Electronic commerce toolkit

At its 58th meeting, in July 2009, the Standing Committee directed the Secretariat to develop a toolkit, subject to the availability of funding, in order to assist Parties and the general CITES community with the regulation of legal trade in specimens of CITES-listed species via the Internet.

The Enforcement Branch of Environment Canada has graciously offered to begin development of the toolkit. The first draft will be reviewed by the Working Group on E-Commerce of Specimens of CITES-Listed Species and the Secretariat. Possible elements in the toolkit will include:

• Introductory and intermediate search techniques in written and graphic formats to assist with research on the Internet;
• Numerous samples of applied search techniques;
• Methodologies for conducting searches on business entities, and/or species of interest as advertised on the Internet; and
• Quick-reference sheets for Internet sites of interest.

Queries on the toolkit should be directed to the Enforcement Branch of Environment Canada at the following email address: wildlife.enforcement@ec.gc.ca