With reference to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which of the following statements is/are correct? Select the correct answer using the code given below.

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

IUCN runs field projects; CITES is binding but works through national laws.

Statement by statement

1. ✗ WRONG IUCN is an international union of governments and NGOs, not a UN organ (it has UN observer status). CITES is an agreement between governments — that half is right.

2. ✓ CORRECT IUCN runs many field projects worldwide.

3. ✓ CORRECT CITES binds its parties, but each country must pass its own laws to implement it.

The idea

Keep three kinds of body apart. A UN organ or agency is created by the UN (UNEP, FAO). A treaty is an agreement that binds the countries that join it (CITES). A union like IUCN has both governments and NGOs as members and belongs to neither group.

CITES lists a species in an Appendix → The listing binds every party → But CITES has no police of its own → Each country passes a law to enforce it → India: the Wild Life (Protection) Act, amended in 2022 with a schedule for CITES species

The trap

Statement 1 is half right (CITES is an agreement). One false half sinks it.

Elimination technique

Statement 1 calls IUCN “an organ of the United Nations”. Parentage claims about international bodies are usually false in Environment PYQs. Removing statement 1 leaves only option (b).

Also know

IUCN: founded 1948, head office at Gland (Switzerland), publishes the Red List, has observer status at the UN General Assembly. CITES: signed at Washington in 1973, in force from 1975. Appendix I = trade allowed only in exceptional cases; Appendix II = controlled trade; Appendix III = protected in one country that asks others for help.