Wildlife trade

scale | drivers | governance

Featured work

Reforms to strengthen CITES

  • Unsustainable wildlife trade is a major driver of global biodiversity loss. Effective wildlife trade governance is critical for conservation and requires international cooperation and coordination to regulate an industry valued at hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Yet, due to increasing polarization over consumptive wildlife use, certain countries have become disenfranchised by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the primary mechanism for regulating international wildlife trade. Tensions within CITES are rising over the elephant ivory and rhino horn trade, where polarization has pushed ten Southern African Development Community countries to suggest an outright withdrawal from CITES. The denunciation of CITES by such a large and ecologically significant bloc would substantially weaken the integrity, credibility, and stature of the Convention. There is a contemporary precedent to reference: Japan left the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 2019 due to polarization over commercial whaling. Here, we examine the common threads between these two cases: changing organizational ethos, polarization amongst members, influence of non-state actors, and loss of decidability for dissenting nations. Taking critical lessons from Japan's IWC withdrawal, we propose various options for structural reforms in CITES to restore decidability, enable equitability, and implement inclusive decision-making.

  • Cheung, H., Challender, D.W.S., Anagnostou, M., Braczkowski, A.R., Di Marco, M., Hinsley, A., Kubo, T., Possingham, H.P., Song, A.Y., Takashina, N., Wang, Y. and Biggs, D. (2025). Protect the integrity of CITES: Lessons from Japan’s IWC withdrawal to keep polarization from tearing CITES apart. Conservation Letters. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.13099

Chinese consumers & rhino horn

  • The medicinal use of rhino horn in Asia is a major driver of poaching and illegal trade. Research into the different actors involved in this trade is needed to inform policymaking and improve conservation outcomes. While researchers have investigated rhino horn consumers in Vietnam, studies have yet to focus on China. Here, we conducted a large-scale online survey to investigate medicinal rhino horn consumption in China's Guangdong province. One in seven respondents reported having used rhino horn in the past year. These individuals tended to be older, male, wealthier and better educated; several healthcare usage variables were also associated with rhino horn consumption. These findings can help guide the development of tailored demand reduction interventions. Our results question the effectiveness of the global community's current approach to rhino conservation. We conclude by highlighting the need for conservationists to work more closely with key stakeholders to find lasting and sustainable solutions.

  • Cheung, H., Mazerolle, L., Possingham, H.P. and Biggs, D. (2021). Rhino horn use by consumers of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China. Conservation Science and Practice, 3 (5): e365. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.365

TCM 101

  • 1. Numerous treatments in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) involve the use of wildlife products, including some that utilize ingredients derived from endangered flora and fauna. Demand for such endangered wildlife products in TCM can threaten the survival of species and pose serious challenges for conservation.

    2. Chinese medical practice is embedded in the cultural fabric of many societies in East and Southeast Asia, and remains an integral part of everyday life and knowledge. It is grounded in principles and theories that have grown over hundreds of years and differ substantially from those of mainstream allopathic biomedicine.

    3. In order to address the threats posed by the medicinal consumption of endangered wildlife, conservation scientists and practitioners will benefit from a basic understanding of TCM. Such knowledge will enable conservationists to craft culturally nuanced solutions and to engage constructively with TCM stakeholders. However, conservationists typically lack familiarity with TCM as the incompatibility of many TCM concepts with those of the biomedical sciences poses a barrier to understanding.

    4. In this paper, we examine the core theories and practices of TCM in order to make TCM more accessible to conservation scientists and practitioners. A better understanding of TCM will enable conservationists to deliver more effective and lasting conservation outcomes.

  • Cheung, H., Doughty, H., Hinsley, A., Hsu, E., Lee, T.M., Milner-Gulland, E.J., Possingham, H.P. and Biggs, D. (2020). Understanding traditional Chinese medicine to deliver conservation outcomes. People and Nature, 3 (1): 115-128. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10166