This Day in History: 3 March 1973
South Africa was a founding member of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Wild Fauna and Flora, known as the CITES Treaty. This convention was adopted on 3 March 1973, but only came into force on the 1 July 1975. The objective of this treaty was to protect endangered species against over-exploitation by means of regulations in terms of imports and exports and prohibiting the trade in some cases.
