Wildlife farming: balancing economic and conservation interests in the face of illegal wildlife trade

1. Demand for wildlife and their products continues to grow, often despite increasingly militarised regulation and consumer awareness campaigns. We review the sustainability, legality and feasibility of wildlife farming of animals, as a potential conservation tool to ensure the development of an equitable and sustainable trade model.

2. While there are some positive examples of well-managed wildlife farming in trade, we identify common themes of misuse including the intentional mislabelling of wild-caught specimens in global trade and the use of wild-caught individuals to supplement captive stocks.

3. We also highlight the frequent failure to incorporate biological data into management strategies, resulting in the widespread use of species with potentially unfavourable life history traits, which constrain the economic and biological sustainability of wildlife farming programmes.

4. We develop a structured decision framework to aid the examination of when wildlife farming may most benefit or hinder species conservation.

5. Synthesis and applications. Key opportunities include developing species suitability assessments and removing barriers to legitimate participation with wildlife farming among poor, rural communities. In the absence of management strategies that address the issues of species suitability and accessibility, wildlife farming will continue to place significant strain on wild populations while failing to provide conservation value and sustainable economic returns.