Beyond CITES: Trade-Based Wildlife Conservation, Ecological Legality and Vietnam’s Compliance Infrastructure

This article examines the transformation of international wildlife law from a species-trade model centred on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to a broader ecological legality model in which habitat protection, forest legality, supply-chain traceability and market access increasingly shape conservation outcomes. It asks how trade-based wildlife conservation is shifting from the control of listed species towards the verification of the ecological legality of habitats and supply chains. Using Vietnam as a case study, the article analyses the interaction between CITES, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), and Vietnamese laws on biodiversity, forestry, fisheries and environmental protection. It argues that Vietnam’s principal challenge is not formal participation in wildlife and biodiversity regimes, but the construction of a compliance infrastructure capable of connecting CITES permits, timber legality, protected areas, environmental impact assessment (EIA), illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing control, traceability and sanctions. The article contributes to wildlife law and policy scholarship by showing that the future of trade-based conservation lies not only in stricter prohibitions, but in legally credible systems that connect species, habitats and markets.