Prevalence and characteristics of illegal jaguar trade in north‐western Bolivia

Abstract

Recent seizures of jaguar body parts in Bolivia have prompted concern about illegal trade to China, but a detailed understanding of this emerging trade continues to be lacking. We interviewed 1,107 people in a rural area implicated in the trade, using direct and indirect questions through the Ballot Box Method (BBM) to explore the prevalence and characteristics of the illegal jaguar trade and its links to foreign demand. Jaguar trade is a common, and mostly non‐sensitive practice; 46% of respondents reported some involvement over the past 5 years. The most common behavior was owning jaguar body parts, such as skins, fat and teeth for decorative, medicinal, and cultural purposes. The most mentioned traders were Bolivian, followed by traders of Asian descent. However, regression analysis shows that the presence of traders of European descent was more significantly and positively associated with jaguar trade related behaviors, ahead of Asian descent and regional traders. Overall, jaguar trade in Bolivia has more diverse actors and drivers than seizures may suggest. Therefore, conservation interventions, in addition to targeting demand from Chinese wildlife markets, should address other foreign and domestic markets and trade chains.

International media coverage of the Bolivian jaguar trade

“…These surveys show that negative feelings towards jaguars are prominent among local communities, as they think jaguars are dangerous for cattle and people, leading to jaguar killing because of fear or in retaliation for livestock losses (Boulhosa & Azevedo, 2014;Knox et al, 2019;Porfirio et al, 2016). Among our articles, local trade was far less discussed than the international trade related to China, despite research showed that domestic use and trade posed threats to the jaguars (Arias et al, 2021); of the seven Bolivian hunters or traders mentioned in the reports, none were explicitly stated as trading locally; this could due to international trade being the dominant trade form, or because domestic trade did not receive much media attention. The scale of the local trade, and its link to local people's livestock losses and the international trade are important questions which merit future investigation.…”

“…Jaguar bones are the most likely body part that may have a link with medicinal uses in China; to date, however, there is no official seizure evidence of jaguar bones in Bolivia. A recent survey of people living in the jaguar range in Bolivia found that bones have been traded by local communities, but this was a rare occurrence (Arias et al, 2021). Despite the prevalence of the view that this trade is Chinese related, both the coverage of this trade in the Chinese-language media and the participation of Chinese interviewees across all selected languages were limited.…”

Multi-lingual multi-platform investigations of online trade in jaguar parts

“…drove a surge of research [15,18,20] that has revealed the extent of persistent local and national trade, and that can help jaguar range countries address the full spectrum. The widespread extent of commerce we uncovered emphasizes the need to directly curb all three levels of trade: local, national and international.…”

Post-Mortem Dental Profile as a Powerful Tool in Animal Forensic Investigations—A Review

“…This increase in seizures is linked to the high demand in Chinese markets for body parts of these felines to satisfy the demands of traditional Asian medicine [ 204 , 205 ]. In the particular case of teeth, these are used locally for decorative (e.g., jewellery and key chains), medicinal (e.g., therapeutic treatment for facial paralysis caused by a spell of misfortune; dental fillings), or for cultural purposes (e.g., necklaces used in traditional festivals; amulets to protect against bad luck or evil spirits) [ 206 ]. The application of stable isotope analysis in this context is considered a useful tool in countering wildlife trafficking efforts [ 207 ].…”