Reducing Demand for Wildlife Products: WildAid Campaigns in Asia

Abstract

Reducing demand for wildlife products can help diminish the scale of the poaching problem while also providing a longer-term prospect of ending trade in a specific wildlife species altogether. Demand reduction can be accomplished by educating consumers and changing their behavior, introducing or enhancing policies and regulations to limit or prohibit trade, and strengthening enforcement of those measures. Since 2000, the environmental organization WildAid has focused on bringing an end to the illegal wildlife trade by working to reduce consumption of wildlife products. Demand reduction efforts include campaigns to raise awareness and change attitudes and behavior, government outreach to change policies and regulations, and assistance designed to strengthen enforcement. WildAid campaigns primarily focus on elephant ivory, pangolin, rhino horn, shark fin and tiger, with activities mostly under way in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Viet Nam. In collaboration with celebrity ambassadors and using the same techniques as high-end advertisers, WildAid creates aspirational conservation campaigns that are seen by hundreds of millions of people each year. In recent years, WildAid campaigns have helped to: