When the World Comes Together to Tackle Wildlife Trade
Millions of imperiled animals are plucked from the wild each year for the wildlife trade. Every three years in the fall, countries from around the world gather for the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, aka CITES, to decide which species need saving from this trade.
What is CITES?
CITES — officially called the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora — is an agreement among 185 countries that aims to protect species by regulating their international trade. The Convention has been in force since 1975, and its terms, unlike those of many other international agreements, are legally binding and enforceable. The treaty is designed to foster international cooperation in protecting both animals and plants from over-exploitation through international trade.
What is CoP20?
Every three years, the countries that have approved the Convention, known as “Parties” to CITES, meet in person for what’s known as the Conference of the Parties, to agree upon levels of protection for select species threatened by international trade.
The November 2025 meeting in Uzbekistan is CITES’ twentieth and is called CoP20.
At CoP20, the Parties are voting on proposals to increase or decrease levels of protection for various species put forward by the Parties. The wildlife up for protections in 2025 include an amazing array of sharks and rays, sea cucumbers, reptiles, pink-hued tarantulas, seed finches and hornbills, spotted hyenas, and okapi.
The Parties are also deciding whether to open trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn, which could be disastrous for these imperiled species, and are negotiating future work on behalf of pangolins, elephants, vaquitas, leopards, lions, rhinos, and more. Protecting a species or passing a measure requires a two-thirds majority vote.
What role does the Center play at the CITES meeting?
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.8 million members and online activists dedicated to fighting the extinction crisis.
Exploitation is a key driver of species loss — it’s the primary driver of marine extinctions and the secondary driver of terrestrial extinctions. The planet is losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate, with the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) estimating it could lose 1 million species in the coming decades if humans continue business as usual. CITES’ role of combatting overexploitation through international trade is needed now more than ever. The situation is especially urgent for reptiles and amphibians, who are suffering dramatic declines:
About 47% of amphibians and 25% of reptiles are at risk of extinction.
Attorneys and scientists from the Center are attending CoP20 to share expertise with the Parties and advocate for necessary wildlife protections. In particular we’re pressing for measures to regulate the growing pet trade, including to protect wildlife from U.S. demand for tarantulas, reptiles, and aquarium fish. The Center opposes trading in ivory and rhino horn and supports efforts to close domestic markets for imperiled species and reduce demand, including in the United States. We’re advocating to keep protections for species fighting against extinction, like giraffes, peregrine falcons, and fur seals and to ensure new standards to clamp down on trade in imperiled eels, sea cucumbers, sharks, and rays. We’re also continuing our long history of advocacy for vaquitas and totoabas in the Gulf of California in Mexico and for elephants, leopards, aquarium fishes, lions, pangolins, and rhinoceroses. And our lawyers are aiding in critical legal negotiations over how the Convention is interpreted and implemented.
According to the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), only transformative change will address the biodiversity crisis. We urge CITES Parties to meet this moment with ambition, vote for conservation at CoP20, and plan for the next 50 years of CITES to save all life on Earth.
Our CITES CoP20 briefing outlines and explains the Center’s positions on key proposals at this year’s conference. También tenemos una versión en español.
Check out our press releases to learn more about the Center's actions related to CITES.
For more information about CITES or the Center for Biological Diversity’s role in the Convention, please reach out to any of these people with our International program: International Legal Director and Senior Attorney Tanya Sanerib, International Program Director and Senior Attorney Sarah Uhlemann, Senior Mexico Representative Alex Olivera, Senior Conservation Advocate Chris R. Shepherd.
