Monetary Value of Live Trade in a Commonly Traded Primate, the Long-Tailed Macaque, Based on Global Trade Statistics

Elodie Floriane Briefer,Daniel R. K. Nielsen,Mike Gill,Vincent Nijman,Malene Friis Hansen

doi:10.3389/fcosc.2022.839131

Elodie Floriane Briefer, Daniel R. K. Nielsen + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fcosc.2022.839131

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Abstract

Non-human primates (primates) are regarded as key research subjects for pre-clinical trials of several drugs aimed to alleviate human suffering. It has long been suggested that the predominant species in the international trade in live primates for use in research is the long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis). However, little is still known about the value of this international trade. Whilst the international trade to supply the requirement for biomedical testing is known to encourage illegal wildlife trade, we lack a detailed understanding of the overall value and magnitude of this trade. Such information is vital to facilitate the design of effective conservation strategies in range countries, in order to mitigate the exploitation of wild populations by organized crime networks. Here, data from CITES and the UN Comtrade databases were combined to calculate the value of this trade. We also compared the number of individual primates traded as reported in the two databases to investigate possible correlations. Results show that, from 2010 to 2019, the international trade in long-tailed macaques constituted a market worth of ~US $1.25 billion. We found a positive correlation between individual primates traded in the UN Comtrade Database and individual long-tailed macaques reported in the CITES Trade Database, suggesting that we can use the UN Comtrade database to investigate values and magnitude of the international legal trade in wildlife, and that legal trade in live primates is primarily constituted of long-tailed macaques alone.

Highlights

The international primate trade is considered to have peaked in the 1960s, with India alone exporting ∼50,000 live wild primates per annum (Nijman et al, 2011)
The US is a main importer of longtailed macaques (CITES Trade Database, 2021), and in 2020, Tittensor et al found a positive correlation between legal imports and confiscations in the US, suggesting that legal trade and illegal trade goes hand in hand
We investigated the magnitude and monetary value of the longtailed macaque trade by incorporating data from two databases; the CITES Trade Database and the UN Comtrade Database and comparing the data retrieved between the two

Summary

Introduction

The international primate trade is considered to have peaked in the 1960s, with India alone exporting ∼50,000 live wild primates per annum (Nijman et al, 2011). Four decades later, the legal and illegal trade in primates remains a serious threat to primates species (Nijman and Healy, 2016; Estrada et al, 2017), and the predominant species traded is thought to be the long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis). Despite genuine efforts to reduce the use of live non-human primates in research in the twenty-first century, species such as the long-tailed macaque are still utilized in biomedical. Little is known about the magnitude and monetary value of the international trade in long-tailed macaques, which can lead to overexploitation of wild populations if left unexamined (Andersson et al, 2021). The US is a main importer of longtailed macaques (CITES Trade Database, 2021), and in 2020, Tittensor et al found a positive correlation between legal imports and confiscations in the US, suggesting that legal trade and illegal trade goes hand in hand

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