83 research outputs found
Poaching is more than an enforcement problem
No full textToday record levels of funding are being invested in enforcement and anti-poaching measures to tackle the “war on poaching,” but many species are on the path to extinction. In our view, intensifying enforcement effort is crucial, but will ultimately prove an inadequate long-term strategy with which to conserve high-value species. This is because: regulatory approaches are being overwhelmed by the drivers of poaching and trade, financial incentives for poaching are increasing due to rising prices and growing relative poverty between areas of supply and centres of demand, and aggressive enforcement of trade controls, in particular bans, can increase profits and lead to the involvement of organised criminals with the capacity to operate even under increased enforcement effort. With prices for high-value wildlife rising, we argue that interventions need to go beyond regulation and that new and bold strategies are needed urgently. In the immediate future, we should incentivise and build capacity within local communities to conserve wildlife. In the medium term, we should drive prices down by reexamining sustainable off-take mechanisms such as regulated trade, ranching and wildlife farming, using economic levers such as taxation to fund conservation efforts, and in the long-term reduce demand through social marketing programs
10233: Ian Challender
No full textIan Challender is the friend of Ian St Anderson's second wife's late husband.
Not much is known about him. A book of Notes of Military Mining was copied from the original loaned by the Army Historical section. Ian Challender was given it by the author/compiler.</p
Accurate characterization of wildlife trade and policy instruments: reply to D'Cruze et al. (2022) and Frank and Wilcove (2022)
No full textD'Cruze et al. (2022) and Frank and Wilcove (2022) suggest that Challender et al. (2021) misrepresent their research. We reiterate that our intention was not to denigrate any particular study; instead, we aimed to draw attention to contemporary issues in wildlife trade research and highlight ways for research to better inform policy processes. Here, we respond to the points raised in these articles
Understanding Urban Demand for Wild Meat in Vietnam: Implications for Conservation Actions
No full textVietnam is a significant consumer of wildlife, particularly wild meat, in urban restaurant settings. To meet this demand, poaching of wildlife is widespread, threatening regional and international biodiversity. Previous interventions to tackle illegal and potentially unsustainable consumption of wild meat in Vietnam have generally focused on limiting supply. While critical, they have been impeded by a lack of resources, the presence of increasingly organised criminal networks and corruption. Attention is, therefore, turning to the consumer, but a paucity of research investigating consumer demand for wild meat will impede the creation of effective consumer-centred interventions. Here we used a mixed-methods research approach comprising a hypothetical choice modelling survey and qualitative interviews to explore the drivers of wild meat consumption and consumer preferences among residents of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Our findings indicate that demand for wild meat is heterogeneous and highly context specific. Wild-sourced, rare, and expensive wild meat-types are eaten by those situated towards the top of the societal hierarchy to convey wealth and status and are commonly consumed in lucrative business contexts. Cheaper, legal and farmed substitutes for wild-sourced meats are also consumed, but typically in more casual consumption or social drinking settings. We explore the implications of our results for current conservation interventions in Vietnam that attempt to tackle illegal and potentially unsustainable trade in and consumption of wild meat and detail how our research informs future consumer-centric conservation actions
Towards informed and multi-faceted wildlife trade interventions
No full textInternational trade in wildlife is a key threat to biodiversity conservation. CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, seeks to ensure international wildlife trade is sustainable, relying on trade bans and controls. However, there has been little comprehensive review of its effectiveness and here we review approaches taken to regulate wildlife trade in CITES. Although assessing its effectiveness is problematic, we assert that CITES boasts few measurable conservation successes. We attribute this to: non-compliance, an over reliance on regulation, lack of knowledge and monitoring of listed species, ignorance of market forces, and influence among CITES actors. To more effectively manage trade we argue that interventions should go beyond regulation and should be multi-faceted, reflecting the complexity of wildlife trade. To inform these interventions we assert an intensive research effort is needed around six key areas: (1) factors undermining wildlife trade governance at the national level, (2) determining sustainable harvest rates for, and adaptive management of CITES species, (3) gaining the buy-in of local communities in implementing CITES, (4) supply and demand based market interventions,(5) means of quantifying illicit trade, and (6) political processes and influence within CITES
Reforming international wildlife trade interventions in CITES
No full textInternational trade in wildlife is a major threat to biodiversity conservation. CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which entered into force in 1975, is the primary mechanism for maintaining sustainability in international wildlife trade. However, CITES boasts few conservation successes and its regulatory approach is proving ineffective in many cases. In this thesis I recommend reforms to international wildlife trade interventions both within and beyond CITES, which would enable the Convention to more effectively govern trade and lead to the improved conservation status of trade-threatened species. In chapter two, I review typical and atypical interventions in CITES and critically evaluate the effectiveness of the Convention. I argue that trade measures need to go beyond regulation and should be multi-faceted, reflecting the socio-economic, cultural and economic complexity of wildlife trade and I outline key areas of research to inform these interventions. In chapter three I focus on high-value wildlife and argue that a regulatory response to poaching for international trade is an inadequate long-term conservation strategy and interventions should involve incentivizing local communities to conserve wildlife, the re-examination of sustainable off-take mechanisms, including regulated trade, ranching, and wildlife farming, and demand management measures. In chapter four, I critically evaluate CITES from an economic perspective through a case study on the trade in pangolins (Pholidota: Manidae) in Asia. I assert that to more effectively manage trade CITES should seek to understand markets and the impact of trade controls and address demand for wildlife as well as supply. In chapter five, I investigate the influence of non-state actors on decisions to amend the CITES Appendices. I find that they are successful in influencing decision-making, but they also claim unwarranted campaign victories and seek to abuse CITES, and Parties should exercise caution when interpreting non-state actor policy advice. In chapter six I discuss the contribution this thesis makes to conservation science and implications for governing wildlife trade before drawing final conclusions
Achieving sustainability and environmental enhancements through a “collaboration toolkit” to deliver new sustainability strategies for The Emirate of Ajman − UAE
No full textGovernments are faced with ever challenging dilemmas to find practical sustainable solutions and proposals for some scientific and problems around adopting clean sustainable energy whilst reducing waste. This is certainly an issue for Ajman which has been heavily dependent on fossil fuels for energy and had a detrimental and adverse effect on its environmental sustainability credentials in the past. This paper focuses on the use of a “collaboration toolkit” has been developed by the author and which is currently being piloted in the UK on a live project. The sole purpose of the toolkit is to deliver improved environmental sustainability solutions on construction and engineering projects. The toolkit will provide a holistic and joined up approach across the supply chain to meet the demands of the carbon neutral agenda. This will entail reducing embodied carbon in buildings, collaboration with energy partners to assess ways and means of reducing gas, electricity and water consumption and reviewing appropriate renewable technologies. It is hoped that the toolkit can prove beneficial for Ajman in overseeing a new environmental sustainability strategy for its construction and engineering projects and therein contributing to overall social, environmental and economic impacts
Exploring the role and effectiveness of celebrities in illegal wildlife product demand reduction campaigns
No full textCelebrity endorsement has become a common tool in environmental conservation to communicate messages, promote sustainable lifestyles and influence behaviour. However, the evidence supporting the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement in achieving conservation objectives remains limited. The use of celebrities has become particularly popular in efforts to influence consumption of illegally traded wildlife in East and Southeast Asia, with numerous celebrity campaigns being implemented in China, Vietnam, Thailand, among other countries in the last decade. Illegal wildlife trade threatens many species worldwide. China and Vietnam have been identified as prominent end-markets where vast quantities of high-profile wildlife products are destined for use and consumption. One group of species threatened by illegal trade and consumption in this region is pangolins. Trade data suggests declines in two of the species native to East and Southeast Asia, the Sunda (Manis javanica) and Chinese pangolins (M. pentadactyla) has resulted from the advent of illegal trade in pangolins in East and Southeast Asia. In this thesis, I aim to explore the use of celebrities as messengers for demand reduction interventions in the illegal wildlife trade space, focusing on a case study to reduce consumption of wild meat, inclusive of pangolin meat, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The first half of my thesis creates a knowledge base on the use of celebrities in conservation campaigns, identifying research gaps in the use of celebrity endorsement in the field, and builds evidence and understanding on consumption of pangolin meat and wild meat in my study site. I find that the use of celebrities in this field has been poorly evidenced and there is currently no proof that celebrity endorsement is effective in achieving conservation objectives. My results indicate there is active pangolin consumption in Ho Chi Minh City and suggest that the prevalence of this consumption is likely higher than previously reported. I report a prevalence for pangolin meat consumption at 7.1%, at 10.1% for scales and 6.5% for pangolin wine – all from a representative sample of the city. Additionally, I find more heterogeneity among consumers of wild meat in the city than what has been described in existing studies, specifically in regards to income, age, education and profession. In the second half, I explore the application of celebrity endorsement to influence behaviour in my case study, combining behavioural and celebrity influence models and theory. I find that an evidence-based selected celebrity could have the potential to influence the behaviour of consumers of wild meat in the city. In addition, I present a decision-making guide for the design of future celebrity-endorsed conservation interventions. Lastly, I test a novel approach on my case study to propose an intervention concept to reduce consumption of wild meat in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This thesis makes analytical, conceptual and empirical contributions to the biodiversity conservation field; in particular to knowledge of the use of celebrities in conservation and remaining gaps, the consumption of pangolin meat and wild meat in Vietnam, and efforts to design celebrity-endorsed interventions to achieve conservation objectives
Evaluating the application of scale frequency to estimate the size of pangolin scale seizures
No full textAll eight species of pangolin are principally threatened by overexploitation, both for international trafficking and local use. Much illegal trade involves scales, but there is an absence of robust conversion parameters for estimating the number of different pangolin species in given seizures. Such parameters are critical in order to accurately characterize pangolin trafficking and understand the magnitude and impact of exploitation on populations. In this study, we calculated the number of scales on 66 museum specimens representing all eight extant pangolin species from the genera Manis, Phataginus, and Smutsia, and developed a method for estimating the number of pangolins in given seizures of scales based on scale frequency. Our statistical analyses found significant variation in scale number in inter-species terms (ranging from 382 for Temminck's ground pangolin to 940 for the Philippine pangolin), and in intra-species terms, with substantial variation in the giant pangolin (509–664 scales) and minimal variation in the Chinese pangolin (527–581 scales). We discuss application of the developed sampling method in a real world context and critically appraise it against existing methods. The knowledge generated in this study should assist in understanding pangolin trafficking dynamics, though there remains a need for accurate conversion parameters for estimating the number of pangolins in illegal trade, especially for the Indian and African species
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