Wildlife trade bans can increase trading

Banning the commercial trade in specimens of endangered species of wildlife can perversely increase trading, argue a group of conservation scientists from Paris and University of Kent in this week's Nature. Writing in the run-up to next month's Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the researchers provide evidence that when CITES plans to uplist a species to a more restrictive appendix that bans trade, this can lead to an increase in legal trade. Therefore, once the ban is in place, this may drive illegal trade underground.

The researchers suggest instead that more proactive, swift and flexible species management is in the interests of both traders and conservationists.

‘Uplisting is associated with a spike in trade volumes,’ say Philippe Rivalan and his co-authors from Paris and from Kent’s Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE). A ban generally takes effect 240 to 420 days after submission of a proposal, leaving a year for traders to acquire specimens or clear stocks.

The new analysis shows that legal volumes of imports can increase during this transition period, although further field work is needed to assess how such spikes might affect the harvested populations of different species. Concerns were first raised in 1985 that uplisting could make species more commercially valuable. Until now there had been no wide-ranging analysis to support this idea. ‘At the very least, our findings suggest that CITES authorities will need to use extra vigilance in controlling permits during transition periods and in adhering to quotas’, comment Rivalan and his co-authors.

‘Some proactive measures that CITES is considering were discussed by the CITES Secretary General at the DICE Annual Lecture in February 2007. These include ensuring that local livelihoods are not affected by restrictive listing, and using CITES permits as a form of certification,’ adds Dr Alison Rosser and Professor Nigel Leader-Williams of DICE.