Meeks, D. orcid.org/0009-0002-0141-470X, Morton, O. orcid.org/0000-0001-5483-4498 and Edwards, D.P. orcid.org/0000-0001-8562-3853 (2024) Wildlife farming: balancing economic and conservation interests in the face of illegal wildlife trade. People and Nature, 6 (2). pp. 446-457. ISSN 2575-8314
Abstract
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.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. People and Nature published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | biological feasibility; captive breeding; conservation management strategies; economic livelihoods; illegal wildlife trade; supply-side conservation; wildlife farming; wildlife trade |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 22 Jan 2024 15:48 |
Last Modified: | 07 Nov 2024 15:47 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/pan3.10588 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:208116 |