GCRF_NF94: Identifying and mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 on legal and sustainable wildlife trade in LMICs

To contain COVID-19, there has been a clampdown on wildlife trade, which is a key source of livelihood and food security for hundreds of millions of people in LMICs. Wildlife markets have been closed, new bans on wildlife trade are being enforced and governments are proposing drastic changes to wildlife trade regulations. These reforms aim to safeguard global public health and global food systems, yet they disrupt wildlife supply chains that meet peoples' food security and economic needs. The clampdown on global wildlife trade also risks pushing trade underground with implications for public health, conservation and crime. The aim of this project is to develop evidence-based guidelines for regulating wildlife trade to address the risks of COVID-19 without undermining legal and sustainable wildlife trade economies. This project will use trade data, interviews and the Delphi method to: (1) track changing wildlife trade trends during the pandemic; (2) assess the impacts of these changing trends on people engaged in wildlife economies; and (3) formulate new guidelines for safe, legal and sustainable wildlife trade in the COVID-19 era. The project will be informed by evidence from Kenya and Cameroon - two LMICs with wildlife sectors that stand to be significantly impacted by COVID-19. This project will be led by an international, interdisciplinary team of wildlife trade, conservation and livelihood experts, and implemented in collaboration with CIFOR, an institute at the forefront of research on wildlife trade in LMICs. An Expert Impact Network (IUCN, IIED, TRAFFIC) has been established to realise impact.