Audience research as a cornerstone of demand management interventions for illegal wildlife products: Demarketing sea turtle meat and eggs

Abstract

The unsustainable wildmeat trade has been long recognized as a threat to wildlife. Yet, its impact on marine species has been underresearched. Sea turtles have been historically threatened by unsustainable trade, but there are few studies of consumer profile, motivations, and preferences. We conducted a survey in São Tomé Island, Gulf of Guinea, West Africa, including eight rural communities (n = 1,160) and the capital city of São Tomé (n = 628). We estimated prevalence of consumption, preference and availability of sea turtle meat and eggs. About 25% of rural and 32% of urban respondents had consumed meat in the past year. Around 25% of rural respondents were egg consumers, whereas little consumption was found in urban areas. Social norms were a predictor of consumption of sea turtle meat and eggs in rural communities but not in São Tomé city. Regarding influencers, teachers and religious leaders were the most trusted sources in rural communities, while teachers and NGOs were most trusted in São Tomé city. Radio and television were the most trusted channels in rural communities, while urban dwellers trusted radio the most. This research showcases how a structured approach to audience research can obtain behavioral insights that can guide behavior change efforts.

Challenges in the impact evaluation of behaviour change interventions: The case of sea turtle meat and eggs in São Tomé

“…All the villages were surveyed prior to the start of the intervention between May and October 2016, and then again 2 years later between May and August 2018. Full details on the development of the survey instrument can be found in Veríssimo et al (2020).…”

“…The dominant approach to combating the illegal wildlife trade has been to restrict the supply of wildlife products, through interventions such as trade bans and anti-poaching measures (Phelps et al, 2014). However, there is now an increasing focus on demand-side interventions, with the aim of reducing the market value of illegal wildlife products by influencing consumers to voluntarily change their purchasing behaviour (Thomas-Walters, Veríssimo, et al, 2020;Veríssimo & Wan, 2018). One biological group in which unsustainable commercial trade has been a particular problem is sea turtles (Donlan et al, 2010;Frazier, 2003).…”

“…Consumer research shows a large-scale demand for sea turtle meat in both rural and urban communities, and a high demand for sea turtle eggs in rural communities. Sea turtle meat is seen as a delicacy by many residents, and is easily accessible (Veríssimo et al, 2020).…”

Co‐designing behavior change interventions to conserve biodiversity

“…Co-design provides practical indepth qualitative audience insights into individuals' unique knowledge and needs, more oriented towards the design of solutions than classical social science methods (e.g., questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups; Edvardsson, Meiren, Schäfer, & Witell, 2013, Trischler & Charles, 2019. These classical methods tend to be more descriptive of the target audience, both in demographic and psychographic terms, and in the context around which the target behavior takes place (Veríssimo et al, 2020). Furthermore, these methods do not allow for cocreation and are often used as the basis upon which experts determine what intervention to implement (Trischler, Dietrich, & Rundle-Thiele, 2019).…”

Illegal wildlife trade networks: finding creative opportunities for conservation intervention in challenging circumstances

“…Approaches from conservation psychology, such as the Theory of Planned Behavior, could be used to test hypotheses about behavioral factors (e.g. attitudes, social norms, perceived control) driving RS uses (Veríssimo et al , 2020). For example, wild RS use may be driven by ignorance of benign alternatives, such as captive‐bred birds (the ‘ignorance’ hypothesis), or by an insufficient supply of captive‐bred substitutes to meet demand (the ‘availability’ hypothesis).…”