- August 12, 2026
- By Renata Johnson
Attempts to protect species from the illegal wildlife trade can backfire, driving up prices and at the same time increasing demand for newly exclusive products, from rare succulent plants to ivory, according to a new study led by University of Maryland researchers.
The study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that dominant policy strategies like supply restrictions and trade bans can be a poor match for some illegal wildlife markets.
Greg Midgette, associate professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and Meredith Gore, professor in the Department of Geographical Sciences, grouped wildlife products into three categories: Luxury goods like elephant ivory can be stored and sold over time. Nondurable products such as pangolin scales are consumed more quickly and traded in bulk. Perishable goods including live animals like exotic pets and plants like succulents must move rapidly through supply chains. These differences shape how markets are organized, how prices form and how easily markets can be disrupted.
One of the study’s central findings challenges a common assumption in conservation policy: that protecting an endangered species will reduce demand for its products. Instead, the researchers describe a dynamic in which scarcity can increase desirability, particularly for high-status or collectible goods.
“Conventional strategies like trade restrictions and enforcement tend to increase prices, which generally shrinks the size of a market,” Midgette said. “But for some products, the market won’t disappear completely because there’s a small pool of consumers who are attracted by the rarity and the illicit nature of the product, and probably the status that comes with possession or consumption. For those people, we need a different strategy.”
The paper also examines how supply chains differ across illegal wildlife markets. Ivory trafficking is typically concentrated among a relatively small number of actors, reflecting the difficulty of sourcing and transporting durable goods. In contrast, pangolin scale markets involve many individual hunters supplying a smaller number of buyers, which limits bargaining power at the source. Markets for products such as succulents are more decentralized, with numerous small-scale participants and growing use of online platforms.
“There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to combating illegal wildlife markets because the supply chains are different and the incentives to supply and consume the products vary across communities and over time,” Midgette said. “There are some commonalities though, and understanding what characteristics these markets share and how they differ can help us better tailor our strategies.”
Rather than relying primarily on trade bans and enforcement, the researchers propose tailoring the interventions to the characteristics of individual markets.