Prawnomiędzynarodowe aspekty handlu zwierzętami i roślinami należącymi do zagrożonych gatunków
Legal and international aspects of trade in endangered species of animals and plants

Summary/Abstract: During the 17 years, over which the Washington Convention has been in force, there has been clear progress in terms of reduction of illegal trade in endangered species of wild animals and plants. The Convention has achieved a rare level of acceptance from the international community (115 States Parties). It proved to be an attractive document not only for the countries from which the endangered species originated, introducing controls at the point of export and the point of import of the specimens, but also for the countries-recipients, creating a legal framework for controlled transactions. Thanks to CITES, the awareness of the existence of serious threats to the world's flora and fauna has also increased significantly and the conviction has been established that, without concerted and determined action, it will not be possible to preserve the Earth's natural wealth for future generations.However, this does not mean that full success in the fight against illegal trade has been achieved, significant transactions of specimens of endangered species still take place. The administrative and scientific staff in the States-Parties, delegated to implement CITES, are often very few and insufficiently trained, the threat monitoring and reporting system does not always work efficiently, and customs officials find it difficult to carry out the inspections properly due to the vast and complicated nature of the annexes.However, these problems are recognised and consistent attempts have been made by the Conference of the Parties and the Secretariat to address them. The existence and activities of these institutional forms contribute significantly to the slow but actual progress in CITES implementation. It also ensures that CITES does not become a “sleeping treaty” that the parties can ignore. According to the experts, it is a Treaty which keeps the parties in the framework they created and is a valuable examples for other agreements related to environmental protection.

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