How effective is CITES in regulating trade in species like the Tokay Gecko?

CITES regulates, rather than bans, trade in Appendix-II species through export permits and non-detriment findings. The Tokay Gecko, brought into Appendix-II in 2019 on a proposal by India, the EU, the Philippines and the USA [3], shows a treaty strong at listing but weak at the point where the animal actually moves.

Where CITES has worked

• Evidence-based listing: the CoP18 proposal recorded exports exceeding 7.7 lakh individuals annually, with actual trade likely above a million — a listing driven by trade data, not sentiment [3].
• Domestic transmission: India's Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022 created a new schedule of CITES-listed specimens and a Management Authority for permits, converting treaty duty into enforceable law [4].
• Shared enforcement norm: the Tokay Gecko seized at Mariani, Assam, was also covered by Schedule I, WPA 1972, letting a revenue agency, the DRI, act on wildlife intelligence [1].

Where it falls short

• Port-bound control: clearance is required only at notified ports of entry and exit [4]. Consignments moving by road through inland towns like Mariani never meet the permit system at all [1].
• Supply-side bias: seizures — 86 live geckos at Mariani [1], 440 live animals in DRI's wider 2026 operations [2] — interrupt supply but leave demand untouched. TRAFFIC documented how novel medicinal claims, unproven yet fast-spreading, sustain that demand [5].
• Post-seizure vacuum: the Act envisages a recognised zoo or rescue centre for seized live specimens [4]; in practice 86 reptiles went to a Range Forest office [1].
• Listing is not scarcity: Appendix-II reflects trade pressure, not global extinction risk, so listing alone signals no population recovery.

CITES is therefore effective as a framework of rules and moderately effective as an enforcement instrument — its reach ends where notified ports end. Extending Management Authority clearance to inland seizures, notifying rescue centres in the North-East, and routing small seizures to the WCCB for network mapping would align practice with the treaty's conservation intent.