Well-managed wildlife trade can benefit poor communities

Well-managed wildlife trade has the potential to deliver significant development benefits for the world’s poor, finds a new report by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, and WWF.

Trading Nature: the contribution of wildlife trade management to sustainable livelihoods and the Millennium Development Goals shows that wildlife trade offers opportunities to the poor and benefits to local communities, but these are threatened when illegal or unsustainable trade is allowed to flourish.

The legal, international trade in wild plants and animals and the products derived from them was estimated as worth close to USD300 billion in 2005, based on declared import values—and the value is rising.

The report finds that well-managed, legal and sustainable trade can also have a significant impact on all eight of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), the globally agreed roadmap for development, which lay out targets on poverty and hunger reduction (MDG1) access to education (MDG2), healthcare (MDGs4, 5 and 6), environmental sustainability (MDG7) and good governance (MDG8). Read the full article >>

Related News

Groups attack wildlife trade plans – The Nation
Just let them get on with it – The Economist
Manage wildlife trade for better development outcomes – News Food