CITES Appendix
Definition
CITES classifies listed species into three appendices. Appendix I prohibits commercial trade; Appendix II permits trade only with documented permits and quota compliance; Appendix III lists species where one country requests international trade monitoring. Forensic species identification determines which appendix applies to a seizure and whether trade was lawful.
- Appendix I
- Commercial trade prohibited
- Appendix II
- Trade allowed with documented permits and quota compliance
- Appendix III
- Single-country listing requesting international trade monitoring
- Forensic role
- Species ID determines which appendix and whether trade was lawful
Common questions
Why does correct species identification matter so much for CITES enforcement?+
A seized specimen's legal status, and whether any offence occurred at all, depends entirely on which appendix its species falls under, so a misidentification between a protected and a similar-looking unprotected species can change the outcome of a prosecution.
What is a non-detriment finding and which appendix requires it?+
A non-detriment finding is a scientific assessment by the exporting country's authority confirming that trade will not harm the wild population, required before Appendix II export permits are issued, but not applicable to Appendix I, where commercial trade is barred outright.
Does an Appendix III listing apply worldwide the same way as Appendix I or II?+
Not quite; an Appendix III listing is requested by one range country for its own protected species, so the monitoring obligation on trading partners is narrower and tied to that country's domestic law rather than a global consensus decision.
Related terms
- Chain of Custody
- The documented chronological record of who collected, handled, transferred, and examined a piece of evidence. For digital evidence, chain of custody includes...
- Cytochrome B (Cyt B)
- A mitochondrial protein-coding gene widely used in forensic species identification before COI barcoding was standardised. Still used because its reference database for...
- DNA Barcoding
- Species identification using a short, standardised region of the mitochondrial genome. For animals, the primary barcode marker is a 648-base-pair segment of...
- Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
- DNA located in mitochondria rather than the cell nucleus. Present in hundreds to thousands of copies per cell, making it recoverable from...
- STR Profiling
- Short tandem repeat profiling: the same multi-locus PCR-based method used for human identity testing, adapted for target species with species-specific primer sets....