This document summarizes the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). It describes CITES as an international agreement between governments aimed at regulating trade in endangered species. It provides details on how CITES is applied and financed in Italy, including the roles of different government ministries and enforcement agencies. It also outlines the listings of protected species, licensing system for trade, amendments that have been made to CITES, and the current number of parties that have ratified the convention.

1. List of Parties to the
Convention
CITES
Classe 3F
a.s. 2017/2018

2. What is the CITES?
CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international
agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that
international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants
does not threaten their survival.

3. The structure of CITES

4. Application in Italy
In Italy, the convention has been in force since 1980.
Its application is in charge of the ministries of the Ministry of the environment and of
the protection of the territory and of the mareambiente, of the finances, of the
foreign trade and of the agriculture and forests.
Operatively, it is managed by an institution called the CITES Service , initially part of
the State Forestry Corps . The CITES Service of the CFS was equipped with a
coordination center in Rome and 40 peripheral offices. The coordination center
controlled the activities of local offices and maintained relations with international
bodies and organizations. The peripheral offices are subdivided into 24 territorial
cites (SCT) and 16 CIS (NOC) operational units. The former are responsible for issuing
certificates, establishing infringements and territorial control; the latter, operating
at the customs, perform product checks, document checks and verification of
commercial movements.

5. Who finances it?
Funding for the activities of the Secretariat and
Conference of the Parties (CoP) meetings comes from a
Trust Fund derived from Party contributions.
Trust Fund money is not available to Parties to improve
implementation or compliance. These activities, and all
those outside Secretariat activities (training, species
specific programmes such as Monitoring the Illegal
Killing of Elephants - MIKE) must find external funding,
mostly from donor countries and regional organizations
such as the European Union.

6. Regulation of trade
Cites works by subjecting international trade in specimens of selected
species to certain controls. All import, export, re-export and introduction
from the sea of species covered by the convention has to be authorized
through a licensing system.
According to article IX of the convention, management and scientific
authorities, each party to the convention must designate one or more
management authorities in charge of administering that licensing system
and one or more scientific authorities to advise them on the effects of trade
on the status of cites-listed species.

7. The CITES species
Roughly 5,800 species of animals and 30,000 species of plants are
protected by CITES against over-exploitation through international
trade.
They are listed in the three CITES Appendices:
• Protected species in the strict sense (every trade is forbidden, the use
can be granted only in exceptional circumstances).
• Species subject to control (trade must be compatible with their
survival, and is subject to authorization by CITES certificate).
• Species subject to control by individual member countries (typically
for nations seeking to protect particular endemic species ).

8. Number of Parties to CITES
When the government of a State or a regional economic integration
organization decides that it will be bound by the provisions of CITES, it can
'join' the Convention by making a formal declaration to this effect in writing to
the Depositary Government, which is the Government of Switzerland. Once a
document containing this declaration has been received by the Depositary,
through the diplomatic channel, the Convention enters into force for the State
concerned 90 days later (Article XXII).
A State or regional economic integration organization for which the
Convention has entered into force is called a Party to CITES. Currently there are
183 Parties.
A State or regional economic integration organization that is a Party to CITES
may withdraw from the Convention at any time by a process of denunciation
(Article XXIV: The denunciation shall take effect twelve months after the
Depositary Government has received the notification).

9. The process of making a declaration to be bound by the
provisions of CITES is called ‘ratification’, ‘acceptance’,
‘approval’ or ‘accession’.
Ratification, acceptance and approval are legally
equivalent actions but are only applicable in relation to
the States that signed the Convention when it was open
for signature, between 3 March 1973 (when it was
concluded) and 31 December 1974.
The
ratification

10. Amendments
The Conference of the Parties to CITES, which is the supreme
decision-making body of the Convention and comprises all its
Parties, has adopted two amendments to the original text of
the Convention.
Amendments to the Convention must be supported by a two-
thirds majority who are "present and voting" and can be made
during an extraordinary meeting of the COP if one-third of the
Parties are interested in such a meeting.
Two of the most important amendments are:
Amendament adopted at Bonn;
Amendament adopted at Gaborone.

11. The Bonn amendment
The Bonn amendment entered into force 60 days after 34 (two-thirds)
of the 50 States that were party to CITES on 22 June 1979 deposited their
instruments of acceptance.
At that time it entered into force only for those States that had accepted
the amendment (no matter on what date they became party to the
Convention.) However the amended text of the Convention applies
automatically to any State that becomes a Party after the date of entry
into force of the amendment.
There are currently 149 Parties out of 183 that have accepted the Bonn
amendment.

12. The Gaborone amendment
The Gaborone amendment entered into force on 29 November 2013,
60 days after 54 (two-thirds) of the 80 States that were party to CITES on
30 April 1983 deposited their instrument of acceptance of the
amendment.
At that time it entered into force only for those States that had accepted
the amendment. The amended text of the Convention will apply
automatically to any State that becomes a Party after 29 November 2013.
For States that became party to the Convention before that date and
have not accepted the amendment, it will enter into force 60 days after
they accept it.
There are currently 101 Parties out of 183 that have accepted the

13. Realizzato da:
BERTOLDO MARGHERITA
DE LEONIBUS LETIZIA
FIUCCI GIORGIA
MARINI ALESSIA
SOUSA AIRES DE MORAES PEDRO VICTOR