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Free trade and biodiversity

Jacob Phelps
Jul 23, 2015
2 min read

The past two decades have experienced a boom in trade deregulation. This year will see some of the largest such agreements, including the economic integration of 10 ASEAN nations, and negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) involving the U.S. and 11 Pacific Rim countries. These agreements foresee common markets, reduced border controls, simplified customs procedures, and facilitated paperwork.

While reduced barriers are often equated with increased prosperity, the drive to facilitate trade is at odds with growing global concern over the illegal wildlife trade.

In a recent letter to Nature (DOI, PDF), Maribel Rodriguez, curator of The Illegal Wildife Trade Blog, and I highlight the negative implications of the TPP for imperiled wildlife subject to illegal trade. Moreover, the rush to quickly settle this agreements threatens to limit the deliberate consideration and public debate about its implications for biodiversity.

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Nature 523, 410 (23 July 2015) doi:10.1038/523410b

"The US Senate last month fast-tracked negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (see go.nature.com/lt2eex), one of the largest free trade agreements in history. We fear that this could inadvertently fuel the illegal wildlife trade unless strict precautionary measures are put in place.

Last year saw vast increases in rhinoceros and elephant poaching. Liberalized trading could add to this, not least because the trade partnership includes some of the leading consumer and supplier nations of illegal wildlife. Simpler customs procedures, relaxed border controls and trade monitoring all make the smuggling of such products easier.

The agreement should contain negotiated, binding and enforceable clauses that respect international commitments to biodiversity conservation and the regulated trade of protected species. The 2009 US–Peru Trade Promotion Agreement, for example, included obligations and sanctions to uphold Peru's commitment to restrict illegal logging and wildlife trade (see, for instance, S. Jinnah and E. Morgera Rev. Eur. Comp. Int. Environ. Law 22, 324–339; 2013).

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