A Cultural Conscience for Conservation

Abstract

Simple SummaryThis opinion piece explores how implementing a species royalty for the use of animal symbolism in affluent cultural economies could revolutionise conservation funding. A revenue revolution of this scale is urgently necessary to confront the sixth mass extinction that the planet is now facing. But such a revolution can only occur if the approach to conservation now evolves quickly across disciplines, continents, cultures and economies. This piece is a call to action for research-, culture-, and business-communities to implement a new ethical phase in economic policy that recognises the global cultural debt to the world’s most charismatic wildlife species.AbstractOn 2 July 2015, the killing of a lion nicknamed “Cecil” prompted the largest global reaction in the history of wildlife conservation. In response to this, it is propitious to consider the ways in which this moment can be developed into a financial movement to transform the conservation of species such as the lion that hold cultural significance and sentiment but whose numbers in the wild are dwindling dangerously. This provocative piece explores how a species royalty could be used effectively by drawing revenue from the heavy symbolic use of charismatic animals in affluent economies. This would, in turn, reduce strain on limited government funds in threatened animals’ native homelands. Three potential areas of lucrative animal symbolism—fashion, sports mascots, and national animals—provide examples of the kind of revenue that could be created from a species royalty. These examples also demonstrate how this royalty could prove to be a desirable means by which both corporations and consumers could positively develop their desired selves while simultaneously contributing to a relevant and urgent cause. These examples intend to ignite a multi-disciplinary conversation on the global cultural economy’s use of endangered species symbols. An overhaul in perspective and practice is needed because time is running out for much of the wildlife and their ecosystems that embellish products and embody anthropocentric business identities.

Iran’s roads: mitigating the most serious threat to the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah Acinonyx jubatus venaticus

“…Public-private partnerships can also be a key to supporting such projects, such as the current campaign to construct a wildlife crossing to protect cougars in the Santa Monica mountains in Los Angeles, USA (Popescu 2017). Such schemes in Iran could also potentially benefit from innovative funding models that have recently been gaining interest, such as the species royalty system or World Heritage Species concept (Wrangham et al 2008; Good et al 2017).…”

Erratum: Caroline Good; et al.; A Cultural Conscience for Conservation. Animals 2017, 7, 52

“…The authors wish to make the following change to their paper [ 1 ]. The percentage numbers reflected the quantity in the original version.…”

Population estimates of large carnivores and their conflict with humans in East Africa and India

“…Conservation funding shortfalls are pushing scientists and conservation donors into searching for innovative funding mechanisms. Good et al (2017) and Courchamp et al (2018) present an example of the latter. They propose that corporations using the imagery of threatened wildlife in their marketing should contribute towards the conservation of those species.…”

“…They propose that corporations using the imagery of threatened wildlife in their marketing should contribute towards the conservation of those species. Good et al (2017) suggested that a wildlife imagery royalty would herald a revolution in conservation funding. This idea is not unlike the one proposed by Jepson et al (2011), who called on the film and media industry to contribute financially to the conservation of the species they film.…”

“…Chapter 6 of this thesis built upon the sub-theme of Chapter 5, funding of carnivore conservation measures and created a roadmap for a recently proposed idea of a threatened wildlife imagery royalty to stem the large budgetary shortfalls facing large carnivore conservation. The idea of a threatened species imagery royalty was proposed in two recent papers, Good et al (2017) and Courchamp et al (2018). I built upon these and discussed how such a royalty could be implemented, explored several legal avenues for its application, and also showed its potential scale in leveraging funding.…”