Evaluating the relationships between the legal and illegal international wildlife trades

Derek P. Tittensor; Michael Harfoot; Claire McLardy; Gregory L. Britten; Katalin Kecse-Nagy; Bryan Landry; Willow Outhwaite; Becky Price; Pablo Sinovas; Julian Blanc; Neil D. Burgess; Kelly Malsch

doi:10.1111/conl.12724

Evaluating the relationships between the legal and illegal international wildlife trades

Derek P. Tittensor, Michael Harfoot, Claire McLardy, Gregory L. Britten, Katalin Kecse-Nagy, Bryan Landry, Willow Outhwaite, Becky Price, Pablo Sinovas, Julian Blanc, Neil D. Burgess, Kelly Malsch

Medicine

Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter › peer-review

32 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The international legal trade in wildlife can provide economic and other benefits, but when unsustainable can be a driver of population declines. This impact is magnified by the additional burden of illegal trade, yet how it covaries with legal trade remains little explored. We combined law-enforcement time-series of seizures of wildlife goods imported into the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) with data on reported legal trade to evaluate the evidence for any relationships. Our analysis examined 28 US and 20 EU products derived from CITES-listed species with high volume and frequency of both reported trade and seizures. On average, seizures added 28% and 9% to US and EU reported legal trade levels respectively, and in several cases exceeded legal imports. We detected a significant but weak overall positive relationship between seizure volumes and reported trade into the US over time, but not into the EU. These results highlight the importance of maintaining long-term records of border seizures and enforcement effort, and accounting for illegal trade where possible in non-detriment findings. Our findings suggest a complex and nuanced temporal association between the illegal and legal wildlife trades.

Original language	English
Article number	e12724
Journal	Conservation Letters
Volume	13
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12724
Publication status	Published - Sept 1 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the UN Environment Programme in supporting this analysis, and the EU Member States for allowing us to analyze the seizures data extracted from the EU‐TWIX database. DPT acknowledges support from the Jarislowsky Foundation. GLB acknowledges funding from the Simons Foundation CBIOMES Grant #549931.We thank the CITES Secretariat and Ted Leggett from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime for helpful inputs, Vinciane Sacré and Magdalena Norwisz for providing data and information, Thomasina Oldfield for reviewing the manuscript, and Fiona Underwood, Bob Carpenter, and Mitzi Morris for help and advice on the statistical framework.

Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the UN Environment Programme in supporting this analysis, and the EU Member States for allowing us to analyze the seizures data extracted from the EU-TWIX database. DPT acknowledges support from the Jarislowsky Foundation. GLB acknowledges funding from the Simons Foundation CBIOMES Grant #549931.We thank the CITES Secretariat and Ted Leggett from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime for helpful inputs, Vinciane Sacr? and Magdalena Norwisz for providing data and information, Thomasina Oldfield for reviewing the manuscript, and Fiona Underwood, Bob Carpenter, and Mitzi Morris for help and advice on the statistical framework.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors. Conservation Letters published by Wiley Periodicals LLC

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Ecology
Nature and Landscape Conservation

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10.1111/conl.12724

Cite this

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title = "Evaluating the relationships between the legal and illegal international wildlife trades",

abstract = "The international legal trade in wildlife can provide economic and other benefits, but when unsustainable can be a driver of population declines. This impact is magnified by the additional burden of illegal trade, yet how it covaries with legal trade remains little explored. We combined law-enforcement time-series of seizures of wildlife goods imported into the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) with data on reported legal trade to evaluate the evidence for any relationships. Our analysis examined 28 US and 20 EU products derived from CITES-listed species with high volume and frequency of both reported trade and seizures. On average, seizures added 28% and 9% to US and EU reported legal trade levels respectively, and in several cases exceeded legal imports. We detected a significant but weak overall positive relationship between seizure volumes and reported trade into the US over time, but not into the EU. These results highlight the importance of maintaining long-term records of border seizures and enforcement effort, and accounting for illegal trade where possible in non-detriment findings. Our findings suggest a complex and nuanced temporal association between the illegal and legal wildlife trades.",

author = "Tittensor, {Derek P.} and Michael Harfoot and Claire McLardy and Britten, {Gregory L.} and Katalin Kecse-Nagy and Bryan Landry and Willow Outhwaite and Becky Price and Pablo Sinovas and Julian Blanc and Burgess, {Neil D.} and Kelly Malsch",

note = "Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the UN Environment Programme in supporting this analysis, and the EU Member States for allowing us to analyze the seizures data extracted from the EU‐TWIX database. DPT acknowledges support from the Jarislowsky Foundation. GLB acknowledges funding from the Simons Foundation CBIOMES Grant #549931.We thank the CITES Secretariat and Ted Leggett from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime for helpful inputs, Vinciane Sacr{\'e} and Magdalena Norwisz for providing data and information, Thomasina Oldfield for reviewing the manuscript, and Fiona Underwood, Bob Carpenter, and Mitzi Morris for help and advice on the statistical framework. Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the UN Environment Programme in supporting this analysis, and the EU Member States for allowing us to analyze the seizures data extracted from the EU-TWIX database. DPT acknowledges support from the Jarislowsky Foundation. GLB acknowledges funding from the Simons Foundation CBIOMES Grant #549931.We thank the CITES Secretariat and Ted Leggett from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime for helpful inputs, Vinciane Sacr? and Magdalena Norwisz for providing data and information, Thomasina Oldfield for reviewing the manuscript, and Fiona Underwood, Bob Carpenter, and Mitzi Morris for help and advice on the statistical framework. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 The Authors. Conservation Letters published by Wiley Periodicals LLC",

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AU - Harfoot, Michael

AU - McLardy, Claire

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AU - Kecse-Nagy, Katalin

AU - Landry, Bryan

AU - Outhwaite, Willow

AU - Price, Becky

AU - Sinovas, Pablo

AU - Blanc, Julian

AU - Burgess, Neil D.

AU - Malsch, Kelly

N1 - Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the UN Environment Programme in supporting this analysis, and the EU Member States for allowing us to analyze the seizures data extracted from the EU‐TWIX database. DPT acknowledges support from the Jarislowsky Foundation. GLB acknowledges funding from the Simons Foundation CBIOMES Grant #549931.We thank the CITES Secretariat and Ted Leggett from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime for helpful inputs, Vinciane Sacré and Magdalena Norwisz for providing data and information, Thomasina Oldfield for reviewing the manuscript, and Fiona Underwood, Bob Carpenter, and Mitzi Morris for help and advice on the statistical framework. Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the UN Environment Programme in supporting this analysis, and the EU Member States for allowing us to analyze the seizures data extracted from the EU-TWIX database. DPT acknowledges support from the Jarislowsky Foundation. GLB acknowledges funding from the Simons Foundation CBIOMES Grant #549931.We thank the CITES Secretariat and Ted Leggett from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime for helpful inputs, Vinciane Sacr? and Magdalena Norwisz for providing data and information, Thomasina Oldfield for reviewing the manuscript, and Fiona Underwood, Bob Carpenter, and Mitzi Morris for help and advice on the statistical framework. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Authors. Conservation Letters published by Wiley Periodicals LLC

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N2 - The international legal trade in wildlife can provide economic and other benefits, but when unsustainable can be a driver of population declines. This impact is magnified by the additional burden of illegal trade, yet how it covaries with legal trade remains little explored. We combined law-enforcement time-series of seizures of wildlife goods imported into the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) with data on reported legal trade to evaluate the evidence for any relationships. Our analysis examined 28 US and 20 EU products derived from CITES-listed species with high volume and frequency of both reported trade and seizures. On average, seizures added 28% and 9% to US and EU reported legal trade levels respectively, and in several cases exceeded legal imports. We detected a significant but weak overall positive relationship between seizure volumes and reported trade into the US over time, but not into the EU. These results highlight the importance of maintaining long-term records of border seizures and enforcement effort, and accounting for illegal trade where possible in non-detriment findings. Our findings suggest a complex and nuanced temporal association between the illegal and legal wildlife trades.

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Evaluating the relationships between the legal and illegal international wildlife trades

Abstract

Bibliographical note

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

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