29 - Wildlife Trade Research Methods

Summary

Wildlife trade, defined as the sale or exchange of animals or plants by people, affects a wide variety of flora and fauna around the globe. The scale of this trade ranges from transactions of a single animal or plant to the commercial trade of wildlife in their billions. Rapidly expanding human populations, increased per capita wealth, improvements in infrastructure, increased access to forest and wilderness areas, increased internet penetration levels, changing consumer preferences for wild meat or exotic pets and improved hunting and trapping technologies have led to an increase in the numbers of animals affected by this trade. Investigations into the sale of wildlife can be approached from a biological, socioeconomic, legal or human health perspective (Karesh et al., 2005; Linder et al., 2013), but are most frequently done for conservation and sustainable use reasons (Smith et al., 2009). These investigations are vital if we are to ensure the sustainable use of natural resources. Without knowing the number of animals or plants removed from the wild for trade, we cannot know if the trade is causing species to be overharvested to the point of extinction.