Dr Tanya Wyatt, Professor of Criminology, Northumbria University
Humans are causing a biodiversity crisis, where one million species are facing extinction. Species are dying, in no small part, because they are overexploited, poached and trafficked and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is the main international instrument designed to protect traded wildlife. Does the state of the world’s species mean CITES is failing? Dr Tanya Wyatt shares the findings of her recent research project investigating the implementation of and compliance with CITES by all one hundred and eighty-three parties. It is imperative we know the nature and extent of the implementation of and compliance with CITES legislation in all parties to fully understand the impact of legal and illegal trade on species survival. Through extensive legislative content analysis, a Delphi iterative survey, and semi-structured interviews, this is a unique empirical study about CITES implementation and compliance. She shares a comprehensive analysis of the state of CITES, what is done well, what could be done better, and what the future might bring to try to curtail the slide of the world’s wildlife into extinction.
Dr Tanya Wyatt is a Professor of Criminology at Northumbria University in Newcastle. She is a green criminologist specialising in wildlife crime and trafficking, and non-human animal abuse as well as the intersections with organised crime, corporate crime, and corruption. Her latest books are Is CITES Protecting Wildlife? and Wildlife Trafficking: a deconstruction of the crime, the victims and the offenders, Second edition.