Research overview: the lion bone trade and CITES

Growing demand for lion bones, partly as a substitute for tiger parts in traditional medicine markets, has raised concern about new pressures on wild lions. This overview surveys research and policy analysis on the trade, including the legal export of bones from captive-bred lions in South Africa and the risk that it stimulates demand and laundering of wild-sourced parts. Studies examine seizure data, trade routes toward Asian markets, and the CITES decisions and quotas that have governed and contested the trade. Researchers debate whether a regulated captive supply relieves or intensifies pressure on wild populations, echoing similar arguments over tiger farming. The overview situates the lion bone trade within broader wildlife-trafficking dynamics, where shifting demand among big cat species can create rapid, hard-to-predict threats requiring coordinated international regulation.