Book Reviews

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9388.2004.00389.x
• Published date: 01 April 2004
• Date: 01 April 2004

© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2004, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

RECIEL 13 (1) 2004. ISSN 0962 8797

113

Book Reviews

The Trade in

Wildlife – Regulation

for Conservation

, edited

by

Sara Oldf‌ield

, published

by Earthscan, 2003, 210pp,

£17.95, paperback.

The trade in wildlife and wildlife

products is undoubtedly a signif‌ic-

ant threat to several wild species.

With the entry into force of the

Convention on International Trade

in Endangered Species of Wild

Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1973,

an international regime for the

international trade in endangered

wildlife was formed. CITES is

regarded by some as one of the

most successful conservation treat-

ies. The treaty aims to regulate the

international trade in endangered

species on a national level in such a

way that the survival of the species

is not threatened. For this purpose,

the treaty works with a system of

three appendices. The species listed

in Appendix I are most vulnerable

and the trade controls for these

species are very strict. For the

species in Appendix II, which are

less vulnerable, limited trade is

possible. Appendix III contains the

species listed by the parties who

consider these species as threatened

in their territories. CITES is not a

treaty without problems and contro-

versies. One of the main prob-

lems is that the illegal trade in

wildlife has not disappeared since

CITES came into existence and

enforcement of relevant wildlife

laws is often lacking, especially in

developing countries. One of the

main controversies concerns the

question whether trade regulation

itself is the appropriate solution

for the conservation of wildlife or

whether alternative ways should

be sought that address the complex

factors of species loss and also con-

sider the socio-economic aspects of

conservation.

With contributions from 23 experts

in a range of areas related to wild-

life trade, as well as the illegal

trade in other goods,

The Trade in

Wildlife – Regulation for Conser-

vation

is a valuable resource for

scholars and practitioners working

on, or who are interested in, issues

of controlled trade in wildlife and

wildlife conservation.

The book is the outcome of a semi-

nar held in 2001 on the regulation

and enforcement of the interna-

tional trade in wildlife. The pur-

pose of the book is not to give an

evaluation of CITES. In fact, the

book is not limited to international

trade in endangered species, but

considers, as its title implies, the

regulation of trade in wildlife in

general. The book aims to ‘help to

take forward and widen the on-

going debate on regulation and the

effective enforcement of wildlife

trade controls’. All this is not to say

that CITES does not receive a great

deal of attention from the authors,

but the various case studies under-

taken in this book also address some

more fundamental issues related to

the regulation of trade in wildlife.

The book is divided into four main

parts. The f‌irst part provides an

overview of the complexities of the

legal and illegal trade in wildlife,

and various background perspect-

ives on the nature of regulation

designed to control such a complex

system. The f‌irst chapter attempts

to map out the size of the wildlife

trade, its patterns and value. Obvi-

ously, the chapter succeeds in pro-

viding an overview of legal trade

in wildlife but cannot present reli-

able data for illegal trade. In the

second chapter some of the main

controversies surrounding CITES

are described and a strong case is

made for assessing the effectiveness

of trade measures –

something

that is, to a certain extent, already

being done in CITES, through the

Signif‌icant Trade Review Process.

Chapter 3 explains what should be

taken into account in designing an

international regulation. In chap-

ter 4, the economics of wildlife

regulations are described and it is

argued that complex systems, such

as the trade in wildlife, call for integ-

rated policy measures. Chapter 5

deals with positive and negative

incentives used in wildlife conser-

vation. As Professor Marshall Mur-

phree puts it, ‘[t]he issue is not one

of negative or positive incentives

per se, but one of f‌inding the right

mix of these ingredients in specif‌ic

systemic contexts’. It is emphasized

that the use of negative incentives

through trade regulation – and,

more specif‌ically, trade bans – is

most likely to be insuff‌icient from

both a conservational and a devel-

opmental perspective. There is an

apparent need for complementing

positive incentives at the local level,

to be determined on a case-by-case

basis.

The second part of the book exam-

ines regimes for wildlife trade at

the international, regional and

national level. The book does not

go into much detail in these chap-

ters, but rather presents some of

the key issues in these regimes.

Chapter 6 describes the enforce-

ment mechanisms of CITES and

explains the enforcement problems

the treaty faces. The EU regime,

described in the next chapter, con-

tains stricter measures than those

contained in CITES. The eff‌icacy of

some of these measures has been

investigated, which is something