CITES – officially used abbreviation for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. This convention was signed the 3rd March 1973 and it became valid 1st January 1975.

On the 19th of September 1979 was made an international contract in capital city of Switzerland named Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, so called Berne Convention. The Czech Republic acceded to the convention on the 8th of October 1997. Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats came into operation in the Czech Republic on 1 June 1998. The aims of this Convention are to conserve wild flora and fauna and their natural habitats, especially those species and habitats whose conservation requires the co-operation of several States, and to promote such co-operation.
Berne Convention became also the basis for Europe-mapping in programmes Natura 2000 and Smaragd and helped to a creation of National Red Lists of Threatened Species.