Understanding Global Wildlife Trade: The Role of Geopolitics and Historical Change

Wildlife trade is one of the most influential, yet often overlooked, drivers of global biodiversity change, biological invasions, and the spread of zoonotic diseases. In this seminar, Understanding Global Wildlife Trade: The Role of Geopolitics and Historical Change, Luís Reino explores how historical processes, geopolitical shifts, cultural ties, and regulatory decisions have shaped international wildlife commerce across time and across the globe. Drawing on global avian trade data and emblematic case studies, including the EU wild bird import ban, the seminar examines how major geopolitical events and legislation can rapidly restructure trade networks, redirect wildlife trade routes, alter invasion risks, and influence biodiversity conservation at global scales. The seminar also places wildlife trade within a broader historical and cultural context, highlighting how human relationships with wildlife can shape trade dynamics, conservation outcomes, and the introduction of non-native species into new environments. By integrating perspectives from ecology, history, and geopolitics, this seminar provides new insights into the complex forces shaping wildlife trade and its consequences for biodiversity in an increasingly interconnected world.

Luís Reino is a researcher at BIOPOLIS/CIBIO and the University of Porto, where he leads the GlobalECO research group. His research focuses on biological invasions, wildlife trade, biogeography, and biodiversity responses to global environmental change. He has coordinated several research projects. His recent work examines how geopolitical and socioeconomic processes shape biodiversity patterns, species redistributions, and global wildlife trade.