Trading nature: a report, with case studies, on the contribution of wildlife trade management to sustainable livelihoods and the Millennium Development Goals.

This report outlines the links between well managed, sustainable wildlife trade and the Millennium Development Goals. The worldwide value of wildlife trade has been estimated at USD300 billion, which excludes the domestic trade that takes place as well as the value of wildlife that is harvested for direct consumption.

Trade on this scale presents both opportunities and considerable challenges and risks. Wildlife provides much of the food and medicinal products that are available to poor communities that live in areas of high biodiversity. It also generates cash income and employment and can represent an important contribution to the GDP, which in turn provides positive gains for local communities. These benefits are central to the attainment of many of the Millennium Development Goals.

On the other hand, a huge proportion of wildlife trade is unsustainable and often illegal. Wholesale “plundering” of natural resources both depletes wildlife populations and deprives poor communities of essential natural resources in the long term thus affecting achievement of the MDGs.

This publication addresses how societies can reconcile these contradictions and minimize the risks posed by wildlife trade through:

• the establishment of appropriate ownership and tenure regimes for wildlife
• the development of means to enhance wildlife production
• the use of standard, certification and labeling schemes to identify wildlife goods that are derived sustainably

The authors discuss that management interventions are not a quick-fix solution. Even the well-managed trade can be limited in the benefits it can provide because of:

• the nature of wildlife products and the relatively limited scope for their commercialization
• weak governance regimes
• insecure land and resource tenure

Three case studies are presented to illustrate the major commodity types in wildlife trade – wild meat, skins and wool, ornamental and food fish – in different regional contexts: Africa, Asia and Latin America. Each case has different governance contexts and management regimes.

In conclusion, to enhance the contribution of wildlife trade management to sustainable livelihoods to achieving the MDGs implies changes, which include:

• more attention to biodiversity governance so that local people have security of tenure over their land and resources giving them an incentive for sustainable management and an authority to exclude outsiders
• further analysis of sustainable off-take levels for species in trade and experimentation with management regimes that can support those
• development of innovative approaches being put in place to address the unsustainable harvest of the most commercially valuable commodities
• recognition of the link between consumer demand and unsustainable production and associated attention to awareness-raising in consumer countries, among others