Abstract
AbstractChina is one of the largest consumer markets in the international legal and illegal wildlife trade. An increasing demand for wildlife and wildlife products is threatening biodiversity, both within China and in other countries where wildlife destined for the Chinese market is being sourced. We analysed official data on legal imports of CITES-listed species in five vertebrate classes (mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish), and on enforcement seizures of illegally traded wildlife, during 1997–2016. This is the first study that collates and analyses publicly available data on China's legal and illegal wildlife trade and considers a broad range of species. Specifically, we estimated the scale and scope of the legal and illegal wildlife trade, quantified the diversity of species involved, and identified the major trading partners, hotspots and routes associated with illegal trade. Our findings show that substantial quantities of wildlife have been extracted globally for the Chinese market: during 1997–2016 over 11.5 million whole-organism equivalents and 5 million kg of derivatives of legally traded wildlife, plus over 130,000 illegally traded animals (alive and dead) and a substantial amount of animal body parts and products, were imported into China. Although measures to reduce demand and alleviate poverty are crucial to curb unsustainable and illegal wildlife trade in the longer term, China's wildlife regulators and enforcers must take urgent measures to disrupt the supply chains from source to market.
Highlights
International wildlife trade, whether legal or illegal, is a global business, with a value of traded and smuggled goods of USD billions per year (Harfoot et al, ; ‘t Sas-Rolfes et al, )
Scale of China’s legal trade Our analysis of, CITES trade records showed that during, an estimated . . million whole-organism equivalents of wildlife and million kg of wildlife derivatives were legally imported into China
The CITES trade database and the TRAFFIC Bulletin are amongst the few publicly available data sources on legal and illegal wildlife trade (Lopes et al, ), both have limitations, and an analysis based on these two sources alone would lead to an underestimation of trade volumes
Summary
International wildlife trade, whether legal or illegal, is a global business, with a value of traded and smuggled goods of USD billions per year (Harfoot et al, ; ‘t Sas-Rolfes et al, ). Is a major component of this global commerce. China is a major supply source (Nijman, ; Petrossian et al, ), but since the s has become one of the world’s largest consumers of wildlife and wildlife products (Zhou & Jiang, ; UNODC, ), as a result of economic development and increasing consumer affluence. China’s demand for wildlife appears to continue to expand as its affluent, urban population increases, and the culture of wildlife consumption spreads from the south to other parts of the country (Zhang et al, ; Zhang & Yin, )
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