Digital tool to promote sustainable wildlife trade gets award

The processing of paperbased trade documentation such as permits and certificates can lead to issues such as an increased risk of fraud the timeconsuming processing of manual permits a lack of access to trade and transaction information and poor data sharing between the parties involved in the clearance processThese issues are exacerbated for those seeking to trade internationally species regulated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora CITES as additional information is required to ensure the trade is legal and sustainableIn response to these challenges the CITES Secretariat on Saturday said it has developed a comprehensive set of tools for electronic CITES permitting systems or eCITES that support the global greening of trade processesOn April 2 the CITES Secretariat received the AsiaPacific Trade Facilitation Forum APTFF 2024 Trade Facilitation Innovation Award in recognition of the Conventionrsquos electronic permitting systems eCITESThe prestigious APTFF Trade Facilitation Innovation Awards bestow recognition to innovative national or subregional trade facilitation cases reflecting the annual themeCITES SecretaryGeneral Ivonne Higuero expressed her appreciation to the organisers and said ldquoThe CITES Secretariat is honoured to accept this distinguished award This global recognition brings awareness to the necessity and utility of a key digital innovation in the international wildlife trade which I hope will inspire wider eCITES implementation among our partiesrdquoElectronic CITES Permitting Systems eCITES have catalysed a novel set of collaborative efforts for enhancing trace facilitation and leveraging digitalisation for legal sustainable and traceable international wildlife tradeTo date 31 Parties have made considerable strides in implementing eCITES with an additional 12 Parties in the initial planning phases Their dedicated efforts have significantly bolstered transparency curtailed the exploitation of counterfeit permits facilitated smoother crossborder transactions and fortified international collaborationIn its submission the secretariat highlighted the comprehensive set of standards tools and guidance for eCITES implementation and their benefits to the Parties It further elaborated how eCITES has contributed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals SDGs namely SDG 13 Climate Action SDG 14 Life Below Water SDG15 Life on Land and SDG17 Partnerships for the Goals by increasing access to reliable wildlife data improving the sustainability legality and traceability of wildlife trade and improving economic opportunities for indigenous peoples and local communities involved in tradeIn accepting the award CITES Secretariat Programme Officer and eCITES Focal Point Salehin Khan highlighted the contributions of the partners in developing eCITES making it a valuable source of framework for implementing permitting systems based on international standards and best practicesIn particular he pointed out the support provided by Switzerland in advancing eCITES among the CITES Parties as well as to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Automated System for Customs Data for jointly developing an offtheshelf digital eCITES solutionAlso Read lsquoExpose trafficking not wildlifersquos monetary value It does great harmrsquoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever