World body regulates trade in flora and fauna

The most important conservation meeting in a generation saw debates on the future of more than 500 species, including South African species hard-hit by poaching.

Cites, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, has been around for four decades. In that time it has governed the trade of species, from devil rays in the ocean to rosewood trees on land. This is what else you need to know:

which species can be traded. states must agree for the listing of a species to get changed.

The body decides whether a species is endangered, or whether countries can trade in it. The quantities of that trade are also set by Cites. Member states can ignore these classifications, but then they get frozen out of all international trade in plants and animals.

This recently happened to Rwanda, and the country was given a month to improve its legislation to protect its species. —