Twice as many plants and animals sold in wildlife trade as previously thought, says report — SkimNews
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- Science Advances published a study identifying 107,356 plant and animal species used or traded globally.
- IPBES had estimated about 50,000 traded species overall, while the expanded dataset found more butterfly species in trade than IPBES’s entire estimate for all traded terrestrial invertebrates.
- Alice Hughes said researchers are not capturing the expanded online exotic-pet and ornamental trade, including worldwide spider-egg mailings and reptiles taken onto planes; co-author Molly Brown called the paper a “reality check” and said the 107,356-species total remains underestimated.
- Nearly 200 countries agreed four years ago to make wild-species trade “sustainable, safe and legal,” but the main metric for tracking that target covers only fish stocks—at most 3% of all traded species.
- CITES monitors and regulates international trade in about 40,000 species, while most countries have no systematic data outside the system; Hughes said years-long listing delays can leave species virtually extinct in the wild.
- Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition asking the US Fish and Wildlife Service to list the Javan slit-faced bat under the Endangered Species Act, citing U.S. demand for taxidermy bats as gothic holiday decorations.
- The wildlife trade spans fisheries, timber, fashion, ornamental and exotic-pet activity—not only illegal smuggling—and researchers said under-regulation creates loopholes that let species be “laundered into legality.”
Why it matters: For nearly 200 countries that pledged four years ago to make wild-species trade sustainable, safe and legal, the main progress metric covers only fish stocks—at most 3% of traded species. Better monitoring is needed to track those commitments across the much larger pet, ornamental and fisheries trade.
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