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Vital wildlife trade portal Species+ now available as a mobile app

Officers working on the front line of enforcing wildlife trade legislation now have instant access to key species information in the palm of their hands, thanks to a new mobile application. 

Launched today and available on both Apple and Android, the new Species+ app has been created to make the Species+ database more easily accessible to users around the world.  

Species+ is a website designed and maintained by UNEP-WCMC to provide up-to-date information on species protected by two major multilateral environmental agreements: the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). 

The platform displays the level of protection species included in the CITES and CMS Conventions are afforded, whether there are any CITES trade restrictions or export quotas in place, and where the species are found in the wild. It contains information on over 38,000 recognised species across the two Conventions– from coral and cacti, to sharks, seabirds, tigers and elephants.   

Species+ is used thousands of times each day by government officials to help make decisions on whether or not to issue permits to allow international trade. Further checks are performed at international borders, requiring ready access to information from Species+ to help verify what is reflected on the CITES permit. 

“The new Species+ app puts essential information on species protections at the fingertips of those responsible for implementing CITES and CMS, helping to protect wildlife across the globe from overexploitation at a time when we urgently need to scale up our efforts to conserve biodiversity.”   

Kelly Malsch, Head of the Nature Conserved Impact Area at UNEP-WCMC. 

The development of the new Species+ app was made possible through the financial support from the European Commission.  

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