TY - JOUR

T1 - Making sense of domestic wildlife and CITES legislation

T2 - The example of Nepal's orchids

AU - Bashyal, R.

AU - Paudel, K.

AU - Hinsley, A.

AU - Phelps, J.

N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Biological Conservation. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Biological Conservation, 280, 2023 DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2023.109951

PY - 2023/4/30

Y1 - 2023/4/30

N2 - Governing wildlife resources is a global challenge, with illegal domestic and international trade emerging as a leading threat to biodiversity. This has prompted a range of international conservation commitments and domestic legislation, including protected species lists and legislation associated with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Despite their importance, heavy focus on national-level legislation potentially belies the complex networks of sub-national legislation that often inform on-the-ground wildlife management decisions. We highlight the need for a detailed understanding of sub-national legislation in order to meaningfully understand legal and illegal wildlife trade. We demonstrate this using the example of orchids – representing >70 % of all CITES-listed species – and focus on Nepal, a wildlife trade hotspot. We describe the available evidence on the country's overlapping legal and illegal orchid trade and provide a structured analysis of 55 pieces of domestic legislation that govern the country's orchid resources. It is likely that other countries and taxa face similar levels of complexity, and we propose an approach for more thorough and systematic evaluations of sub-national legislation – across areas of law, hierarchical levels of governance, and types of legislation.  

AB - Governing wildlife resources is a global challenge, with illegal domestic and international trade emerging as a leading threat to biodiversity. This has prompted a range of international conservation commitments and domestic legislation, including protected species lists and legislation associated with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Despite their importance, heavy focus on national-level legislation potentially belies the complex networks of sub-national legislation that often inform on-the-ground wildlife management decisions. We highlight the need for a detailed understanding of sub-national legislation in order to meaningfully understand legal and illegal wildlife trade. We demonstrate this using the example of orchids – representing >70 % of all CITES-listed species – and focus on Nepal, a wildlife trade hotspot. We describe the available evidence on the country's overlapping legal and illegal orchid trade and provide a structured analysis of 55 pieces of domestic legislation that govern the country's orchid resources. It is likely that other countries and taxa face similar levels of complexity, and we propose an approach for more thorough and systematic evaluations of sub-national legislation – across areas of law, hierarchical levels of governance, and types of legislation.  

KW - Environmental law

KW - Governance

KW - Illegal wildlife trade

KW - Plants

KW - Sustainable harvest

U2 - 10.1016/j.biocon.2023.109951

DO - 10.1016/j.biocon.2023.109951

M3 - Journal article

VL - 280

JO - Biological Conservation

JF - Biological Conservation

SN - 0006-3207

M1 - 109951

ER -