AsianScientist (Jan. 22, 2025) – Wildlife trade is one the key drivers of global biodiversity loss. Apart from the obvious issue of overharvesting from wild populations, the international wildlife trade can spread invasive species that disrupt native ecosystems and pathogens, which can put wild populations at risk.
Useful data on the global wildlife trade is hard to come by, with many systems only monitoring potentially endangered species listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). While valuable, this neglects many other species in need of sustainability assessments.
This limited monitoring makes it difficult to garner a realistic overview of the global wildlife trade. For instance, The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) assessment found 1700 species of terrestrial arthropods being traded globally, yet recent data shows that the number of butterfly species traded alone far exceeds that figure.
One exception to this lack of data is the United States, one of the world’s major wildlife importers and unique in its stringent wildlife trade restrictions. Data recorded by the US Law Enforcement Management Information System (LEMIS) is comprehensive, publicly accessible, and includes non-CITES species.
In collaboration with a team of international researchers, Alice C. Hughes, associate professor of the School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong (HKU), explored patterns of wildlife trade. Based on 22 years of LEMIS data, the study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
From 2000 to 2022, close to 30,000 species and over 2.85 billion individuals were traded in the US, underscoring the massive scale of the wildlife trade. A majority of individuals traded from most taxa were wild-sourced, with largely unknown effects on the species. Of the few populations that have been evaluated, most have declined after harvesting.
These findings highlight both the sheer scale of the wildlife trade and how little we know of it. Other regions in the world lack databases comparable to LEMIS, which makes it difficult to understand the scope of global wildlife trade, much less manage it sustainably.
The researchers note a ‘chicken-and-egg’ situation with wildlife protection, where a lack of data means a species is not listed in CITES, yet data is not normally collected on non-CITES species. A potential solution to this issue could be a reverse listing approach, where species must first be approved before it can be traded legally. This would make it easier to verify shipments and protect potentially vulnerable species, but this approach represents a drastic change from current procedures.
The study suggested several other measures to improve wildlife trade data collection, including automated processes, up-to-date taxonomic information and globally standardised units. These changes would go a long way towards collecting trade data that can be used for analysis and sustainability assessments.
With the upcoming second session of the UN Biodiversity Conference in February 2025, this study is timely in encouraging effort towards an accessible, comprehensive database of global wildlife trade.
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Source: The University of Hong Kong, Image:
The article can be found at The magnitude of legal wildlife trade and implications for species survival
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
