CITES at Forty: Never Too Late to Make Lifestyle Changes

This article argues that an under‐recognized weakness of the C onvention on I nternational T rade in E ndangered S pecies of W ild F auna and F lora ( CITES ) is that it continues to take the approach of ‘categorizing’ species, which was the dominant feature of early wildlife‐related conventions such as the 1900 L ondon C onvention on the P reservation of W ild A nimals, B irds and F ish in A frica. It argues that this approach has in the past been problematic for efforts to protect wildlife and that as long as it continues to be a primary feature of efforts to protect wildlife in the face of modern understandings of the complexities inherent in ecosystems, CITES will never be fully effective. A gradual move toward an (admittedly radical) alternative approach is advocated – at least as far as commercial trade is concerned.