A type of shark served with chips and a dark wood used in furniture-making could be among a number of "commercially significant" items facing trade limits because of their rapid depletion, according to United Nations experts.
Its restrictions were once aimed mainly at exotic species like pandas and parrots, but the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has turned its attention to more common life forms threatened by over-use.
"We need to make sure CITES clicks in before it is too late for sustainable trade in these species," CITES Secretary-General Willem Wijnstekers said in an interview, noting recent decisions to restrict caviar exports and put South American mahogany on a controlled trade list.
In the past CITES had focused on what could be described as economically insignificant areas, he said, but this is changing. The international community is increasingly accepting the need to protect endangered species early, he added.
David Morgan, head of scientific support at the Geneva-based CITES secretariat, said the convention's 169 signatory countries were now drafting proposals on which species now required protection via export bans, sales limits or other trade caps.
"I have heard about commercially significant timber and fish species being added," he said, stressing the new list would not be known with certainty until January.
However, possible additions are widely expected to include Southeast Asia's merbau, a dark wood often used in cabinet-making and for flooring and musical instruments.
Spiny dogfish is another likely candidate. The species of shark frequently eaten in Europe - where it has traditionally featured in British fish and chips - is also used to make vitamins, fertiliser and pet food.
"These are big industries," Morgan said.
Agreement by a two-thirds majority is required on any new restrictions when CITES signatories - who meet every two years - gather in The Hague next June.
UN studies say the world may be facing the worst wave of extinctions since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago, due to threats such as a rising human population, pollution, deforestation, overfishing and global warming.
As well as considering trade limits on a broader swathe of natural life, CITES wants to make police, customs and other law enforcement agencies take wildlife crimes more seriously.
"The major hurdle facing us is that illegal trade in wildlife is generally not regarded as mainstream crime," said John Sellar, CITES' senior enforcement officer.
He said smuggling and poaching may have been unfairly eclipsed on the international agenda by the problem of counterfeit goods and protection of intellectual property.
While not dismissing the spread of falsely branded consumer goods such as "fake Prada handbags", it was important to remember that the smuggling and killing of rare animals could lead to their extinction, he said.
"You can't go out and replicate a snow leopard," he said.
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