On Saturday, more than 3,000 delegates from 166 nations will arrive in Bangkok for the two-week conference of Cites (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).
Administered by the UN, Cites is essentially a trade conference, in which country representatives decide what level of protection the planet's plants and animals should have. Endangered species - for example, orang-utans, tigers, sun bears, sea turtles and the Asian tropical lady's slipper orchid - come under a Cites category, Appendix I, meaning no global trade is permitted. Cites, though, is a treaty, not a law-enforcement body, with its signatories expected to implement it through domestic legislation and agencies.
With poor policing and even worse co-operation between member countries, 'traffickers are running circles round the authorities', says Steve Galster of WildAid Thailand.
Cites lacks teeth to protect these species against illegal traders, who make up the world's newer forms of organised crime. WildAid is calling for the establishment of a 'Wildlife Interpol' to bust trafficking networks.
One such network being investigated in several countries is codenamed 'Cobra'. According to WildAid, its Malaysian Chinese head in Kuala Lumpur air-freights animals on charter flights to China, or moves them overland through Laos - not a Cites signatory - into Vietnam and China. China is the chief destination, but the world's second-biggest importer of illegal wildlife is the US.
The authorities tend to arrest small-time poachers, rather than go after the often powerful and well-connected big-time traffickers.