OFI is excited to hear the news from Brussels this week, as the European Parliament Agricommittee has rejected calls for a Positive list! OFI strongly opposes the introduction of an EU-wide Positive List restricting which animal species could be legally kept or traded as pets and in aquariums. While we share the European Union’s goals of improving animal welfare, supporting biosecurity, and ensuring sustainability, we believe that a Positive List approach is not the appropriate policy tool to achieve these aims. Instead, we advocate for smarter, science-based regulation, better enforcement of existing laws, and collaborative efforts to address risks without undermining livelihoods, biodiversity, or responsible pet ownership.
The European Pet Organisation (EPO) has led the way in representing the industry at the European Parliament and OFI is proud to have been a part of this work.
Our key concerns with the Positive List approach include:
1. Disproportionate Impact on the Aquarium Sector: The global ornamental aquatic trade is among the most biodiverse and widely enjoyed sectors in the pet industry. With over 2,000 species of fish, invertebrates, and aquatic plants regularly kept in home aquaria, a Positive List would likely eliminate the vast majority of these species from the legal trade—not because they pose a demonstrated risk, but because they lack individual assessments. This is unjustified, economically damaging, and biologically reductive.
2. Negative Consequences for Conservation and Livelihoods: Banning species without robust, case-by-case scientific assessment will harm communities that depend on the sustainable collection and farming of aquarium species. As highlighted by Project Piaba and other initiatives, responsible trade creates incentives to preserve ecosystems and provides alternative income to rural and Indigenous communities in biodiverse regions. Positive Lists ignore these proven models and risk pushing communities toward extractive and damaging industries.
3. Existing Regulatory Tools Are Sufficient: Current EU laws already regulate the pet trade effectively through EU Animal Health Law, Invasive Alien Species Regulations and EU Wildlife Trade Regulations (based on CITES). These frameworks—based on a “negative list” approach—allow authorities to prohibit problematic species based on science and risk. The problem is not a lack of legislation, but inconsistent enforcement and a lack of education.
4. Legal and Trade Barriers: Legal analysis commissioned by EPO and ZZF concluded that a Positive List would likely violate both EU law (free movement of goods) and international trade law under WTO obligations. Attempts to implement such lists at the national level have already faced legal challenges. An EU-wide version would be expensive, controversial, and potentially unenforceable.
Rather than adopting a Positive List, we continue to promote to institutions in the EU and around the world to:
- Focus on enforcement of existing regulations for invasive species, welfare, biosecurity etc
- Invest in public education campaigns on responsible pet ownership
- Improve traceability and data collection within the trade
- Encourage scientific risk assessment of species of concern
- Engage the pet trade sector as partners in regulation, not opponents
- Recognise and protect the economic and conservation value of sustainable pet and aquarium trade
OFI supports a balanced, approach to pet and aquarium keeping and trade that takes into account animal welfare, public health, biodiversity protection, and human well-being. The Positive List model may appear neat on paper, but in practice it introduces greater risk, displaces trade into underground markets, and weakens incentives for conservation.
Let’s move forward together with smarter regulation—not blanket bans.
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