Natural «remedies» for COVID-19 as a driver of the illegal wildlife trade

Oryx. 2020. Vol. 54. No. 5. P. 601–602.

Svolkinas L., Goodman S., Holmes G., Ermolin I., Suvorkov P.

The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of connections between wildlife and the emergence of novel pandemic diseases in humans. The wildlife trade is hypothesized to have played a role in the origins of the current pandemic, resulting in calls for restrictions on the legal wildlife trade, and greater enforcement against the illegal wildlife trade, on public health grounds. There is also speculation about how the pandemic might affect the illegal wildlife trade by making consumption of wildlife products less socially acceptable, or because lockdown measures and travel restrictions may hamper effective regulation of the illegal wildlife trade. Here we highlight a case where Covid-19 is increasing demand for illegal wildlife trade products used as perceived natural disease remedies, drawing on long-term monitoring of the illegal wildlife trade in the northern Caspian Sea.

Keywords: illegal trade, wildlife management, COVID-19