Legislation may reduce illegal wildlife trade in Canada.

Conservationists are welcoming new, federal legislation against trade in endangered species, but are concerned enforcement will remain weak.

The Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act (WAPPRIITA), to be proclaimed in fall 1995, is intended to help curb a practice that the World Wildlife Fund says can be as profitable as the drug trade.

Although Canada signed the Convention on Illegal Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in 1975, illegal wildlife trade continues to be the second highest cause of species decline in the country, next to habitat destruction.

Animal Alliance of Canada states that the risk of …