The CITES Convention regulates the international trade of plants and animals (and products thereof) threatened by overexploitation. In Switzerland, the issue of up to 100,000 import, export and re-export permits imposes administrative burdens on management authorities and delays the economic activities of the watch industry (export value of 13 billion CHF). e-CITES is an Internet-based system with multiple functions, from simple paper-based application to highly confidential data management features for large importing/exporting companies. It reduces the delivery time of permits to a few hours and allows for a considerable saving in personnel whilst guaranteeing the respect of the CITES treaty.
Policy Context
The Convention on International Trade in Endangers Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) regulates the international trade of plants and animals and products thereof threatened by overexploitation. Annually, international wildlife trade is estimated to be worth billions of dollars and to include hundreds of millions of plant and animal specimens. The trade is diverse, ranging from live animals and plants to a vast array of wildlife products derived from them, including food products, exotic leather goods, wooden musical instruments, timber, tourist curios and medicines. The CITES treaty was signed in 1973 and entered into force for the first signatories in 1975. Currently 171 countries have signed the treaty (for more information see www.cites.org). The EU, with its internal market, has a special EU legislation, governing the internal trade in specimens covered by the Treaty (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/cites/home_en.htm). However, for imports from and export to parties outside the EU (for example Switzerland) persons or companies are subject to the general regulation of the CITES treaty and need a permit delivered by the competent Management authority. The EU is directly affected by the large amount of export permits issued by Switzerland (in 2006 87,000 permits). EU legislation requires the Management authorities of the importing country to issue import permits for each export into that country. As about 40% of the Swiss exports go to the EU, European management authorities issue that amount of import permits, sometimes with distinctly less sophisticated tools.
Description of target users and groups
For any transaction involving the crossing of an international border (importing, exporting or re-exporting), persons or companies need a permit delivered by the competent Management authority. The group of actors targeted by e-CITES therefore vary widely from the big watch company exporting thousands of watches to which watchstraps are attached made of crocodile leather to the individual person wanting to import a parrot.
Description of the way to implement the initiative
The approach e-CITES has taken is exceptional in the sense that it represents a reversal or mixing of the roles between the administration and the applicant (customer). The customer is taking more responsibility in the whole import/export process, but has on the other hand an enormous gain in flexibility and control over his trade processes. Much of the administration and management of import/ export data is now done by the customer. This is not just more work, but mainly a big gain in efficiency and transparency on the customer side. Administrative work requested by the Law, meaning having an administrative control over import quotas, is now done once, directly in the database of the Office. In addition, the customer has control over its import quotas and can distribute its quota to other actors on the system. More advanced companies with large importing/exporting volumes and sophisticated internal software solutions, can link their systems directly to e-CITES. The Office has changed its role more to a supervisor of the process, to the printing of permits (in part) and can devote its time mainly to other crucial work that has to be done under the convention.
Technology solution
e-CITES is part of an interoperable system which allows several ways to obtain ad apply for CITES permits. The contradictory requirements of user friendliness (look and feel) and security requirements have been fulfilled in an optimal way. E-CITES is easy to use whilst meeting highest requirement concerning data security, availability, data integrity and authenticity. Precautionary measures in case of catastrophic events have been implemented (KVOR-solution).
Main results, benefits and impacts
In 2006 the Swiss CITES Management Authority (MA) issued approximately 12,000 import permits and over 87,000 export permits. It did so with a staff of administrative and scientific collaborators. The large majority of permits were issued in relation to the activities of the Swiss Watch industry and companies trading in luxury leather goods (90%). 160 companies trading in watches are linked to the system. In 2006 the export volume of this industry exceeded 13 Billion Swiss Francs (8.2 Billion Euro). A timely delivery of re-export permits for the shipments of these high value goods is crucial for the economic success of this industry. Other target groups are internationally active laboratories in pharmaceutics and medicinal science or the caviar industry. Their needs concerning timely delivery of substances and goods are related to the perishable nature of these goods. The last part concerns individual persons and small scale traders in live animals, which make up less than 5% of the issued permits. Before e-CITES, the delivery of permits for exporting CITES specimens was tedious and slow. Pre-printed, four layer forms had to be filled in partly by exporters, based on their knowledge of import quotas that they themselves had imported or were sold to them from importing actors. These forms were sent physically to the Veterinary Office by postal service. The issuance of a standard permit took 5-10 working days. If problems aroused, the processing time doubled. If the whole importing process is added, for example companies who have their distribution center in Switzerland and get their products form outside Switzerland, the processing time lasted 10-20 days. This situation was considered an unnecessary trade impediment caused by a bureaucratic process. In addition the numbers of requests for export permits increased exponentially. Therefore, in tight collaboration between the industry, the Office and service providers, the project e-CITES was started and realized in 18 months. In the first 6 months, 70% of the companies involved were trained and worked on the system. Today 95 percent of the companies work on the system. 400 permits/day are processed via this system. Processing time of re-export permits from the moment of the application to the delivery to the customer was cut down to 4h-3 days. The whole import/export process for companies with distribution centers in Switzerland was cut back to 1-5 days. The economical previsions for the industries involved, together with the accessibility of the system guarantee the future use and success of the system developed.
Return on investment
Return on investment: Not applicable / Not availableTrack record of sharing
Within CITES, a Working Group on Electronic Permitting was created in 2004, in order to promote the use of electronic permitting systems all over the world. Switzerland as a member of this WG has presented e-CITES on two meetings. Representatives of Italy and the UK were present on these meetings. The UK showed interest in the system and was provided with detailed information. The WG envisages the creation of a pilot project with the aim to explore the possibilities to exchange permit data electronically between management authorities. Contacts have been made and interest has been expressed by Italy to share data via this system. In October 2006, e-CITES was presented at the Meeting of the Standing Committee of the European Watch Industry. Great interest in the functionality and applicability of the system within Europe was expressed by participating countries (FR, IT, DE, UK). On a visit in late 2006, the system was presented to the management authority of Hong Kong, who also showed great interest. Switzerland would be very glad to further share the experience of the system with other European parties and collaborate in a project to allow for data sharing and exchange via the system.
Lessons learnt
Lesson 1 - Inclusion of all partners involved from the beginning, including government, industry, private persons, service provider, programming company, is one key factor for the creation of win-win situations in e-Government initiatives. Lesso 2 - Great pressure from the outside (industry, public) should be regarded as a chance for posititve change. Lesson 3 - If much time is invested into the preparotory phase of a project, much time can be saved in later phases.
Scope: International