Stakeholder preferences for pangolin conservation interventions in south‐east Nigeria

Abstract

The overexploitation of biological resources severely threatens many species, requiring urgent and effective conservation interventions. Such interventions sometimes require governance structures that incorporate pluralist perspectives and collaborative decision‐making, especially in complex, multi‐faceted and multi‐scale issues like the illegal trade in pangolins. We used Q‐methodology to provide evidence to inform interventions for pangolin conservation in south‐east Nigeria. We sampled stakeholder groups associated with pangolin use and protection, including hunters, wild meat traders and Nigeria Customs Service employees, to elicit their opinion and knowledge on the use and perceptions of pangolins and their preferences for interventions to reduce pangolin decline. We found that the local consumption of pangolin meat as food is the primary driver of poaching in the region. This contradicts popular opinions that pangolins are specifically targeted for international trade, revealing an opportunity for site‐level behaviour change interventions. The different stakeholder groups identified awareness‐raising campaigns, law enforcement, community stewardship programs and ecotourism as preferred interventions, whose effectiveness we attempted to assess using reported case studies. We observed different perspectives between people associated with pangolin poaching and use (predominantly those living around pangolin habitats, including hunters and wild meat traders) and those working to protect them (such as conservation organisations and Nigeria Customs Service employees). For example, the first group supported community stewardship programs, while the latter preferred awareness‐raising and law enforcement efforts. This divergence in perspectives underpins the need for a combination of targeted interventions at the site level to engage different stakeholders while highlighting the potential challenges to collaborative decision‐making for species threatened by illegal wildlife trade. Policy implications. Our results stress the importance of targeted and context‐specific conservation interventions. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Field survey data for conservation: Evaluating suitable habitat of Chinese pangolin at the county‐level in eastern China (2000–2040)

“…Special attention was needed to prevent deforestation and illegal poaching in primary habitats, crucial for the survival of pangolins (Tinsman et al., 2023). Given the significant correlation identified between pangolin consumption and poaching (Bashyal et al., 2021; Emogor et al., 2023; Nash et al., 2016), promoting community awareness and conservation policies in these areas was essential.…”

“…Nevertheless, this species confronts substantial survival challenges, primarily attributed to illicit poaching and habitat degradation (Challender et al., 2020; Heinrich et al., 2016; Wu et al., 2002). Factors such as the illegal trade (Gu, Hu, & Yu, 2023; Nash et al., 2018; Shirley et al., 2023) and local consumption of pangolin meat (Emogor et al., 2023) are posited as the principal motivators behind its poaching. Presently, the population of the Chinese pangolin has diminished by a staggering 90%, leading to its classification as critically endangered (CR) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (Challender et al., 2019), inclusion in Appendix S1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and designation as a first‐class protected species under the national conservation laws of China (Notice No.…”