Understanding Urban Demand for Wild Meat in Vietnam: Implications for Conservation Actions

Vietnam 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

Corrigendum: Three spatially separate records confirm the presence of and provide a range extension for the giant pangolin Smutsia gigantea in Kenya (Oryx (2022) DOI: 10.1017/S0030605322000126)

In the original publication of this article, the list of authors was incomplete, with only the following authors listed: Tommy Sandri, Claire Okell, Stuart Nixon, Naomi Matthews, Fred Omengo, James Mathenge, Stephen Ndambuki, Daniel W.S. Challender and Bradley Cain. The correct author list is: Tommy Sandri, Claire Okell, Stuart Nixon, Naomi Matthews, Fred Omengo, James Mathenge, Stephen Ndambuki, Daniel W.S. Challender, Richard Chepkwony, Patrick Omondi, Shadrack Ngene and Bradley Cain The article has been updated to include the correct author details and add the ORCID iD of Shadrack Ngene

African elephant poaching rates correlate with local poverty, national corruption and global ivory price

Poaching is contributing to rapid declines in elephant populations across Africa. Following high-profile changes in the political environment, the overall number of illegally killed elephants in Africa seems to be falling, but to evaluate potential conservation interventions we must understand the processes driving poaching rates at local and global scales. Here we show that annual poaching rates in 53 sites strongly correlate with proxies of ivory demand in the main Chinese markets, whereas between-country and between-site variation is strongly associated with indicators of corruption and poverty. Our analysis reveals a recent decline in annual poaching mortality rate from an estimated peak of over 10% in 2011 to <4% in 2017. Based on these findings, we suggest that continued investment in law enforcement could further reduce poaching, but is unlikely to succeed without action that simultaneously reduces ivory demand and tackles corruption and poverty

Evaluation of the application of methods used to detect and monitor selected mammalian taxa to pangolin monitoring

Standardised methods to monitor populations of many species are lacking but are important for detecting presence, changes in populations and species status, and for conservation management. Pangolins (Family: Manidae), are one such group of mammals that are native to Africa and Asia. Here, we conduct a systematic review of methods used to detect and monitor populations of species ecologically similar to pangolins to inform the development of pangolin monitoring methods. The primary question of this review is: how effective have methods been at detecting and monitoring populations of species ecologically similar to pangolins? We also investigated their applicability to each species of pangolin, considering the lessons learnt from the identified studies. Of the 379 articles identified by Web of Science, 159 were included, and supplemented with 87 studies from Google Scholar searches. In total, across all studies and 24 taxonomic groups, 28 different survey methods were used to detect and/or monitor the selected taxa. Based on this review, several methods have potential application to the different pangolin species. Camera-trapping may be useful for monitoring all species of pangolin, including the arboreal species. Burrow counts could be used to monitor fossorial pangolins, but there are several challenges to using this method including correct identification of burrows and identifying the ways in which pangolins use burrows/dens

Helping to save pangolins from extinction

Pangolins, widely distributed in Asia and Africa, have been described as the most heavily trafficked wild mammals globally. Following the emergence of COVID-19, researchers suggested that the Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) may have been the intermediary host of SARS-CoV-2 in a transmission chain from bats to people. Although subsequent studies have shown that this is unlikely, the impact of this association on pangolins is unknown. In this article, we reflect on the potential impacts of this association in the context of critical knowledge gaps that need to be filled to inform pangolin conservation and mitigate the threats the species. face

Evaluation of the application of methods used to detect and monitor selected mammalian taxa to pangolin monitoring

Standardised methods to monitor populations of many species are lacking but are important for detecting presence, changes in populations and species status, and for conservation management. Pangolins (Family: Manidae), are one such group of mammals that are native to Africa and Asia. Here, we conduct a systematic review of methods used to detect and monitor populations of species ecologically similar to pangolins to inform the development of pangolin monitoring methods. The primary question of this review is: how effective have methods been at detecting and monitoring populations of species ecologically similar to pangolins? We also investigated their applicability to each species of pangolin, considering the lessons learnt from the identified studies. Of the 379 articles identified by Web of Science, 159 were included, and supplemented with 87 studies from Google Scholar searches. In total, across all studies and 24 taxonomic groups, 28 different survey methods were used to detect and/or monitor the selected taxa. Based on this review, several methods have potential application to the different pangolin species. Camera-trapping may be useful for monitoring all species of pangolin, including the arboreal species. Burrow counts could be used to monitor fossorial pangolins, but there are several challenges to using this method including correct identification of burrows and identifying the ways in which pangolins use burrows/dens

Characterising trafficking and trade of pangolins in the Gulf of Guinea

Humans and pangolins have a long and intertwined history in Africa and Asia, with the species having been used for subsistence, livelihood, medicinal, and cultural purposes. Populations of Asian pangolins have severely declined, and intercontinental trafficking of African pangolin scales to Asia has emerged in the last decade. Coastal countries in the Gulf of Guinea have been highlighted as hotspots of illegal pangolin trade, and in 2017, international commercial trade in pangolins was banned. We characterise the trade and international trafficking of African pangolins in the coastal countries around the Gulf of Guinea using data across three tiers. First, we investigated which countries were most heavily involved in international trafficking using seizure data. Second, we investigated where domestic seizures of pangolins took place, and whether they were seized with other species. Finally, we tracked the open sale of pangolins across 20-years at the main wild meat market in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, to investigate patterns of pangolin sales in a capital city. We found a total of 55893 kg of pangolin scales in 33 seizures between 2012 and 2018, with Cameroon and Nigeria being the most common export countries for international trafficking of pangolin scales. Cameroon had the largest number of domestic seizures (45); we also observed a shift from seizures of meat to scales from 2013 onwards. At the Malabo market a total of 11207 Phataginus pangolins and 366 Smutsia pangolins were sold between 1997 and 2017, and the number and price of pangolins increased over time for both genera and corresponded to a shift in the import of pangolins from Cameroon. Together, these results highlight the scale of trade and trafficking in pangolins within and from this region

Response: Commentary: Think before your act: Improving the conservation outcomes of CITES listing decisions

DC acknowledges support from The Oxford Martin Programme on Wildlife Trade.Peer-reviewe

Characterising trafficking and trade of pangolins in the Gulf of Guinea

Humans and pangolins have a long and intertwined history in Africa and Asia, with the species having been used for subsistence, livelihood, medicinal, and cultural purposes. Populations of Asian pangolins have severely declined, and intercontinental trafficking of African pangolin scales to Asia has emerged in the last decade. Coastal countries in the Gulf of Guinea have been highlighted as hotspots of illegal pangolin trade, and in 2017, international commercial trade in pangolins was banned. We characterise the trade and international trafficking of African pangolins in the coastal countries around the Gulf of Guinea using data across three tiers. First, we investigated which countries were most heavily involved in international trafficking using seizure data. Second, we investigated where domestic seizures of pangolins took place, and whether they were seized with other species. Finally, we tracked the open sale of pangolins across 20-years at the main wild meat market in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, to investigate patterns of pangolin sales in a capital city. We found a total of 55893 kg of pangolin scales in 33 seizures between 2012 and 2018, with Cameroon and Nigeria being the most common export countries for international trafficking of pangolin scales. Cameroon had the largest number of domestic seizures (45); we also observed a shift from seizures of meat to scales from 2013 onwards. At the Malabo market a total of 11207 Phataginus pangolins and 366 Smutsia pangolins were sold between 1997 and 2017, and the number and price of pangolins increased over time for both genera and corresponded to a shift in the import of pangolins from Cameroon. Together, these results highlight the scale of trade and trafficking in pangolins within and from this region

Think before you act: Improving the conservation outcomes of CITES listing decisions

The CITES treaty is the major international instrument designed to safeguard wild plants and animals from overexploitation by international trade. CITES is now approaching 50 years old, and we contend that it is showing its age. In stark contrast to most environmental policy arenas, CITES does not require, encourage, or even allow for, consideration of the impacts of its key decisions—those around listing species in the CITES Appendices. Decisions to list species in CITES are based on a simplistic set of biological and trade criteria that do not relate to the impact of the decision, and have little systematic evidentiary support. We explain the conservation failures that flow from this weakness and propose three key changes to the CITES listing process: (1) development of a formal mechanism for consideration by Parties of the likely consequences of species listing decisions; (2) broadening of the range of criteria used to make listing decisions; and (3) amplification of the input of local communities living alongside wildlife in the listing process. Embracing these changes will help to ensure CITES decisions more effectively respond to the needs of wildlife in today’s highly complex and dynamic conservation context