Strengthening CITES Compliance: Automated Checks and Analyses to Detect and Communicate Noncompliant Trade with the Convention

The purpose of this project is to counter wildlife trafficking globally through better monitoring of wildlife trade patterns.

It will improve capabilities for detecting illegal wildlife trade and checking compliance, thereby strengthening implementation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

This project will contribute to the conservation of CITES-listed species by addressing the threats posed by illegal trade that contravenes key CITES provisions, including trade subject to CITES suspensions and commercial trade in wild-taken Appendix I species, both of which continue to be of concern based on findings from targeted ad hoc reviews.

The project will help to address this problem by developing an automated tool to analyze the data reported by Parties through their annual reports in order to efficiently identifying instances that may reveal non-compliant trade, and by increasing awareness so that Parties can take remedial actions or implement reforms.

Specific activities will include: (1) prioritization of key compliance issues in consultation with the CITES Secretariat; (2) development/testing of scripts to run on the data from the CITES Trade Database; (3) development of a CITES Compliance tool to view/download results and automated outputs to check and monitor non-compliance; and (4) support to the Secretariat in using the tool and in preparing a related report for consideration by relevant CITES bodies (e.g.

CITES Authorities, Standing Committee, Conference of the Parties).