Research overview: CITES and big cat trade regulation

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, governs cross-border trade in wildlife, and the world's big cats are listed on its Appendix I, banning commercial international trade in wild-sourced specimens. This overview surveys how CITES shapes big cat conservation, including the listing process, trade restrictions, and the decisions, resolutions, and enforcement reviews directed at tigers, leopards, lions, cheetahs, and other felids. Studies assess the convention's effectiveness, the persistence of illegal trade despite bans, and contentious issues such as captive breeding, lion bone quotas, and live-animal exports. Researchers examine how CITES mechanisms, including trade suspensions and compliance procedures, pressure countries to act. The overview frames CITES as the principal international legal instrument against big cat trafficking, providing the framework within which national enforcement operates. It matters because coordinated international regulation is essential to combating a trade that crosses borders and exploits gaps between national jurisdictions.