The elephant and the mouse that roared: the prospects of international policy and local authority in the case of the convention on international species (CITES)

Unrestricted Prevailing U.S. government philosophy espouses the devolution of authority from federal to local levels. This trend opens the possibility of greater local involvement in policy implementation, and provides international policy-makers the opportunity to improve global policies by adding the efforts of local actors to their implementation framework. Much of international policy involves enforcement through international-to-national linkages, but devolution offers the potential to extend the implementation chain by providing national-to-local linkages. The analysis explores the nature of such linkages, using the case study on the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) via its domestic analogue, the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The research finds that while the framework of CITES enforcement in the U.S. allows for a national-to-local extension in the CITES implementation chain, it also presents challenges that should be addressed by international policy-makers who consider devolution as a way of improving global policy.