Data collected from a thorough literature search assessing the impact of commercial use (not subsistence consumption) on species abundance. All comparisons are treatment vs control - sites that are under extractive pressure vs those that are not, we did not include presence/absence data or comparisons through time.Search covered all WoS databases, SCOPUS, Google Scholar, eTheses repositories etc. Data extracted and supplemented with species IUCN information, bodymass and georeferenced study site coordinates. The attached README.txt document gives further detail on the columns present in the data. Currently used in a meta-analysis. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01399-y)