Wildlife Dept. launches new program to enhance wildlife trade regulation

• Phase I of electronic CITES permitting system to assist in combating illegal trade

The Department of Wildlife Conservation yesterday launched the Phase I of the eCITES solution developed jointly by the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). 

CITES is the fundamental global agreement among 183 Parties that regulates international trade in threatened and endangered species of wild animals and plants. Sri Lanka joined CITES in 1979 and the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) is the CITES Management Authority in the country.

The automation of CITES processes in Management Authorities is crucial in the digital era to enhance the regulation of legal trade in wildlife and to combat illegal trade. It will help increase transparency and reduce opportunities for corruption and the use of fraudulent documents.

It is believed that the piloting of the eCITES system, namely the [email protected] cloud-based electronic solution, in Sri Lanka, will have a positive impact on the efficiency of the CITES certification, issuance, control and reporting processes, with significant benefits for the trade community. 

The piloting of the fully automated procedures and processes, compatible with the international standards and best practice, will allow CITES staff to focus on primarily substantive CITES-related activities like trade monitoring and controls, reporting, combating trafficking of prohibited and restricted goods, whilst routine and ‘back-office’ administrative duties are increasingly automated and supported by automated data. 

Furthermore, the exchange of DWC electronic CITES permits with Sri Lanka Customs and other border control agencies will enable automated risk management and targeted inspections of consignments, making better use of available resources and facilitating legal trade. Electronic permit information exchange (EPIX) with other Parties will put an end to practices using fraudulent paper permits to launder illegal trade in endangered species in the international supply chain. 

The deployment of eCITES in Sri Lanka will be implemented in several phases with each phase providing a significant and tangible improvement of CITES controls, i.e. 

Phase 1: ePermit – Implementation of the standard eCITES functions, based on a hosted solution: 

• What this project phase will automate: Automation mainly between the CITES Management Authority (MA) and the exporters and importers. This involves building the eCITES prototype and portal for DWC, Configuring the national eReporting module (under Article VIII paragraph 7a of the Convention, Parties are obliged to report this data at least on an annual basis to monitor illegal trade.), testing of eCITES system, training of DWC staff and traders, and piloting of the eCITES system in Sri Lanka. 

Phase 2: eControl – Border agency collaboration for better controls

• Upon successful evaluation of phase 1 and mobilisation of required resources this second phase shall be launched: This phase implements automated procedures between the DWC and Customs. This includes real-time exchange of permit data with Customs, improved data validation, electronic risk management and feedback on the use of permits. 

Phase 3: eExchange – electronic permit exchange with other countries: 

• What this will automate: This project phase that shall start concurrently with phase 1 implements automated exchange of electronic permits between DWC and other CITES Management Authorities in exporting, transit and importing countries. It automates business processes for cross border exchange of permits for secure and integrated management of the trade transaction between the exporting, importing and transit countries. 

This pilot has the potential to establish the DWC – CITES MA as a model for the public administration in Sri Lanka and for the CITES Parties in the sub-region.