PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Louise McRae
AU  - Robin Freeman
AU  - Jonas Geldmann
AU  - Grace B. Moss
AU  - Louise Kjær-Hansen
AU  - Neil D. Burgess
TI  - A global indicator of utilised wildlife populations: regional trends and the impact of management
AID  - 10.1101/2020.11.02.365031
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.11.02.365031
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/03/2020.11.02.365031.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/03/2020.11.02.365031.full
AB  - The sustainable use of wildlife is a core aspiration of multi-lateral conservation policy but is the subject to intense debate in the scientific literature. We use a global data set of over 11,000 population time-series to derive indices of ‘used’ and ‘unused’ species and assess global and regional changes in wildlife populations – principally for mammals, birds and fishes. We also assess whether ‘management’ makes a measurable difference to wildlife population trends, especially for the used species populations. Our results show that wildlife population trends globally are negative, but with used populations tending to decline more rapidly, especially in Africa and the Americas. Crucially, where used populations are managed, using a variety of mechanisms, there is a positive impact on the trend. It is therefore true that use of species can both be a driver of negative population trends, or a driver of species recovery, with numerous species and population specific case examples making up these broader trends. This work is relevant to the evidence base for the IPBES Sustainable Use Assessment, and to the development of indicators of sustainable use of species under the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework being developed under the Convention on Biological Diversity.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.