The purposes of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Endangered Species Certification Scheme (ESCS) are:
- to raise the level of awareness, education and compliance with the legal requirements associated with the international wildlife trade;
- to recognise professionals and traders involved in the ethical research, recommendation, prescription, supply, export or import of traditional Chinese medicines; and
- to provide a credible mechanism to acknowledge and support professionals and traders to publicly promote that they do not use or support the use of Chinese medicines containing illegally traded wildlife ingredients.
Ginseng photo credit: Allan Crawford, Traffic International; Musk photo credit: Sue Earl & Greg Miles