Analysis of international wildlife trade using CITES data

Maaike de Jong
April 2020

Content

Introduction
Questions
Data
Links

Introduction

Here I investigate the international wildlife trade using data visualisation, with a focus on the trade in mammals. The wildlife trade - such as trade in ivory, or pets - is the number one cause of animal extinction, together with habitat destruction caused by land development. A recent study estimates that at least 1/5th of all vertebrate species is being traded (e.g. see this BBC article).

Wildlife trade has many negative effects, with the most important ones being:

Decline and extinction of populations
Introduction of invasive species
Spread of new diseases to humans

I focus on the trade in endangered mammals as listed by CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. In particular, I analyse trade in live mammals taken from the wild.

Questions

The main research questions I investigate are:

Which wild mammal groups and species are traded the most (in terms of live animals taken from the wild)?
What are the main purposes for trade of these animals?
How has the trade changed over the past two decades (2000-2019)?

Data

I'm using the CITES trade database as source for my data. This database contains more than 20 million records of trade and is openly accessible. On the website of the database a selection of data can be made for download. I selected my data with the following parameters:

Year range: 2000-2019
Source: W - Wild
Exporting countries: All countries
Importing countries: All countries
Purpose: All purposes
Trade Terms: Liv - Live
Taxon: Mammalia

Links