Invasion Science & Wildlife Ecology Lab, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Conserv Biol. 2022 Dec;36(6):e13978. doi: 10.1111/cobi.13978. Epub 2022 Oct 7.
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.
国际野生动植物贸易对保护和环境安全构成严重风险,但目前尚无国际监管框架来监测未列入《濒危野生动植物种国际贸易公约》(CITES)附录的物种贸易。我们探讨了受国际监管和不受监管的贸易的组成和动态,重点是 2009 年至 2018 年期间进入美国的野生捕获的陆生脊椎动物的进口情况。我们使用了 10 年的活野生捕获动物进口数量的物种级贸易记录以及国际自然保护联盟(IUCN)对灭绝风险的估计数据,以确定 CITES 列出的物种与未列出的物种之间在进口的多样性、丰度和灭绝风险方面是否存在差异。我们发现,与 CITES 列出的物种相比,美国进口的未列出物种数量多了 3.6 倍(1366 种与 378 种)。与未列入名单的物种相比,CITES 列出的物种更有可能面临报告的保护威胁(71.7%对 27.5%)。然而,有 376 种未列入名单的物种面临保护威胁,297 种物种的种群趋势未知,139 种物种未被 IUCN 评估。首次出现在记录中的未列入名单的物种进口频率是 CITES 列出的物种的 5.5 倍。首次进口的未列入名单的爬行动物数量最多,平均每年有 53 种独特的物种首次进口。与 CITES 列出的物种的进口相比,未列入名单的物种的进口总量大约大 11 倍。CITES 列出的物种的主要出口国与未列入名单的物种的出口国大多不同。由于进入美国的未列入名单、交易物种的脆弱性以及全球需求的增加,我们强烈建议各国政府调整其政策,以监测和报告所有野生动植物的贸易情况。