On 12 March 2025, 128 hornbill heads were seized by the Customs Service in Cross River State, Nigeria, underscoring growing concerns about trade as an underestimated threat to Africa’s hornbills. The confiscation involved black-casqued hornbills Ceratogymna atrata and white-thighed hornbills Bycanistes albotibialis, both currently categorized as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, and may be indicative of a large illegal trade in these species. The black-casqued hornbill is under consideration for categorization as Near Threatened, primarily because of increased exploitation for trade. However, reliable population estimates and data on population trends are lacking, and conservationists fear the situation could be worse than currently assumed.

It was previously believed that hornbill trade in Africa was mainly driven by local demand, but recent large-scale seizures bound for Europe and the USA indicate increasing and broad international consumer interest. There is also growing evidence that most African hornbill heads in Cameroon are bought by Chinese traders. Whether these products are destined for the Chinese market or resold elsewhere remains unclear. A brief search on a large trading website in China did not yield evidence of hornbill parts being traded there but more research is needed to better understand global trade chains.

Hornbill parts, especially heads, are sold as curiosities, decorations and for use in fetish practices. Many Western buyers are unaware of, or misled about, the illegal harvest of these products from the wild. Although some traders claim their specimens died in captivity or private collections, recorded trade volumes far exceed what these captive sources or local wild populations could viably supply, indicating unsustainable harvesting from the wild.

The Hornbills in Trade Database (hitdb.org), established in November 2023, highlights West Africa as a trade hot spot, with three overlapping African species heavily represented, although actual trade volumes are presumed to exceed these conservatively recorded numbers collected over 6 months. The black-casqued hornbill is the species most represented in the database, with 311 recorded individuals, followed by the white-thighed hornbill with 228 and the Vulnerable yellow-casqued hornbill Ceratogymna elata with 41.

The trade of none of these species is regulated by CITES. We strongly recommend listing these species in CITES Appendix II, to facilitate the monitoring and regulation of trade. To protect these remarkable birds from further decline, more targeted research and enforcement are needed to unravel global trade routes and understand population trends.