# Wildlife Trade Portal

## URL

[www.wildlifetradeportal.org](https://www.wildlifetradeportal.org/)

## Description

This tool helps researchers explore and visualize wildlife trade seizures around the world by filtering by individual incidents or events. You can search by species, countries involved and dates. An advanced search allows you to include incidents involving organized crime and corruption, people, specific locations and taxonomic characteristics of species. As a result you will get charts and visuals that enable you to explore incidents by country, year, taxonomy, commodity type, category (for example, seizure or enforcement action), transport method, trade routes and transit type (airport, road, etc).

You will also see a results page with a list of the incident, a map that locates incidents in the countries involved, and other charts that you can reproduce and modify depending on what you need.

For example, you can see the number of people by government involvement over time or the number of incidents by type of transit over time. You can also search for multiple species. In this way, you can find incidents related to all the species you are looking for.

<figure><img src="https://1607018381-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FFuL0vtRVpXHiKZgFkMFR%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-b410f9b37016d87be3079dcfd36553de9746a9cb%2FScreenshot%202025-11-01%20at%209.07.19%E2%80%AFPM.png?alt=media" alt=""><figcaption><p>Search example: Seizures of pangolins in Nigeria in recent years.</p></figcaption></figure>

The results can be exported. Have a look at [this user guide (pdf) ](https://www.wildlifetradeportal.org/wildlife-trade-portal-guide.pdf)to get a sense of how the dashboard looks like.

You can contribute to this site by providing the source, the date, the country of an incident, any associated countries on the trade route, any associated species, the type of commodity, and the quantity of commodity of a seizure of which you are aware.

The Wildlife Trade Portal is also connected to another tool called [TimberStats](https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/f334dde3d5bd4f9fb2ba02516bd48c45/page/INFO/). This site, launched on November 2024, allows you to explore timber trade data from the UN Comtrade database via API. It offers an Annual Trade Statistics Dashboard, where you can explore trade flows around the world, and an Annual Trade Discrepancies Dashboard, where you can find inconsistencies in reported trade between two countries.

To date, this tool continues to receive frequent updates. Recently, the tool provider [confirmed](https://www.traffic.org/news/fight-against-illegal-wildlife-trade-boosted-by-wolfson-tech-funding-award/) that it will use a grant to support the use of AI in order to further refine the tool.

* [x] Free
* [ ] Partially Free
* [ ] Paid

## Level of difficulty

<table><thead><tr><th data-type="rating" data-max="5"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td></tr></tbody></table>

## Requirements

You have to “request an account” but access is immediate. To get an account you need to provide your workplace and personal information, plus some details of your work/freelance activities. A confirmation email will be sent and after clicking on it, you are all set.

## Limitations

This site uses media sources and contributions, also aproximates (date ranges, for example). This site may be a good place to start researching, but you may have trouble checking how official the data is. It is advisable to search for original sources from the results provided on this site. All information is obtained from open sources and there is no information about the fact checking process.

## Ethical Considerations

This site uses media sources such as local news (for example, this seizure in [India](https://starofmysore.com/attempt-to-sell-pangolin-scales-govt-school-teacher-held/amp/)) and NGO's articles (for example, this seizure in [Uganda](https://ugandawildlife.org/news/chinese-nationals-arrested-for-wildlife-trafficking/)), as well as [contributions](https://www.wildlifetradeportal.org/upload). The ethical challenges this raises must be determined by each user, taking into account for what and by whom the data will be used.

## Guides and articles

Guides:

[Wildlife Trade Portal User Guide](https://www.wildlifetradeportal.org/wildlife-trade-portal-guide.pdf)

[TimberStats Resources Introduction](https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/f334dde3d5bd4f9fb2ba02516bd48c45/page/RESOURCES/)

[Traffic Bulletin: Updates from the Wildlife Trade Portal](https://www.traffic.org/site/assets/files/13362/portal-updates.pdf)

Articles:

[Dataset of seized wildlife and their intended uses](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352340921008076)

[South Africa is The World's Largest Exporter of Live Tigers](https://allafrica.com/stories/202412050130.html)

## Tool provider

TRAFFIC, headquartered in Cambridge, England + Arcadia, a family charitable foundation, headquartered in the UK.

## Advertising Trackers

* [ ] This tool has not been checked for advertising trackers yet.
* [ ] This tool uses tracking cookies. Use with caution.
* [x] This tool does not appear to use tracking cookies.

| Page maintainer |
| --------------- |
| Lieth Carrillo  |
|                 |
