Understanding why consumers in China switch between wild, farmed, and synthetic bear bile products

Self Cite

Section: Methods and Co‐design Processsupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Reflectingsupporting

confidence: 71%

Applying a co‐design approach with key stakeholders to design interventions to reduce illegal wildlife consumption

Liang

Zhou

et al. 2023

Self Cite

“…Hinsley and Sas-Rolfes (2020) argue that methodological limitations of consumer studies oversimplify consumer behaviour and fail to incorporate the diverse array of factors that influence realworld consumer decisions. Consumers readily switch between wild-caught, captive-bred and synthetic bear bile products depending on the price, production method, perceived effectiveness, safety and legality of the product (Hinsley et al, 2022), with consumer elasticity also being observed regarding the consumption of wild-caught and farmed turtle meat (Nuno et al, 2018).…”

Section: Consumer Attitudesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildlife farming: Balancing economic and conservation interests in the face of illegal wildlife trade

Meeks,

Morton,

Edwards

2024

Demand for wildlife and their products continues to grow, often despite increasingly militarised regulation and consumer awareness campaigns. We review the sustainability, legality and feasibility of wildlife farming of animals, as a potential conservation tool to ensure the development of an equitable and sustainable trade model. While there are some positive examples of well‐managed wildlife farming in trade, we identify common themes of misuse including the intentional mislabelling of wild‐caught specimens in global trade and the use of wild‐caught individuals to supplement captive stocks. We also highlight the frequent failure to incorporate biological data into management strategies, resulting in the widespread use of species with potentially unfavourable life history traits, which constrain the economic and biological sustainability of wildlife farming programmes. We develop a structured decision framework to aid the examination of when wildlife farming may most benefit or hinder species conservation. Synthesis and applications. Key opportunities include developing species suitability assessments and removing barriers to legitimate participation with wildlife farming among poor, rural communities. In the absence of management strategies that address the issues of species suitability and accessibility, wildlife farming will continue to place significant strain on wild populations while failing to provide conservation value and sustainable economic returns. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

“…The final design included 18 choice sets, which were randomly distributed into three blocks so that each block contained ). We used the priors from this model to conduct the D-efficient Bayesian design combinations but kept the original basic structure (Dang Vu et al, 2022;Hinsley et al, 2022). Illustrations were included in the choice questionnaire to depict attributes and differentiate among their levels to reduce the cognitive burden of the respondents (Appendix S12).…”

Section: Discrete Choice Experiments and Survey Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding indigenous people's traditional Chinese medicinal plants harvesting preferences to guide sustainable management

Zhao,

Fan,

et al. 2023

Self Cite

Surging demand for medicinal plant products may lead to unsustainable harvesting practices, which could put pressure on wild populations. Yet little is known about indigenous harvesters' preferences on key traditional Chinese medicinal plant resources, and how these might affect sustainable use and management. We conducted a discrete choice experiment with over 900 native Tibetan harvesters in the eastern Qinghai–Tibetan plateau in China, under a range of complex alternative livelihood, climate and environmental change, and land tenure and customs scenarios. We used random parameter logit model with broad heterogeneity to estimate local Tibetan harvesters' preferences and their willingness to harvest, and latent class logit model to explore distinct within‐population groupings based on shared preferences, for designing possible interventions. We uncovered three key findings with important management implications for medicinal plants. When given a choice, the local harvesters preferred not to harvest any herbs. However, if they opted to harvest, they preferred to harvest flowers and seeds, as compared to roots, and tended to use wooden tool (over the use of bare hands and iron tool). Notably, the degree of compliance with village rules and customs, and ecological worldview interact with targeted plant parts and potential income from harvest to influence their harvesting preferences. Their choices were sensitive to scenario‐based changes to livelihood options. Finally, our study revealed three distinct harvester groups with substantial heterogeneity. Specifically, two groups consisted of over 60% of the interviewed harvesters who appeared to have a strong preference for sustainable practices, while the remaining group lacks this tendency. Overall, our results shed light on the importance of understanding the drivers of harvesting preferences and the heterogeneity of harvesting practices among indigenous people and their cultural and sustainability leanings, providing crucial insights for future sustainable use and management of wild and economically important medicinal plants in the grasslands of Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau and other regions. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.