There are many endangered species, and trade might endanger their survival. Others are not threatened with extinction but may become so, unless we avoid a level of utilisation that is incompatible with their survival. Still other species may not be at risk as such but a country of origin may nevertheless have taken protective measures for its population of a species, or an endemic species, and need the cooperation of other countries in the control of trade.

These problems were first internationally discussed in 1960, at the Seventh General Assembly of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) now the World Conservation Union. The Assembly urged governments to restrict the import of animals in accordance with the export regulations of the countries of origin. In 1963, the IUCN General Assembly passed a resolution calling for “an international convention on regulations of export, transit and import of rare or threatened wildlife species or their skins and trophies”.

A first draft for a convention appeared in 1964 and at the 1969 IUCN General Assembly a list of species to be controlled was presented. A second draft circulated in 1971. In 1972, the United Nations Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment adopted Recommendation 99.3, in response to which 88 countries discussed a draft convention at a plenipotentiary conference held in Washington, D.C. in February - March 1973. On 3 March 1973, 21 countries signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which entered into force after the tenth ratification, on 1 July 1975.

CITES established the international legal framework for the prevention of trade in endangered species and for an effective regulation of trade in others. It gives producer and consumer countries their share of the joint responsibility, creates the necessary means for the international cooperation that is essential for fulfilling this responsibility, provides for the monitoring of international trade and, by means of its Appendices, identifies the species of wild fauna and flora falling in any of the three categories.