{ "abstract": "Overexploitation of wildlife is one of the greatest global drivers of biodiversity loss. Yet, despite this well-established risk, data on extraction and trade are both incomplete and highly fragmented. The IPBES Global analysis estimated 50,000 species to be in trade, yet our review of wildlife trade monitoring programs found at least double that, at 107,356 species in use and trade globally. This included up to 47,685 animal species, covering 42% of all described vertebrate species. Most countries lack any systematic data on trade for species not listed in Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), with the exception of the US-specific dataset Law Enforcement Management Information System, which frequently had higher diversity of species in trade than global databases. This highlights the importance of national monitoring efforts and the need for standardized collation of wildlife trade data beyond CITES-listed species. Without these changes, global indicators on trade meant to guide sustainability and conservation will continue to focus on less than 2% of traded species.", "abstract_shown": true, "affiliations": [ "School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Royal Parade, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.", "School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.", "Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science (ICCS) and Oxford Martin Programme on Wildlife Trade, Department of Biology and Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.", "Department of Plant Sciences, Centre for Global Wood Security, and Conservation Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.", "Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA.", "Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute and Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.", "School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.", "United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), Cambridge, UK.", "The Biodiversity and Sustainability Solutions (BISONS) Lab, Department of Biodiversity Sciences, University of Turku, Turku 20014, Finland.", "Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c), Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), CHANGE - Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa 1749-016, Portugal.", "Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science, Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Oxford Martin Programme on Wildlife Trade, Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.", "Oxford Wildlife Trade Research Group, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK.", "EcoVerde Global Consulting, Oxford, UK.", "TRAFFIC International, Cambridge, UK.", "School for the Environment, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA.", "Global Ocean Conservation Program, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, CA, USA.", "MAR FUTURA, Navidad, Chile.", "Instituto Milenio en Socio-Ecología Costera (SECOS), Santiago, Chile.", "German Federal Agency For Nature Conservation, Bonn, Germany.", "School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.", "Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, UK.", "Institute of Marine Sciences and Management, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkiye.", "International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Cambridge, UK.", "Fisheries and Aquaculture Division (NFI), Assessment & Management Team (NFIFM), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy.", "The University of Western Australia Oceans Institute, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia.", "Centre for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate (CMEC), University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark." ], "article_type": "Research Article", "arxiv": null, "author_total": 24, "authors": [ { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Alice C. Hughes", "orcid": "0000-0002-4899-3158" }, { "affs": [ 0, 1 ], "name": "Benjamin Michael Marshall", "orcid": "0000-0001-9554-0605" }, { "affs": [ 2 ], "name": "Daniel W. S. Challender", "orcid": "0000-0002-0606-1715" }, { "affs": [ 3 ], "name": "David P. Edwards", "orcid": "0000-0001-8562-3853" }, { "affs": [ 4 ], "name": "Evan A. Eskew", "orcid": "0000-0002-1153-5356" }, { "affs": [ 5 ], "name": "Julie L. Lockwood", "orcid": "0000-0003-0177-449X" }, { "affs": [ 6 ], "name": "Oscar Morton", "orcid": "0000-0001-5483-4498" }, { "affs": [ 7 ], "name": "Kelly Malsch", "orcid": "0000-0002-8099-9357" }, { "affs": [ 8, 9 ], "name": "Caroline Fukushima", "orcid": "0000-0001-7909-0173" }, { "affs": [ 10 ], "name": "Amy Hinsley", "orcid": "0000-0002-5590-7617" }, { "affs": [ 11, 12 ], "name": "Vincent Nijman", "orcid": "0000-0002-5600-4276" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Shai Meiri", "orcid": "0000-0003-3839-6330" }, { "affs": [ 13 ], "name": "Sharon Baruch-Mordo", "orcid": "0000-0002-8230-9866" }, { "affs": [ 14, 15 ], "name": "Michael F. Tlusty", "orcid": "0000-0002-7493-2025" }, { "affs": [ 16, 17 ], "name": "Rodrigo Oyanedel" }, { "affs": [ 18 ], "name": "Jacqueline Jürgens", "orcid": "0000-0002-1216-0357" }, { "affs": [ 19, 20 ], "name": "Samuel Pironon", "orcid": "0000-0002-8937-7626" }, { "affs": [ 7 ], "name": "Alyson T. Pavitt", "orcid": "0000-0002-3926-0462" }, { "affs": [ 21 ], "name": "Nazli Demirel", "orcid": "0000-0003-4542-9276" }, { "affs": [ 22 ], "name": "Molly R. C. Brown" }, { "affs": [ 22 ], "name": "Oliver J. S. Tallowin", "orcid": "0000-0001-7282-3645" }, { "affs": [ 23, 24 ], "name": "Kim Friedman", "orcid": "0000-0002-4002-6585" }, { "affs": [ 25 ], "name": "Rishi Sharma", "orcid": "0000-0002-3818-9393" }, { "affs": [ 7, 25 ], "name": "Neil D. Burgess", "orcid": "0000-0003-2291-4535" } ], "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3y7dedk865j8c.bib", "cited_by": 1, "doi": "10.1126/sciadv.aei3504", "fulltext_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13721986/?tool=EBI", "id": "3y7dedk865j8c", "issns": [ "2375-2548" ], "landing_url": "https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/sciadv.aei3504", "language": "eng", "licence": "CC-BY-NC", "licence_label": "CC BY-NC", "licence_source": "article", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/", "metadata_licence": null, "native_subjects": [ [ "heading", "Earth, Environmental, Ecological, and Space Sciences" ], [ "heading", "Ecology" ], [ "heading", "Research Article" ], [ "heading", "SciAdv r-articles" ], [ "heading", "Science Policy" ] ], "openalex": null, "pdf_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13721986/pdf/?tool=EBI", "pmcid": "PMC13721986", "pmid": "42962026", "published": "2026-10-30", "publisher": "American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)", "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3y7dedk865j8c.ris", "sources": [ { "first_seen": "2026-10-31T00:20:30Z", "native_id": "10.1126/sciadv.aei3504", "source": "feed-science", "url": "https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/sciadv.aei3504" }, { "first_seen": "2026-10-31T00:20:32Z", "native_id": "10.1126/sciadv.aei3504", "source": "crossref", "url": "https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aei3504" }, { "first_seen": "2026-10-31T12:21:37Z", "native_id": "PMC:PMC13721986", "source": "europepmc", "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13721986" }, { "first_seen": "2026-11-02T03:21:21Z", "native_id": "MED:42962026", "source": "europepmc", "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42962026" }, { "first_seen": "2026-11-03T12:22:34Z", "native_id": "PMC13721986", "source": "pmc", "url": "https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aei3504" } ], "subjects": [ { "field": "biology", "origin": "heading:Ecology", "subfield": "ecology" } ], "title": "The true scale of global wildlife trade is obscured by data gaps", "title_text": "The true scale of global wildlife trade is obscured by data gaps", "type": "peer-reviewed", "updated_at": "2026-11-03T12:22:34Z", "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3y7dedk865j8c", "venue": "Science Advances", "versions": [] }