It comes amid reports Africa's elephant populations have declined dramatically since poaching experienced a new upsurge in 2006.
More than 3,000 delegates from 183 countries are attending the 17th meeting of the Convention on Illegal Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.
Known as CITES, the Convention has been in place since 1975 and provides protection to more than 35,000 plant and animal species.
The conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, is considering dozens of proposals to combat illegal trade and improve the sustainability of legal trade.
Conservationists estimate trade in wild animals and plants is worth an estimated AU$423 billion annually.
South African president Jacob Zuma says illegal trade not only impacts species, but communities as well.
"Illegal trade in wildlife, including poaching, presents significant challenges and threats to the environment, including undermining the potential benefits arising from legal trade that contributes significantly to socio-economic upliftment and development."
Species on the agenda include African elephants and rhinoceroses, lions and tigers, sharks and rays, as well as plants such as rosewood.
Animal Defenders International president Jan Creamer says action is needed to prevent the extinction of several species.
"What we need is Appendix One. We need a total ban on all trade in ivory. We need all of the lions on Appendix One. We need all of the rhinos protected. We must not have any downlisting.* This is now, these species, they are looking extinction in the face, and it's our fault."
The summit has heard Africa's elephant population has fallen dramatically, due to an increase in ivory poaching.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature says the population fell around 20 per cent between 2006 and 2015.
It says it has been drastic in some countries like Tanzania, which suffered a 60 per cent decline in its elephant population.
The report's co-author, Dr Chris Thouless, says the news is concerning.
"The overall message is things are bad, but there are some signs of hope. And, clearly, one of the things that concerns us is that, at the moment, the focus is on the poaching, loss of elephants for their ivory, but there is still a major underlying problem, which is shown by this fragmentation, which is that elephant range is reducing. I think we are particularly concerned about major infrastructure developments that are cutting up the elephants' range. This is a particular problem for road development in Central Africa."
The World Wildlife Fund's Ginette Hemley is calling on governments to address the issues.
"Our big focus is, really, 'How do we deal with this rampant illegal trade of ivory that is persisting and is leading to this huge decline in elephants over the last decade?' It's just devastating. CITES has taken important steps in that direction, but, clearly, we are not cracking the problem yet. And so our interest is to really figure out what can CITES do to increase commitments to enforcement to deal with the criminal syndicates that are operating on a scale that we've never seen before. More ivory is leaving Africa illegally than we've ever seen in history."
Conservationists are campaigning against proposals by Zimbabwe and Namibia to be exempted from the global ban on ivory trade.
They are also concerned by a proposal from Swaziland to be allowed to sell rhino horn.
Julian Rademeyer is a research fellow with the Global Initiative for Transnational Organised Crime.
He says crime intelligence, corruption and illicit financial flows remain some of the key challenges to tackling rhino poaching, horn trafficking and transnational criminal networks.
"And then I think the biggest challenge here for law enforcement is that these are networks without borders, these are criminal networks that operate easily across international boundaries, that operate easily across multiple legal jurisdictions. They're not bound to the same restrictions that law-enforcement authorities are bound to, and, inevitably, they're 10, 12 steps ahead of law enforcement."
