WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today for failing to finalize federal protections for blue tree monitor lizards. The protections would ban importing and selling the lizards, who are gravely threatened by the pet trade in the United States.

“It’s gut-wrenching that federal officials have already recognized the immense danger these lizards are in but are now leaving them in limbo,” said Dianne DuBois, a staff scientist at the Center. “While blue tree monitor lizards await protections, poachers keep collecting and importing them from the wild to put them in cages. Unless we get a ban on trade very soon, we risk losing this species forever.”

The blue tree monitor is highly coveted by pet traders for its unique hue. In the wild, the lizards only exist on a single island in Indonesia. The lizard’s population has been devastated by collection for the pet trade and habitat loss.

Today’s lawsuit follows a 2022 petition to list the species under the Endangered Species Act. In response, the Service took the rare step of emergency-listing blue tree monitors in 2024 as endangered, giving them temporary protection. The Service found the lizards are “immediately susceptible to extinction” and that the pet trade “may soon lead to the extirpation of the species.” But the Trump administration let those protections expire in 2025.

The biggest driver of the blue tree monitor trade is the exotic pet market in the United States, and annual imports of the species to the United States have been increasing for several years. Many imports to the United States are illegal, as Indonesia has already banned exports of wild-caught specimens.

“U.S. consumers can be a powerful and sometimes destructive force,” said DuBois. “As the biggest market for blue tree monitors globally, the United States has an obligation to stop exploiting this species before it causes an extinction halfway around the world.”

The International Union for Conservation of Nature assessed the blue tree monitor lizard as endangered in 2017, finding that the animals face a very high risk of extinction in the wild. The species is now considered rare in places where it was once commonly sighted, and the animals have likely been wiped out from at least one part of their range.

More than 1,800 of the world’s reptile species are threatened with extinction, including from the pet trade. The U.S. exotic pet trade is among the largest in the world, involving hundreds of millions of animals each year. A 2025 Center report found that the United States imported more than 5.3 million reptiles for the pet trade from 2016 to 2024, and close to 40% were sourced directly from wild populations.

More than 600 foreign species are listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The act protects foreign endangered species by banning their import and sale, increasing awareness, and providing financial assistance.

The second Trump administration has not protected any species, foreign or domestic, under the Endangered Species Act since taking office.