Poaching and trafficking of Barbary macaques after the CITES-uplisting

Over the past century, the wild population of Barbary macaques has been declining at a 50 % rate, due to poaching, habitat destruction, and human-wildlife conflict. To restrict the international trade of the species, the Barbary macaque was uplisted on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 2017. With its inclusion on the Appendix I, the species currently enjoys international protection under the highest trading restrictions for endangered species. This research examines the dynamics of poaching and illegal tradensed on both quantitative analyses of confiscation data in Europe and interviews with respondents directly or indirectly involved in the illegal trade. Longitudinal trends in confiscations and requests for shelter at rescue facilities have shown a gradual decline of 90 % in confiscations and a 60 % decline in requests for shelter at rescue centres between 2006-2022. The illegal trade could potentially be around 100 monkeys each year. Fieldwork in trade hotspots supported these declining trends, where most poaching and trading activities have been reduced. However, signals of crime displacement to other places leave space for a remaining opportunistic market. There seems to be an overall reduction in poaching and trade of the Barbary macaques compared to the situation before the uplisting, however, solely ascribing this to the CITES uplisting is too narrow-sighted, due to its intertwined relation with community awareness and engagement projects initiated by governmental and non-governmental organizations.