POLICIES & ECONOMICS
Supply chains are increasingly complex, and it is difficult to trace, and understand the social, economic or environmental impacts on countries that export wildlife and crops. How do trade policies in exporting countries interact with those in importing countries? How do consumer choices and the actions of key players interact with policies and institutions across the supply chain?
What will we do?
Through this project we will analyse trade and trade policies. We will explore and explain how relationships, policies, and regulations in exporting and importing countries, combined with consumer preferences, drive sourcing and production decisions. Our findings will help develop partnerships that result in more sustainable and equitable trade.
What questions will we answer?
We will focus on these questions about live animals, wild meat, and selected agricultural products:
- How do international trade policies and agreements interact with domestic policies to influence patterns and volumes of trade?
- Can the countries exporting goods influence the impact of trade on wildlife, people and the environment, and if so, how?
- What is the relative importance of different actors? Financial institutions, the private sector, global trade rules, importer and exporter countries all drive the impact of trade on nature and equity, but how much and in what ways?
- Does more ‘equitable’ trade benefit wildlife, people and the environment? If not, can it?
Our findings, when combined with the rest of the Trade, Development and the Environment Hub’s activities, will allow us to identify levers along supply chains which can influence and improve the impacts of trade.
Below you can see the levers along supply chains that we’ll be investigating. These include both direct and indirect drivers of trade impacts.
