Enhancing Wildlife Trade Monitoring in the European Union-No Need to Reinvent the Wheel.

Biodiversity loss is mainly driven by changes in land use and overexploitation, with the commercial trade of wildlife being a smaller but still important contributor to resource depletion and species decline. The trade-including live animals, plants, fungi, and derived products-is a major economic sector valued at US$145-220 billion annually. The European Union (EU) is a key market, importing wildlife products worth approximately €100 billion.

An Updated Review of the Marine Ornamental Fish Trade in the European Union.

Wild-caught fish from coral reefs, one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet, continue to supply the marine aquarium trade. Despite customs and veterinary checks during imports, comprehensive data on this global industry remain scarce. This study provides consolidated data on the largest import market by value, the European Union (EU): a 24-million-euro annual trade value, detailing the main exporting and importing countries, as well as the species and families of the 26 million specimens imported between 2014 and 2021.

The European Union Is Still Unable to Find Nemo and Dory-Time for a Reliable Traceability System for the Marine Aquarium Trade.

The EU is one of the main importers of marine ornamental species sourced from tropical coral reefs around the world. While the entrance of live organisms into the EU, along with their intra-EU circulation, is framed within stringent control mechanisms, to date, no reliable figures exist concerning which marine ornamental species are imported, in what numbers, and where they are sourced from. This lack of reliable data in the EU on the trade of marine ornamental species is puzzling if one considers that all these imported specimens must be controlled at customs offices located in international airports.

A Systematic Review of the Ornamental Fish Trade with Emphasis on Coral Reef Fishes-An Impossible Task.

The multi-billion dollar trade in ornamental fishes has rarely been reliably monitored. Almost all coral reef fishes are wild-caught, and few scientific analyses have attempted to elicit exact quantities and identify species involved. The consequences of the removal of millions of these fishes are poorly understood.