Abstract:
Despite pressing conservation and humanitarian concerns regarding the sustainability of natural resource exploitation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), reliable information is extremely limited as North Korea is one of the most secretive countries in the world. We used local ecological knowledge (LEK)-based interviews with North Korean defectors (refugees) to provide the first baseline data on the harvesting, consumptive use and trade of wildlife in North Korea during periods of severe economic hardship, and the potential impact on terrestrial biodiversity. As well as using wildlife as a domestic resource, the North Korean state, which is not a Party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), generates revenue through trade in wildlife products, which is reported to include threatened species and species protected under North Korean law. Our findings show that following the collapse of the North Korean economy in the 1990s, a burgeoning black market in wildlife products has emerged, for both local consumption and cross-border trade to China. This was reported to involve an extremely wide range of species, including almost all native mammal species >500 g. We warn that unsustainable and illegal wildlife trade is likely a major driver of defaunation in North Korea, threatening the conservation objectives of its neighbours, and that some cross-border trade may breach China’s CITES and UN Security Council Resolution commitments. Our research demonstrates how severe human deprivation can negatively impact wildlife populations by providing incentives for the unsustainable harvesting of natural resources.
Elves-Powell, J., Axmacher, J. C., Linnell, J. D., & Durant, S. M. (2025). Unsustainable and illegal wildlife trade during periods of extreme hardship threatens biodiversity in North Korea. Biological Conservation, 111102.
