CITES turns 50: See how a global agreement is quietly saving species from extinction
Jeopardy! CITES turns 50 🎂
What does it take to save a species when the world seems ranged against it or, conversely, seems not to see it at all?
How does one battle a global trade network worth billions, or preserve a specific patch of rainforest to protect an endangered butterfly?
Fifty years ago, something of an answer took shape, in the form of an international wildlife agreement called CITES. See how it has helped the world protect and save ever since.
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Let’s start with the African elephant — because we almost lost it. In 1989, Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi set fire to 2,000 elephant tusks in a dramatic stand against poaching and the global ivory trade. At the time, soaring demand and post-war weapons had pushed elephant numbers from 5 million in 1950 to fewer than 1 million. As the 12-tonne blaze burned in Nairobi, something shifted around the world. Three months later, CITES announced a total ban on international ivory trade — proving that coordinated global action can save a species. Fifty years after it was created, CITES now protects more than 38,000 species across the planet.
Although CITES created three levels of protection, the African elephant was initially placed only in Appendix 2 — meaning trade was still allowed under “controlled” conditions.With fewer than a million elephants left in the wild, this exposed one of the treaty’s biggest early flaws, and showed how slow international consensus can be — even in the face of an obvious crisis.
The Queen Alexandra’s birdwing — the world’s largest butterfly — lives in just one tiny patch of rainforest in Papua New Guinea. By the 1980s, habitat loss and illicit trade (one specimen can sell for up to $10,000) had pushed it to the brink of extinction. In 1987, it was moved to CITES Appendix 1 and all international commercial trade was banned. The impact was real — in the years that followed, traffickers were prosecuted and fined heavily in the US and Canada for possession of this single species.
CITES now covers tens of thousands of species — from snails and flowers to sharks, snakes, bats and trees — giving governments and NGOs a shared list to help coordinate action and stop illegal wildlife trade across borders.
In the background, this single treaty helps protect a forgotten dragonfly, a rare fruit bat in Madagascar, a giant butterfly confined to just 100 sq km of rainforest.
Julian Huxley believed that heritage wasn’t just monuments and manuscripts — it included living species and ecosystems. As the first director-general of UNESCO in 1946, he laid out a bold vision: protect the planet’s cultural legacy and conserve its “living beauty”. That idea would go on to shape some of the UN’s most powerful initiatives — including the IUCN Red List and, later, CITES itself.