Enhancing Wildlife Trade Monitoring in the European Union-No Need to Reinvent the Wheel.

ABSTRACT: Biodiversity loss is mainly driven by changes in land use and overexploitation, with the commercial trade of wildlife being a smaller but still important contributor to resource depletion and species decline. The trade-including live animals, plants, fungi, and derived products-is a major economic sector valued at US$145-220 billion annually. The European Union (EU) is a key market, importing wildlife products worth approximately €100 billion. While legal trade has surged, illegal wildlife trade remains a significant transnational crime, estimated at US$20 billion annually and threatening endangered species. Monitoring wildlife trade is challenged by species-level data gaps and inadequate regulation of many traded species, hindering conservation efforts and increasing biosecurity risks, in

SUBMITTER: Biondo MV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12394888 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature