International rules regulating wildlife trade overlook some 40% of plants and animals at risk from such trade because there is no established methodology to identify them, a study has found.
More than 900 species likely facing threats from wildlife trade are not covered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), according to a study published this week in Nature Ecology and Evolution.
“Overexploitation is a major threat to biodiversity and international trade in many species is regulated through [CITES],” said the report, written by ecologists and wildlife experts at the University of Oxford, IUCN, UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC), and ZSL.
“However, there is no established method to systematically determine which species are most at risk from international trade to inform potential trade measures under CITES.”
Comparing the CITES appendices with the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the researchers found 904 species that are likely threatened by international trade, but currently are without any protection, including hundreds of fish and flowering plants, as well as birds, reptiles, and amphibians.
That number included 370 endangered or critically endangered animals and plants, including 31 species of shark and ray, and 23 species of palm, according to a statement by UNEP-WCMC.
The study also found that species threatened by local and national use were four times as many as those under pressure from international trade, and said CITES interventions should be complemented by commensurate measures for local and national wildlife.
“CITES listings should respond to the best available information on a species’ status and be adopted where they will be likely to benefit the species. While our research shows CITES performs moderately well at identifying species in need of trade regulation, it also suggests that hundreds of species are overlooked,” said Dan Challender, a research fellow at University of Oxford.
“Cross-referencing data from the Red List with CITES listing information brings these potential protection gaps to light, and I hope that parties to the Convention will use our methodology to inform their decisions in the run-up to and during the next CITES CoP, currently scheduled to take place in 2025.”
The researchers said they had shaped their methodology to allow it it to be updated along with ongoing revisions to the IUCN Red List.
That would allow the various CITES committees to use it for a number of purposes, including determining whether some species should have their existing protections increased, and if some species no longer considered threatened might again be eligible for trade.
“To achieve the aims of both CITES and the new Global Biodiversity Framework on tackling nature loss, it is vital that the international trade in animal and plant species is both sustainable and does not threaten the survival of the species in the wild,” said Kelly Malsch, head of nature conserved at UNEP-WCMC and co-author of the study.
By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com
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