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![]() Ensuring that international trade in animals and plants does not endanger populations in the wild is a major WWF focus. Western Europe is one of the world's largest consumers of wildlife and wildlife products, while Central and Eastern Europe are major exporters. WWF's wildlife trade monitoring arm, TRAFFIC, has a regional office for Europe, as well as national offices in France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Russia. The uncontrolled export of wild snowdrop, cyclamen, aconite, and anemone bulbs from Turkey and Georgia is seriously undermining native stands of these plants. The bulbs are harvested by local villagers and sold to traders, who in turn sell them to bulb exporters, mainly in the Netherlands. Continued funding is required for a project to promote the cultivation of snowdrop bulbs by Turkish villagers. The project, which is being carried out by WWF Turkish associate, DHKD, and by Flora and Fauna International, not only protects wild plants from exploitation, but also helps secure long-term income for local communities. A similar scheme is under development in Georgia. Small-scale harvesting of wildlife for food can be sustainable, but commercial exploitation now threatens a number of species. Nowhere is over-exploitation of wildlife more evident than in our fisheries. In the North-East Atlantic, some populations of cod, haddock, and herring are at an all-time low. WWF is urging a precautionary approach to fisheries management, establishing protected nursery areas for commercial fish species, and the introduction of quotas for non-target species taken as by-catch. Over 90 per cent of the world's caviar comes from sturgeons in the Caspian Sea. Three species of Caspian sturgeon, including the Beluga sturgeon, are considered endangered due to overfishing and illegal trade. WWF is trying to protect remaining populations of sturgeons and their breeding areas, for example in the lower Volga. In the pristine rivers of Russia's Far East, Kamchatcka steelhead salmon are an important economic resource. Elsewhere in the world, wild salmonid fish have been genetically altered after breeding with fish escaped from hatcheries. WWF seeks financing for a project to protect the steelhead, threatened by commercial harvesting and the construction of fish-farms. A Europe where nature is maintained and restored and where resources are used sustainably for the benefit of all life on Earth.
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