The U.S. market for imported wildlife not listed in the CITES multilateral treaty

Abstract

The international wildlife trade presents severe conservation and environmental security risks, yet no international regulatory framework exists to monitor the trade of species not listed in the appendices of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). We explored the composition and dynamics of internationally regulated versus nonregulated trade, with a focus on importations of wild‐caught terrestrial vertebrates entering the United States from 2009 to 2018. We used 10 years of species‐level trade records of the numbers of live, wild‐caught animals imported to the United States and data on International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates of extinction risk to determine whether there were differences in the diversity, abundance, and risk to extinction among imports of CITES‐listed versus unlisted species. We found 3.6 times the number of unlisted species in U.S. imports compared with CITES‐listed species (1366 vs. 378 species). The CITES‐listed species were more likely to face reported conservation threats relative to unlisted species (71.7% vs. 27.5%). However, 376 unlisted species faced conversation threats, 297 species had unknown population trends, and 139 species were without an evaluation by the IUCN. Unlisted species appearing for the first time in records were imported 5.5 times more often relative to CITES‐listed species. Unlisted reptiles had the largest rate of entry, averaging 53 unique species appearing in imports for the first time per year. Overall trade quantities were approximately 11 times larger for imports of unlisted species relative to imports of CITES‐listed species. Countries that were top exporters of CITES‐listed species were mostly different from exporters of unlisted species. Because of the vulnerabilities of unlisted, traded species entering the United States and increasing global demand, we strongly recommend governments adapt their policies to monitor and report on the trade of all wildlife.

Exotic animal cafés in Japan: A new fashion with potential implications for biodiversity, global health, and animal welfare

“…Japan's proximity to major wildlife trade hotspots (i.e., South‐East Asia and Australia, Scheffers et al, 2019) place the country in suitable location and favorable conditions to participate in the exotic pet trade. Therefore, Japan's government should adapt their policies to monitor and better report the trade in wildlife species as suggested for other countries (Watters et al, 2022). Strategies aimed at influencing people's behavior (Veríssimo & Wan, 2019) could be deployed in Japan, and zoos could be at the forefront of such initiatives.…”

Estado de conservación, sexo y tamaño corporal de reptiles en Santiago Nonualco, El Salvador

“…Los métodos utilizados para el establecimiento de las categorías de conservación de los reptiles se deben tomar de manera integral como lo realizado en este estudio, ya que sus criterios no son equivalentes y suelen tener deficiencias en el establecimiento de las categorías de conservación. Por ejemplo, para el listado de especies amenazadas del Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales se desconocen los criterios usados en las clasificaciones de las especies; algunos estudios identifican un subregistro en el comercio ilegal de reptiles en peligro de extinción, pero varias de esas especies no aparecen en ningún Apéndice de la CITES (D'Cruze & Macdonald, 2016;Jensen et al, 2018;Watters et al, 2022). A nivel global la lista roja de la UICN es la evaluación más conocida y aceptada en los planes de conservación, pero sólo cubre una fracción de los reptiles conocidos, varias evaluaciones están desactualizadas y en ocasiones no considera los cambios taxonómicos recientes (Soares et al, 2022).…”

Media portrayal of the illegal trade in wildlife: The case of turtles in the US and implications for conservation

“…Illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade is recognized as a significant threat to the survival of species across the globe (Morton et al, 2021; Scheffers et al, 2019), drawing calls for better monitoring systems, increased regulatory oversight and enforcement of trade rules (Macdonald et al, 2021; Massé et al, 2020; Watters et al, 2022). Efforts to gain control over unsustainable and illegal trade revolve around building certainty about the drivers of trade, most effective supply and/or demand reduction strategies, and normative and ethical considerations of animal welfare and commodification (Bennett et al, 2021; Challender & MacMillan, 2014; Collard & Dempsey, 2013; Cooney et al, 2021; Rizzolo, 2021).…”