IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Casamitjana, J.; Tsang, J.; Flocken, J.; Lajoie, S.; Moos, S. | |
| Killing for trophies - An analysis of global trophy hunting trade | |
| 2016 Full Book | |
As the trophy hunting industry has grown over the last few decades, governments, conservationists, and animal welfare advocates are keen to understand its global economic and conservation impacts with data as supporting evidence. Unfortunately, little credible research had been done to understand the global trophy industry's extent and impact. This report is a result of a comprehensive analysis of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Trade Database. Approximately one million trade records of CITES-listed wildlife species are reported and entered into the database annually, accounting now for more than 13 million wildlife trade records of more than 34,000 scientific taxa names on the CITES Appendices. As many as 1.7 million hunting trophies have been traded between nations between 2004 and 2014. And at least 200,000 trophies from threatened taxa, or an average of 20,000 trophies per year, have been traded between nations in the same period. Our research found that 107 different nations (comprised of 104 importing nations and 106 exporting nations) participated in trophy hunting trade between 2004 and 2014. However, although there is worldwide demand for animal trophies, according to the CITES database, the top twenty countries are responsible for 97 percent of trophy imports. The United States (US) accounts for 71 percent of the import demand, or about 15 times more than the next highest nations, Germany and Spain (both 5 percent). These top 20 importing countries are killing and importing their trophies mainly from Canada (35 percent), South Africa (23 percent), and Namibia (11 percent). The most common trade of threatened taxa trophies come from Canada to the US, followed by trophy trade from African nations to the US. Analyses of the CITES database found that three of the four threatened taxa from the Africa Big Five species (African elephant, African leopard, and African lion) are among the top six most traded of imperiled taxa. Of the top 20 threatened taxa, African lions have the strongest statistically significant increase of trophy hunting trade since 2004. At least 11,000 lion trophies have been traded worldwide from 2004 to 2013. Other Africa Big Five species are also popular with trophy hunters, with more than 10,000 elephant trophies and more than 10,000 leopard trophies being legally traded worldwide between 2004 and 2014. Like African lions, the African elephant trophy hunting trade has increased since 2004, while leopard trophy hunting numbers rose for several years after 2004, but have since decreased. This analysis can serve as a baseline for more study on how trophy hunting is changing and how the global industry ultimately affects animals and their populations, both regionally and globally. |
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