Researchers used databases to figure out the extent of wildlife trade and how to make it more sustainable.
Introduction
Have you wondered where all the colorful fish in a pet store come from? Well, the wildlife trade involves buying, selling, and exchanging animals (like aquarium fish!) and plants from all over the world. The media often focuses on illegal wildlife trading. But most wildlife trading happens legally.
Many of the animals in the wildlife trade are caught in the wild. This can seriously impact biodiversity. Biodiversity keeps the environment healthy. It can provide humans with food and medicines. It can regulate potential problems, such as insects carrying various diseases. It also helps keep our air and water clean. Wildlife trading is just one of many threats to biodiversity. When traders collect organisms from the wild it makes populations smaller, and can even drive species extinct. So, the wildlife trade may not be sustainable.
Unfortunately, there are some gaps in our data about the wildlife trade. This makes it hard to figure out how much it impacts organisms. It’s hard to compare data from different countries and different databases. They may have collected different information. Or they may have named organisms differently. Or they might not share their data! This means we don’t have reliable information about which species are traded. We also don’t have a good idea of how many individuals are traded, or what impact this has on wild populations.
We wanted to look at the existing databases to see what information was available. Then we asked several questions. What extra data do we need? How can we improve our databases? How can we use this information to help wild organisms?
Methods
To explore these questions, we used information from two databases. The United States is one of the largest importers of wildlife. So we used the US Law Enforcement Management Information System (LEMIS) database from the US Fish and Wildlife service. It contains the most comprehensive data in the world across different groups of animals. We also used the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) database. CITES is a global initiative, so it has data from all over the world. But this is limited to a much smaller selection of species where trade was already determined to cause a threat.
We used computer software to help us sort, combine, and correct data from LEMIS and CITES. We examined the records on trade from 2000 to 2022. Then we examined the number and type of individuals that were traded. We also looked at the percentage of individuals that came from the wild. We discovered the purposes of wildlife trading.
Results
We found 21,097 species traded in the LEMIS database (Figure 1). This represents 2.85 billion individuals. We found a total of 29,445 species when we added data from CITES. Most of the extra species were plants.
Our data showed several patterns.
The most traded types of organisms by number of individuals were arachnids (30%), fish (21%), and insects (19.4%).
The percentage of individuals that came from the wild varied a lot between groups (see Figure 2 on p.3). For example, 95% of marine mammals were from the wild. But less than 5% of arachnids were from the wild. However, sneaking in spiders might be easy (you can even hide them in an envelope!), so we know these records are only part of the picture.
We found that 77% of individuals were traded for commercial purposes (selling in shops). A lot of marine mammals and amphibians were traded for research or education. Many birds and land mammals were traded for hunting trophies.
Discussion
A lot more organisms are being traded than we’d thought. And this is likely an underestimate. Many organisms don’t get recorded in the LEMIS database. Other agencies record them. For example, people can import fish through four different U.S. agencies. And many countries don’t have strict regulations or records on the wildlife trade. Because of this, we are likely to underestimate the global impact on biodiversity, or even how many animal species are in trade.
We have several suggestions that could help manage the wildlife trade.
All wildlife trade data should be collected and shared.
We should make regulations focused on sustainability. For example, ensuring harvests don’t decrease wild populations.
Existing databases need to have better and more consistent data. The people responsible should:
use correct species names and double check for typos or outdated information.
use the same units for numbers of organisms.
develop an automated process for checking paperwork.
make the data available in real time.
These suggestions could help us identify organisms that are at risk for overexploitation. We will need international cooperation to implement these globally. This could support a more sustainable wildlife trade.
Conclusion
The wildlife trade could have a huge impact on the natural environment. Traders may be taking organisms from the wild at a rate that is not sustainable. We need to have better and more accessible data to figure it out.
As a consumer, you and your family can become more knowledgeable. When you buy products, ask sellers for information or documentation about where they came from. You can also do your own research to see if those organisms are in danger in the wild. This could be especially helpful for exotic pets, seafood, furs, skins, and even decorative items, like boxes of framed insects.
