision VI/15-Annex I.
18. The Secretariat participated in a Workshop on Economic Incentives for the Conservation and
Sustainable Use of the Components of Biological Diversity from 10 to 13 October 2001, in Montreal,WT/CTE/GEN/6
Page 4
Canada. The CITES Secretariat contributed in the elaboration of proposals for the design and
implementation of incentive measures and is exploring the potential applications of economic
incentives identified under that work as well as possible avenues to further substantive cooperation,
especially in regard to the application of ways and means to remove or mitigate perverse incentives, in
line with decision VI/15 of the Conference of the Parties to CBD and its recommendations for futurecooperation on economic incentives contained in Annex II to this decision. The Secretariat also
collaborated in the development of criteria for sustainable utilisation of biodiversity.
E. C
OOPERATION WITH UNEP-E CONOMICS AND TRADE BRANCH
19. The CITES Secretariat is a member of the Working Group on Economic Instruments
established by UNEP-Economics and Trade Branch (ETB). The Working Group has met twice to
explore the potential use of economic instruments, their design and implementation. At its secondmeeting, held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 31 January to 1 February 2002, CITES made a
presentation and initiated discussions on the use of economic instruments in the context of wildlife
management. UNEP, under the guidance of the working group, is now in the process of preparing a
technical document to help policy makers to identify opportunities for the use of economic incentives
at the national level. The guide will especially address the policy context and conditions (e.g. legaland fiscal systems, macro-economic conditi ons and industry structure) under which economic
incentives could be successful. It will also outline th e implications of local conditions and policies for
the choice of economic incentives as complements to command and control measures. UNEP is
organizing a third WG meeting in Novemb er/December 2002 to review this document.
F. P
OTENTIAL COOPERATION WITH THE ORGANISATION FOR  ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND
DEVELOPMENT (OECD)
20. The Secretariat also attended an OECD conference on Financing the Environmental
Dimension of Sustainable Development, organized in cooperation with the World Bank and the UN
Department of Economic and Social Affairs from 24 to 26 April 2002, in Paris. The purposes of theconference were  to examine public policies and market-based initiatives for harnessing private
finance for the environmental dimension of sustainable development and strengthening international
partnership with international financial institutions. The Secretariat is exploring the possibility of
future cooperation with OECD, particularly with  the OECD Working Group on Economic Aspects of
Biodiversity (WGEAB).
G. P
OTENTIAL COOPERATION WITH THE INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR TRADE AND
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (ICTSD)
21. The Secretariat consulted ICTSD in March 2002 to discuss ways and options for exploring
the use of economic instruments in the context of wildlife management. Both organizations collected
ideas for a joint undertaking aimed at discussing, elaborating and assessing potential synergies
between the use of market-based incentives and wildlife protection within the current and futuremandate of CITES. In the follow-up process, ICTSD will organize with the Secretariat a side event at
the World Summit on Sustainable Development (W SSD) on 26 August 2002 in Johannesburg, South
Africa. The purpose of the event is inter alia  to analyse the appropriateness of using economic
incentives for wildlife management. The Secretariat is exploring the possibility for future cooperation
with ICTSD.
H. C
OOPERATION WITH UNCTAD-BIOTRADE, THE ANDEAN COMMUNITY (CAN) AND
TRAFFIC S OUTH AMERICA
22. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) launched the
BIOTRADE Initiative (www.biotrade.org) at the third meeting of the Conference of the Parties to
CBD in 1996. The BIOTRADE Initiative seeks to enhance the capability of developing countries toWT/CTE/GEN/6
Page 5
produce value-added products and services from biological diversity for both domestic and
international markets.
23. The purpose of cooperation between the Secretar iats of CITES and BIOTRADE is to address
the issue of wildlife economics, in particular the role of economic incentives for sustainable resourcemanagement, including exploitation for trade of CITES-listed species at sustainable levels and benefit
sharing with local communities that are most direc tly affecting the habitat of the species concerned.
24. The Secretariat attended two workshops under the CAN/BID project Formulation of the Bio-
diversity Strategy for the Andean Region and two regional BIOTRADE workshops held immediately
after the CAN/BID workshops in Venezuela (July 2001) and Colombia (September 2001). At these
meetings participants from all five Andean countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru andVenezuela) made brief presentations of the status  of their BIOTRADE programmes, and shared their
experiences and knowledge.
25. As a result of these two workshops, a memorandum was concluded between the Secretariat
and the regional office for South America of TR AFFIC. TRAFFIC South America undertook for the
Secretariat a pilot assessment of the current exploitation, trade and management of different groups of
CITES-listed species in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela to
identify opportunities, bottlenecks and targeted recommendations for the sustainable trade in those
species.
26. During the first half of 2002, TRAFFI C South America compiled and summarized
information to describe ideal management systems and regimes for sustainable trade in CITES
species, including the use of economic incentives in the range States. These ideal systems were
compared to the current practices to identify for each strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
obstacles to achieving sustainable trade in the CITES species.
27. During the second half of 2002, practical recommendations for using economic incentives and
improving the existing wildlife trade policies and programmes in the range States concerned will be
provided to and discussed with the CITES Authorities of the relevant countries, the BIOTRADE focal
points, the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), the Andean Committee of Environmental
Authorities (CAAAM), the Andean Corporation of Finance (CAF), the UNCTAD-BIOTRADE
Initiative and the Secretariat.
I. R
ELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CITES AND WTO
28. On 14 April 1994, the WTO adopted the Decision on Trade and Environment (the Marrakesh
Decision) which established a WTO Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE), to study and make
recommendations on, inter alia , the relationship between the provisions of the multilateral trading
system and trade measures for environmental purposes. In 1997, the Secretariat obtained observer
status in the CTE. However, CITES still does not have observer status in the CTE Doha Special
Session which is actually negotiating on the relationship between existing WTO rules and specific
trade obligations set out in Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs).
29. The Doha Ministerial Declaration, adopted at the fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in
Qatar in November 2001, launches new negotiations on trade and environment. The focus of the
WTO negotiations, therefore, is to achieve greater policy coherence between WTO rules and MEAs,
and on liberalizing trade in environmental goods and services.
30. With paragraphs 31, 32, 33 and 51 of the Declaration in mind, especially in relation to
mechanisms for information exchange, the labell ing requirements for environmental purposes, the
effect of CITES measures on market access and thos e situations in which the elimination or reduction
of trade restrictions and distortions would benefit wildlife trade, CITES-listed species andWT/CTE/GEN/6
Page 6
development, the Secretariat considers that CITES participation could provide significant input to the
negotiations to complete successfully the tasks required under those articles and recommends that
Parties send a strong signal in this direction to the WTO negotiators.
31. The Secretariat is consulted regularly by the CTE on issues related to wildlife-trade
regulations as well as on relevant documents and reports issued by trade-related agencies. The
Secretariat has committed itself to a regular exchange of information and views with the CTE. During
several information sessions for MEAs organized by the CTE, the Secretariat has informed the WTO
members about the role of trade-facilitating and -restricting regulations in achieving the CITES
objectives, the structure of compliance and dispute settlement mechanisms in MEAs, technical
assistance and capacity building, as well as how to improve information exchange and enhance
cooperation between MEAs and WTO.
32. The Secretariat has been working closely with other MEAs, UNEP-ETB and the Trade and
Environment Division of the WTO to clarify how the two regimes come together in a positive and
practical way. It has also actively participated in the MEA-WTO process facilitated by UNEP-ETB,
including the four meetings involving Governments and NGOs (October 2000, March 2001,June 2001 and March 2002). The Secretariat contributed to a paper on compliance and dispute
settlement procedures in the WTO and MEAs, produced jointly by WTO and UNEP, which was the
subject of a UNEP-sponsored meeting and an MEA Information Session in the WTO CTE in
June 2001.
33. The Secretariat has participated in one WTO regional seminar on trade and environment for
some Caribbean countries held in Saint Lucia from 28 to 30 January 2002 and has expressed interest
in working with the WTO Secretariat and other partners to plan and organize similar seminars in
future. The Secretariat also made a formal presentation at the UNEP Workshop on Capacity Building
related to Environment, Trade and Development in Geneva on 19-20 March 2002, in a sessiondevoted to collaborative capacity building activities between the WTO, UNEP and MEAs. In
addition, it has welcomed the WTO Secretariat's plans to organize a side event at the 12th meeting of
the Conference of the Parties.
34. An area of potential tension between WTO and CITES relates to the stricter domestic
measures allowed under Article XIV, paragrap h 1, of the Convention. Some WTO members have
expressed the opinion that countries should not establish stricter domestic measures if they are basedon unilateral rather than multilateral criteria and are applied in a manner which would constitute a
means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between Parties where the same conditions prevail,
or are a disguised restriction on international trade.
35. The evolving relationship between the CITES and WTO regimes is built upon mutual
recognition of their equal status in international law, their unique features and their respective areas of
competence. It is essential that the Doha negotiatio n process explicitly reaffirms this principle and
recognizes that regulation of trade in CITES-listed species, including all measures adopted by the
Conference of the Parties or its subsidiary bodies, does not fall under the mandate of the WTO. The
Secretariat considers that a detailed analysis of the impact of the Doha negotiation process and therole of economic incentives in the implementation of CITES is needed.
J. R
ECOMMENDATIONS
36. The Secretariat stresses the advantages of designing and implementing economic incentives
such as the assignment of well-defined property and use rights, tradable catch and export quotas,export taxes, access fees and user charges in achieving the objectives of the Convention, and it
encourages the Parties to consider the use of economic incentives in their national policies, as part of
the process of developing national and regional conservation strategies.WT/CTE/GEN/6
Page 7
37. The Secretariat considers that fulfilling the objectives of the Strategic Vision through 2005
requires a comprehensive review of the national trade policies concerning CITES species. The
primary purpose of this review is to provide CITES authorities and policy makers with detailed
information on the wide variety of consequences of wildlife trade policies. The results should identify
economic incentives to: a) ensure that the use of Appendix-II species is sustainable; b) promote therecovery of Appendix-I species until they no longer meet the criteria for inclusion in Appendix I; c)
halt if not reverse the impacts of the factors responsible for the decline of certain populations; and d)
reinvest the profits of wildlife trade in management and conservation of those species. This process
should complement the National Legislation Project and the Review of Significant Trade.
38. The Secretariat believes that workshops can be a valuable means to exchange both positive
and negative experiences and best practices with respect to the design and implementation ofincentive measures. Country-driven case-studies that reflect both the experiences of developing and
developed countries could provide a good basis to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of specific
economic incentives, taking into account the peculiarities of countries, wildlife populations and trade
sectors.
39. The Secretariat believes that there is a need for cooperation and collaboration with
international organizations which will assist the Secretariat in designing and implementing a
framework for trade policy reviews. Cooperation sh ould focus on the exchange of experiences in the
design and use of economic incentives for sustainable management of wild fauna and flora,
compilation of case-studies, best practices and lessons learnt, as well as the development of practicalprinciples, operational guidance and associated instruments for the sustainable use of wild flora and
fauna.
40. The Secretariat encourages Management Authorities to work with trade experts in their
countries to improve mutual understanding of the objectives of both CITES and the WTO. Parties toCITES are encouraged to coordinate, at the national level, the activities of their trade agencies and
environment agencies to ensure that consistent positions are presented both in the CITES and the
WTO context.
41. The Secretariat recommends that Parties should as far as possible avoid the application of the
stricter domestic measures mentioned in Article XIV of the Convention and should rather favour
multilateral collaboration in the adoption of incentive measures at the international level. If Partiesdecide to take stricter domestic measures, the Secretariat encourages them to do so in a manner which
would not constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between Parties, or a
disguised restriction on international trade and to ensure that those measures are appropriately
targeted to a specific situation.
42. In order to ensure the maximum transparency possible, the Secretariat encourages the Parties
to inform their counterparts (trading partners) of the reasons for, and the requirements of, stricter
domestic measures that they have adopted. The Parties are encouraged to initiate consultative
processes with trading partners to determine whether such measures are still appropriate or not.
43. The Secretariat recommends to the Conference of the Parties the adoption of the draft
resolution and the draft decision in the annexes to this document.WT/CTE/GEN/6
Page 8
ANNEX 1
DRAFT RESOLUTION OF THE CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES
RECALLING the second paragraph of the preamble to the Convention, which stipulates that the
Contracting States are conscious of the ever-growing value of wild fauna and flora from aesthetic,
scientific, cultural, recreational and economic points of view;
REAFFIRMING the goals and objectives of the Strategic Vision through 2005 adopted at the 11th
meeting of the Conference of the Parties, particularly Objectives 1.1, 5.1 and 5.4 aimed inter alia  at
assisting the Parties in the development of appropriate domestic legislation and policies thatencourage the adoption and implementation of social and economic incentives, ensuring an optimal
working relationship with UNEP, the Convention on Biological Diversity and other relevant
multilateral environmental agreements, and at ensuring recognition and acceptance of CITES
measures by the World Trade Organization;
WELCOMING the important progress made by the C onvention on Biological Diversity on the use of
economic incentives and, most notably, the proposals for the design and implementation of economic
incentives contained in Annex I to decision VI/15 of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention
on Biological Diversity;
STRESSING the importance of continuing and increasing close cooperation and coordination
between CITES and the Convention on Biological Diversity in the performance of their respective
mandates;
RECOGNIZING that the design and implementation of appropriate economic incentives could make
an important contribution to achieving the goals of the Convention and that the sustainable use of wild
fauna and flora, whether consumptive or non-consumptive, provides an economically viable land-use
option;
RECOGNIZING that sustainable and efficient use of wild fauna and flora may be beneficial to the
conservation of species and can contribute to rural development and national economies;
CONSIDERING that conservation of wild fauna and flora entails significant costs and should take
into account the needs of the developing countries, in particular of their indigenous people and other
local communities;
RECOGNIZING also that the revenues from sustainable and efficient wildlife trade may provide
funds and incentives to support the management of wild fauna and flora and to curb illegal trade;
RECALLING the relevant principles of the Ri o Declaration on Environment and Development,
particularly Principle 16 that calls upon national authorities to promote the internalization of
environmental costs and the use of economic instruments;
RECALLING Principle 12 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, which states
that trade policy measures for environmental purposes should not constitute a means of arbitrary or
unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade and that unilateral actions
to deal with environmental challenges outside the jurisdiction of the importing country should beavoided;
RECOGNIZING that CITES participation could provide significant input to the negotiations on trade
and environment and other relevant negotiations in the World Trade Organization;WT/CTE/GEN/6
Page 9
THE CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES TO THE CONVENTION
ENCOURAGES all Parties to consider the use of  economic incentives in their national policies
concerning the management and conservation of CITES-listed species, as part of the process of
developing national and regional bio-diversity conservation strategies, to:
(a) ensure that trade in Appendix-II species is sustainable and in compliance with Article IV of
the Convention;
(b) promote the recovery of Appendix-I species so that they may no longer meet the criteria for
inclusion in Appendix I;
(c) create mechanisms whereby direct and indirect economic benefits and income derived from
trade in CITES-listed species can be reinvested by authorities and other beneficiaries inmanagement and conservation of these species and their habitats; and
(d) halt if not reverse the decline of certain populations of CITES-listed species;
ENCOURAGES all Parties to remove or mitigate so-called perverse economic incentives, that is,
those policy measures that compromise the conservation status of CITES-listed species or their
ecosystems;
URGES all Parties to avoid where possible the appli cation of stricter domestic measures and to favour
multilateral collaboration in the adoption of incentive measures at the international level;
CALLS UPON the Parties that decide to take stricter domestic measures to do so in a manner which
would not constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between Parties, or a
disguised restriction on international trade, and to ensure that those measures are appropriately
targeted to a specific situation;
ENCOURAGES Management Authorities to work with sectoral ministries and agencies responsible
for trade in their countries to promote harmonious coexistence and mutual understanding of the
objectives of both CITES and the World Trade Organization, and Parties to coordinate, at the national
level, the activities of their trade agencies and environment agencies to ensure that positions presented
in the CITES and the World Trade Organization context are mutually supportive;
ENCOURAGES all Parties to take into account th e needs of indigenous people and other local
communities when adopting trade policies concerning wild fauna and flora;
ENDORSES the efforts of the Secretariat, with the assistance of the UNEP-Economic and Trade
Branch in its capacity as facilitator, to ensure continuing recognition and acceptance of CITES
measures by the World Trade Organization and to ensure the mutual supportiveness of the decision-
making processes between these bodies;
INSTRUCTS the Secretariat to seek to obtain observer status for attending relevant sessions and
negotiations in the World Trade Organization;
INVITES competent international organizations, including private sector actors such as enterprises,
Non-Governmental Organizations and consumers, to support the efforts of Parties in their work on
economic incentives, in particular through the dissemination of information, the provision of expertise
and technical guidance, and training; and
INVITES all Parties, governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to
provide further financial and technical assistance for the implementation of this Resolution.WT/CTE/GEN/6
Page 10
 ANNEX 2
DRAFT DECISION OF THE CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES
Directed to the Secretariat
12.xx The Secretariat should, contingent on the availability of external funding and in collaboration 
with CBD, FAO, Fauna and Flora International, ICTSD, IFC, IUCN, OECD, TRAFFIC, 
UNEP-ETB, UNCTAD-BIOTRADE, the World Resources Institute and the World Bank:
(a) organize a technical workshop on wildlife trade policies and economic incentives 
applicable to the management of and trade in CITES-listed species, in particular in order to develop a methodology to review those policies and to make targeted 
recommendations on the use of those incentives;
(b) report at the 49th meeting of the Standing Committee the findings and 
recommendations of the workshop;
(c) identify, in consultation with the Standing Committee, the Parties that could be 
included in the trade-policy review;
(d) conduct, in cooperation with the selected Parties, a review of their national policy 
regarding the use of and trade in CITES-listed species, taking into account economic incentives, production systems, consumption patterns, market access strategies, price 
structures, certification schemes, CITES-relevant taxation and subsidy schemes, 
property rights, mechanisms for benefit sharing and reinvestment in conservation, as 
well as stricter domestic measures that Parties apply or are affected by;
(e) compile and synthesize the information provided by the Parties, and produce a report 
analysing the economic impacts of wildlife trade policies in terms of socio-economic 
and conservation benefits and costs, economic value, levels of legal and illegal trade, 
improvement of the livelihood of local communities, and the role of the private sector
involved in wildlife trade;
(f) report at the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties on the progress made with
regard to the implementation of this Decision; and
(g) prepare and submit a project proposal to the Global Environment Facility, and other
funding institutions and developing agencies, to seek financial support to prepare the
trade-policy reviews in the selected countries, in the context of their national andregional strategies for bio-diversity conservation.
__________