CMS Flags Illegal Wildlife Taking as Major Threat to Migratory Species Globally

The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals has warned that migratory species worldwide face escalating threats from illegal and unsustainable killing driven largely by domestic food needs, local markets and cultural practices, exacerbated by weak governance. A global initiative to curb the illegal taking of migratory wildlife has been formally recognised as an international priority.

The CMS has noted at a recent global meeting that while high-profile international wildlife trafficking often draws the most attention, the majority of migratory species removed from their habitats are taken for domestic purposes including food, local trade and cultural use. This form of wildlife taking is widespread across multiple regions and involves a broad range of species including birds, freshwater fish and terrestrial mammals. Weak governance, limited law enforcement capacity and poverty in range states are identified as the primary enabling factors.

Migratory species are particularly vulnerable to unsustainable taking because they cross multiple national jurisdictions during their life cycles, making coordinated protection difficult to achieve. A single bottleneck location where hunters or trappers exploit migratory concentrations can have disproportionate population-level effects, even if the species is relatively well protected in other parts of its range. The CMS framework is the primary international legal instrument for coordinating migratory species protection across borders.

The CMS global initiative focuses on raising awareness, building enforcement capacity and developing community-based alternatives to wildlife exploitation in key range states. For India, which serves as a critical habitat and flyway corridor for numerous globally significant migratory bird and fish species, strengthening domestic regulations on migratory species protection and aligning them with CMS obligations will be an important dimension of national biodiversity commitments under the Kunming-Montreal framework.

Key figure — Multiple international jurisdictions — migratory species cross borders, requiring coordinated CMS protection