The submission date has been extended to December 31, 2024. It will not be extended further. Sponsorship funds to cover publication costs are being distributed in the order that manuscripts are accepted. If you require sponsorship to publish, we strongly encourage you to submit your manuscript as soon as possible.

*The Smithsonian Institution has offered to cover the publication costs of most, if not all, of the papers accepted for this Research Topic.*

There is a need to conceptualize an environmental justice framework that informs regulation of the international wildlife trade to minimize species endangerment and infectious disease risks while also affording environmental justice to communities, nations, species, and ecological systems entwined in the commerce pathway. This Research Topic is dedicated to advancing the science of environmental justice in the international wildlife trade from both "problems" and "solutions" perspectives. We welcome manuscripts relevant to legal and/or illegal aspects of the international wildlife trade. Submissions must be of a scholarly nature and framed from a social sciences perspective, although inter-disciplinary work is encouraged.

The international wildlife trade has been recognized as one of the greatest threats to biodiversity, as well as a facilitator of zoonotic disease transmission with pandemic potential. This has led to increased calls for regulation of this megabillion/year industry—ranging from comprehensive bans to risk-based strategies that are species, product, and/or geography specific. Every aspect of wildlife commerce and every proposed risk mitigation measure has implications for environmental justice, yet environmental justice has not been mainstreamed in the scientific inquiry, policy, nor planning processes relative to the international wildlife trade. Because wildlife trade has diverse drivers and purposes, as well as different levels of legality, social legitimacy, and enforcement, there is an urgent need to understand the environmental justice issues tied to consumer demand vs. supply provision along the trade chain, including how this is influenced by economic, cultural, and geographic biases. An understanding of environmental justice patterns and trends is necessary for the design and support of effective regulatory frameworks that manage risks in actuality, rather than merely in concept. Determining where and how to permit and support legal and sustainable wildlife trade, versus where it should be more tightly regulated or even cease, requires at least as much understanding of the human animal as it does the wildlife species.

A greater understanding of the political economy of the illegal aspects of the international wildlife trade from an environmental justice perspective can also open new vistas of green criminological inquiry. Ecological citizenship and environmental justice are central themes in green criminology highly relevant to the wildlife trade. They recognize justice as central to the right to be protected from harm, whether that is one-on-one harm, institutionalized harm, or harm arising from human actions that affect climates and environments on a global scale. The recognition of such rights in trade regulation is scant and more likely overshadowed by a desire to protect the economic value of a “good” rather than the inherent value of the wild animal being consumed.

We will prioritize papers that use social science approaches/tools to empirically investigate aspects of environmental justice in the international wildlife trade. Manuscripts should be framed so as to facilitate development of an environmental justice framework that informs regulation of the international wildlife trade to minimize species endangerment and infectious disease risks while also affording environmental justice to communities, nations, and ecological systems entwined in the commerce pathway. We welcome manuscripts relevant to legal and/or illegal aspects of the international wildlife trade. Submissions must be of a scholarly nature - we will not accept advocacy documents. The following manuscript types will also be considered if the contributions are sufficiently innovative/transformative:

1) Case studies of environmental justice problems/resolutions in the international wildlife trade context.

2) Models for advancing the science of environmental justice in the international wildlife trade context.

3) Analyses of international wildlife trade law/policy frameworks with a view toward integrating environmental justice issues (as rooted in scholarly science).

All papers should emphasize conservation goals/outcomes. Direct inquiries about other manuscript themes/types to Dr. Jamie K. Reaser at Reaserjk@si.edu

This Research Topic was developed in collaboration with the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication (https://www.iucn.org/our-union/commissions/commission-education-and-communication) and the International Alliance Against Health Risks in the Wildlife Trade (https://alliance-health-wildlife.org).

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Frontiers in Conservation Science

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