Wildlife trade: what is it?
Display of illegal wildlife products used in Chinese medicine confiscated by customs officers at Heathrow Airport, UK. © WWF-Canon/Edward PARKERWildlife trade is any sale or exchange of wild animal and plant resources by people. This can involve live animals and plants or a diverse range of products needed or prized by humans—including skins, medicinal ingredients, tourist curios, timber, fish and other food products. Most wildlife trade is probably within national borders, but there is a large volume of wildlife in trade internationally.
Why
There are many reasons why wildlife is traded, including:
- food—fruits, mushrooms, nuts, leaves and tubers, are particular important resources in sustaining livelihoods in many rural areas. Wild animals (including fish) contribute at least a fifth of the animal protein in rural diets in more than 60 countries. A TRAFFIC study demonstrated reliance on wild meat is growing in Eastern and Southern Africa in response to increased human populations and poverty.
- fuel—trees and plants are an important source of fuel for cooking and heating, especially in rural areas
- fodder—considered very important non-wood forest products in arid regins of Asia and Africa
- building materials—for example, timber for furniture and housing to ingredients in manufacturing processes, such as gums and resins
- clothing and ornaments—leather, furs, feathers etc
- sport—from falconry to trophy hunting
- healthcare—everything from herbal remedies, traditional medicines to ingredients for industrial pharmaceuticals. An estimated 80 % of the world's population are said to rely for primary health care on traditional medicines
- religion—many animals and plants or derivatices are used for religious purposes);
- collections—many wildlife specimens and curios are collected by museums and private individuals
The primary motivating factor for wildlife traders is economic, ranging from small scale local income generation to major profit-oriented business, such as marine fisheries and logging companies.
Between collectors of wildlife and the ultimate users, any number of middlemen may be involved in the wildlife trade, including specialists involved in storage, handling, transport, manufacturing, industrial production, marketing, and the export and retail businesses.
In fact most of us are involved in wildlife trade in some way, even if it just as end consumers of wildlife products.
Scale
The wildlife trade involves hundreds of millions of individual plants and animals from tens of thousands of species.
Big leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) marked for felling by the logging company. © WWF-Canon/James FRANKHAM Timber and seafood are the most important categories of international wildlife trade, in terms of both volume and value. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), more than 100 million tonnes of fish were traded in 1998 and more than a thousand million cubic metres of wood products exported globally in 1999.
In 1996, global international trade in medicinal and aromatic plants amounted to more than 440,000 tonnes, whilst Turkey exported 19 million bulbs.
International trade in species of conservation concern is monitored by CITES. From 1995-1999, CITES recorded an annual average of more than 1.5 million live birds, 640,000 live reptiles, 300,000 crocodilian skins, 1.6 million lizard skins, 1.1 million snake skins, 150,000 furs, almost 300 tonnes of caviar, more than 1 million coral pieces and 21,000 hunting trophies.
Value
In the early 1990s, TRAFFIC estimated the value of legal wildlife products imported globally was around USD160 billion.
Others have estimated legal wood product exports in 1999 as more than USD132 billion and legal seafood exports in 1998 as around USD50 billion.
By its very nature, it is almost impossible to obtain reliable figures for the value of illegal wildlife trade, but the figure must run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Some estimates put the value as between USD10 to 20 billion a year.
Problems
As human populations have grown, so has the demand for wildlife. People in developed countries have become used to a lifestyle which fuels demand for wildlife; they expect to have access to a variety of seafoods, leather goods, timbers, medicinal ingredients, textiles etc. Conversely, extreme poverty of others means they regard wildlife as a means to meet their short-term needs and will trade it for whatever they can get.
Over-exploitation is a major concern:
- wildlife is vital to a high proportion of the world's population. People depend directly on wildlife for consumption and as a way of earning cash. However, irresponsible wildlife trade is threatening this resource, and those most affected tend to be the poorest people, in developing nations.
Red-eared terrapin from America released in Danube Nationalpark, Austria. © WWF-Canon/Anton VORAUERillegal wildlife trade causes additional problems. The species traded are often already highly threatened and in danger of extinction, conditions under which wildlife is transport are often appalling, operators are unscrupulous and do not care how they damage the environment(for example they use cyanide to kill fish, or log in protected areas; illegal trade undermines nations' efforts to manage their natural resources sustainably and causes massive economic losses in lost earnings. It is often said that illegal wildlife trade is the third most valuable illicit commerce behind drugs and arms.- introducing invasive species that prey upon, or out compete native species. Invasive species are a major cause of recent extinctions. Wildlife traders have purposely introduced many invasive species, such as American Mink, Red-eared Terrapin and many plant species.
Hotspots
There are certain places where wildlife trade is particularly threatening called "wildlife trade hotspots". They include China's international borders, trade hubs in East/Southern Africa and South-east Asia, the eastern borders of the European Union, some markets in Mexico, parts of the Caribbean, parts of Indonesia and New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.
Response
TRAFFIC seeks and activates solutions to the problems created by illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade. Our aim is to encourage sustainability by providing decision-makers, traders and others involved in wildlife trade reliable information about the environmental harm irresponsible trade can cause, and present guidance on how to counteract it.
Legislation is a vital way to control wildlife trade, but to be successful, laws need to be widely understood, accepted and practical to apply.
A major part of TRAFFIC's programme is working closely with law makers, law enforcers and the judiciary, to ensure appropriate laws are in place, are fully understood by those enforcing them and transgressors receive appropriate penalites.
Halting biodiversity loss: Towards sustainable wildlife trade in Central America
(PDF, 700 KB) A briefing paper aimed at decision makers about the significance of wildlife trade between the EU and Central America
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