Prevalence and characteristics of jaguar trade in north-western Bolivia

Abstract

Recent seizures of jaguar body parts in Bolivia have prompted concern about illegal trade to China, but concrete evidence is lacking. We interviewed 1107 people in a rural area implicated in the trade, using direct and indirect questions to explore the prevalence and characteristics of jaguar trade and its links to foreign demand. Jaguar trade is a common, non-sensitive practice; 46% of respondents reported some involvement over the past 5 years. Up to 31% of respondents owned jaguar body parts, most commonly skins, fat and teeth for decorative, medicinal, and cultural purposes. Contrary to expectations, Bolivians were the most reported traders, and presence of Caucasian traders was significantly and positively associated with jaguar trade, ahead of Asian and regional traders. Overall, jaguar trade in Bolivia has more diverse drivers than seizures may suggest. Therefore, conservation interventions, in addition to targeting Chinese demand, should address foreign and domestic trade chains.

Complex interactions between commercial and noncommercial drivers of illegal trade for a threatened felid

“…Although we considered all households, sampled sites (villages) and study areas as a single population, our statistical analyses reflect the nested structure of our observations through random effects. We discuss differences between study areas in Arias et al, (2020).…”

“…We asked these sensitive questions directly and using the Ballot Box Method (BBM, Arias et al., 2020a), with the goal of reducing social desirability bias in participants' responses (Appendix ). An analysis of the performance of the BBM can be found in Arias et al., (2020) and Appendix . To capture the intentions of those who had not directly engaged in these behaviours, we asked participants what they would do in a hypothetical scenario of encountering a jaguar.…”

“…Version 12 Pro, 2018). We first identified all possible combinations of jaguar killing, trading and consuming behaviours ( n = 64) and then developed a typology of actors by grouping these combinations (Table 1), based on the characteristics of illegal jaguar traders described in Arias, Hinsley, and Milner‐Gulland, (2020b).…”

Implementing the Ballot Box Method to reduce social desirability bias when researching sensitive behaviours in conservation

“…In order to uncover the prevalence and characteristics of this illegal behaviour, Arias et al, (2020) interviewed 1107 people in a rural area implicated in jaguar trade in north-western Bolivia, using direct questioning alongside and the Ballot Box Method (BBM). The researchers chose the BBM after conducting a pilot study on a sample of 100 people in a similar area, including other sensitive questioning techniques such as the Randomized Response Technique, Crosswise Technique, Unmatched Count Technique and Nominative Technique (Nuno & St. John, 2015).…”

“…The BBM has also been used in the field of environmental economics to test the appropriateness of contingent valuation surveys (Carson et al, 2005) and to determine people's willingness to pay for natural resources or ecosystem services in the US (Leggett et al, 2003) and the Philippines (Francisco, 2015). To the best of our knowledge, the BBM has only recently made its way into the field of wildlife conservation, through studies on bushmeat hunting in the Serengeti (Nuno, 2013), rule noncompliance among anglers in South Africa's marine-based shore fishery (Bova et al, 2018), and illegal jaguar trade in Bolivia (Arias et al, 2020). Although the BBM is at its early stages of implementation in conservation, and there have not yet been any studies validating its effectiveness against known behaviours (in conservation or in other fields, as far as we know), it is part of a growing toolbox that promises to enhance our understanding of human behaviours towards wildlife (Cerri et al, 2020).…”