Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 13, 2025

At-Risk Butterfly Captive Propagation Programs to Enhance Life History Knowledge and Effective Ex Situ Conservation Techniques
Published on: February 11, 2020
International wildlife trade quotas are characterized by high compliance and coverage but insufficient adaptive
Oscar Morton1,2, Vincent Nijman3, David P Edwards4
1Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK. om403@cam.ac.uk.
Abstract:
Effective management of international wildlife trade is crucial to ensure sustainability. Quotas are a common trade management tool and specify an annual number of individuals to be exported, yet at present there is no global assessment of quota coverage and compliance. Using over 7,000 country-year specific reptile quotas established under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) covering 343 species, we quantify quota coverage, compliance, trade trends pre-quota and post-quota setting and whether quotas likely represent adaptive management. Quotas predominantly concerned live wild-sourced reptiles, with only 6.6% of live non-zero quotas exceeded and 4.5% of zero quotas subverted. For 62.3% of species, quotas were established higher than pre-quota trade, with traded volumes post-quota mainly unchanged or higher than pre-quota establishment, thus potentially facilitating sustainable trade. Over 38% of quota series of species remained at the same level each year, with the longest-running quotas proportionately updated the least, indicating that many quotas do not change adaptively in response to changing threats to species through time. Greater specificity in exactly what quotas cover, justification for unchanged quotas and transparency over quota determination are needed to ensure that high compliance equates to sustainable use.
Related Concept Videos
Conservation of Declining Populations
Habitat Fragmentation
Conservation of Small Populations
What is Conservation Biology?
Threats to Biodiversity
What are Populations and Communities?

