From guitars to traditional medicines and from tusk to tail, mankind's exploitation of the planet's fauna and flora is putting some of them at risk of extinction.

Representatives of some 180 nations gathered in the Swiss city of Geneva on Saturday for the World Wildlife Conference on trade in endangered species. Their aim is to agree on protections for vulnerable species, by taking up issues including the trade in ivory and the demand for shark fins.

"Business as usual is no longer an option ... The rate of wildlife extinction is accelerating," said CITES Secretary-General Ivonne Higuero in her opening remarks to the conference.

56 proposals are going to be discussed at the meeting, mostly aimed at strengthening regulations on trade of wildlife products, with ivory and shark fins on top of the agenda.

"You've got this huge, unsustainable global trade in shark fin and huge parts of it, 80 percent, are not regulated, with millions of animals dying," Luke Warwick of the Wildlife Conservation Society told a Geneva news conference this week. "We're watching them disappear before our eyes."

But some countries are pushing to downgrade regulations on grounds of stable population, such as the African country Zambia who looks to allow for ivory stockpile sales and exports of hunting trophies, hides and leathers, arguing that its population of wild African elephants is large and stable.

Advocacy group Avaaz said one key question is whether Japan, home to the world's largest legal ivory market, will join other countries committed to closing their ivory trade.

"Japan's ivory market is fueling the international illegal ivory trade," Avaaz campaigner Andy Legon said in an e-mail.

Three months ago, the first comprehensive UN report on biodiversity warned that extinction is looming for over one million species of plants and animals.

(Cover image via VCG)

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