Establish an US Interagency Wildlife Trade Data System to meet scientific and policy goals

Although widely regarded as the go-to for comprehensive wildlife trade data (Eskew et al., 2020; Watters et al., 2022), short comings of the US Fish & Wildlife (USFWS) Law Enforcement Management Information System (LEMIS) have been noted for decades (GAO, 1994; Reaser & Waugh, 2007). Most recently, Weissgold (2024) recommended measures to improve LEMIS quality controls necessary for accurate scientific interpretation and policy application. The temptation to improve LEMIS for such aims is laudable yet inconsistent with its intended function. LEMIS is a law enforcement information system managed by law enforcement staff. It was never envisioned as a platform for advancing scientific goals and it is unlikely to be reprogrammed for such purpose due to limitations of authority and administration. There is substantial need to improve LEMIS data quality to better its regulatory function. Consequently, this can improve scientific application potential, but substantial analytical limits will remain.

LEMIS data are a subset of the multiagency data relative to US wildlife importation. Consistent with the whole of government, science-based approach promulgated by the Executive Office of the President (e.g., The White House, 2024), the United States urgently needs to establish an Interagency Wildlife Trade Data System (IWTDS) to meet priority scientific and policy goals across the environmental, food security, and human health sectors. Calls for such a system have been made by the government accounting officers (GAO, 2010, 2023) and interagency bodies (e.g., Reaser et al., 2020) for decades.

Wildlife trade data are a fundamental resource for preventing species endangerment as well as mitigating invasive species and zoonotic disease risks. Ideally, IWTDS would be administered by a team of information officers with substantial scientific credentials who collectively serve the six federal agencies that have authorities relative to the US trade in live wildlife and/or derivatives: Customs and Border Protection (Department of Homeland Security), USFWS (Department of the Interior), Animal Health and Inspection Service (Department of Agriculture), Centers for Disease Control (Health and Human Services), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Department of Commerce), and the Food and Drug Administration.

In order to facilitate interagency wildlife import data collection, access, management, and analyses, IWTDS policies, standards, formats, and protocols must: (1) enable interoperability of agency-specific trade data platforms; (2) allow for direct access by certified agency personnel; (3) integrate an alert system that informs the agencies when and where a wildlife species under their authority is anticipated to enter the United States; (4) establish a shared directory of terms and codes; (5) harmonize terms, codes, and data formats as feasible; (6) utilize applications that autoenter and autoassess data cells to achieve a high degree of data quality with efficiency; and (7) require an annual data audit, cleaning, and reporting process that leads to system improvements where necessary.

IWTDS could be further enhanced to meet varying agency science and policy needs by (1) supporting the system with software that facilitates and standardizes data analytics and (2) tagging and coding individual species in accordance with regulatory mechanisms and risk assessment rankings. To improve zoonoses risk mitigation, shipment data could be linked to quarantine pathogen test results and an automated interagency alert system for high-concern pathogen detection. A more technically sound LEMIS database would be an integral part of IWTDS.