I never thought that was in dispute--CITES is a Convention to
regulate International _Trade_ in Endangered Species. Conservation as
such is a more localized issue for all but migratory species, and most
countries don't appreciate other countries telling them how to conserve
their resources. The issue of one country trading in another's
threatened biota is quite another matter, and only an international
agreement can begin to control that, which is why we have CITES. Don't
blame CITES, a treaty, for any nation's failure to protect habitat. No
nation that I know of has a particularly sterling record in this regard,
Habitat problems predate CITES by several thousand years, and will always be
unaffected by CITES because it addresses a separate issue.
Sean Barry