Researchers from the Oxford Martin Programme on Wildlife Trade are helping develop new indicators that could improve how governments monitor wildlife trade and measure progress towards global biodiversity targets.

Illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade remains one of the leading drivers of biodiversity loss worldwide. But as wildlife markets become increasingly digital and complex, governments are finding it harder to understand how wildlife is being bought, sold and used, making it more difficult to assess whether conservation efforts are working.

As countries met in Nairobi last week to review progress towards global biodiversity targets, researchers from the Oxford Martin Programme on Wildlife Trade are part of an international collaboration developing new ways to monitor wildlife trade.

The project, IN-WILD, is developing indicators using information from social media platforms, and other big data including from online marketplaces and wildlife trade databases to give governments a clearer picture of how wildlife is bought, sold and used. Early findings from IN-WILD’s situation and gap analysis of wildlife use and trade indicators were presented at a side event during last week’s meetings.

Dr Dan Challender, Co-Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Wildlife Trade and Senior Research Fellow in Oxford's Department of Biology, leads the project's Stakeholder Working Group. Bringing together governments, multilateral environmental agreement secretariats, Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ representatives, scientists and civil society organisations, the group is helping to ensure the indicators are relevant, practical and meet the needs of those who will use them.

“Overexploitation remains a key threat to wildlife, on which humanity depends for food, medicinal products, and peoples’ livelihoods in many cases." 

Dr Dan Challender

“Overexploitation remains a key threat to wildlife, on which humanity depends for food, medicinal products, and peoples’ livelihoods in many cases. Being able to effectively track progress towards globally agreed targets to ensure that the use and trade of wildlife is sustainable, legal, and safe is of paramount importance”, Challender said.

The new indicators are intended to strengthen the evidence available to governments and improve reporting against the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the international framework  guiding global action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. In particular, the indicators will support monitoring of targets relating to the sustainable use and trade of wildlife.

Challender added “IN-WILD is leveraging the expertise of consortium partners to develop novel indicators based on big data, which should produce unique insights on wildlife trade, how it can be better regulated, and how countries can track progress towards global targets. Crucially, co-developing these indicators with key stakeholders means they should be as useful as possible to the world’s governments, scientists, and civil society organisations.” 

While the exact indicators are still being developed and prioritised, they may focus on quantifying trade in wildlife online in new ways, improving understanding of illegal wildlife trade dynamics, among other priorities. Watch this space to find out!

IN-WILD is led by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and funded through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Innovation Window. The consortium comprises IUCN CEESP-SSC Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group (SULi), the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the University of Helsinki, TRAFFIC, UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).