Asia, Europe top global wildlife trade regions: CITES first-ever report

BY VISHAL GULATI

New Delhi, Nov 16 With Asia and Europe represented both the top exporting and importing regions, approximately 3.5 million CITES shipments were reported in direct trade by exporters between 2011 and 2020.

And this amounted to over 1.3 billion individual organisms 1.26 billion plants and 82 million animals and an additional 279 million kg of products reported by weight, comprising 86 million kg of animals.

These facts brought to light by the CITES Secretariat that has published the first-ever World Wildlife Trade Report that gives insights and analysis into the global trade in animals and plants that are regulated under this international treaty. It was launched at ongoing World Wildlife Conference in Panama on Tuesday.

CITES is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and it regulates trade in nearly 40,000 species, worldwide.

A total of 183 of the world's governments