In Australia, farmers net, then trample or shoot, heards of cockatoos
because they destroy crops, but would the Australian government allow a
single bird to be exported. Well, you know the answer to that.
If CITES eased up, the flood of commercial harvesters would soon pick the
jungles bare (they think).
I'll tell you what CITES listing did to one orchid. Paphiopedilum
delenatii is listed, I think, in CITES 1. It is native to Vietnam and
was thought to be extinct until recently. Well, when the Vietnamese
government got wind of the potential value of P.delenatii they started
gathering them and shipped (according to whose story you believe) either
20,000 or 100,000 plants, through Hongkong, to Japan for an orchid
festival. The Japanese government blinked, checked it out, and threw the
whole batch out of the country, along with the folks that imported them.
They were then shipped to Taiwan where their residue resides today, dying
because of the difference in climate.
So here, CITES probably did destroy a species single handed. I have heard
that most or all orchids are coming OFF CITES next spring: maybe a case
could be made for cps.
Maybe some thinking people could propose a way to open limited and
controlled trade without endangering the resource in the wild.
Any other thoughts?
Sorry about the length of this sermon.
Cheers,
Phil