I am proud of having been part of the working group that put together the Social Marketing Statement of Ethics, which lays out key principles to be observed in the design of behaviour change. This has now been approved by the International Social Marketing Association and its regional affiliates given this document global klout in … [Read more…]
The first edition of the IUCN’s Guidelines on human-wildlife conflict and coexistence have just been released! This is a labour of love that has taken a team of 40-odd authors several years to put together. I was proud to lead the chapter on behaviour change and co-author the one focused on impact evaluation. Have a … [Read more…]
I recently wrote a short summary of a review we published recently (more on that soon) for the excellent blog Please keep to the path! See below.. In a nutshell: When it comes to looking at changing actual behaviour to conserve the environment the evidence base is limited as most studies do not measure actual … [Read more…]
Malta is renowned as a “blackspot” for illegal bird hunting. This article describes Malta’s current enforcement efforts which, assisted by the Army, and surveillance technology such as drones, and have likely led to a reduction in crime. However, this article also describes how current conservation policies are being counterproductive. They are fostering a culture of … [Read more…]
We often think of extinction as happening out there, in far away wild places, but it also takes place right inside our minds, in our everyday conversations and on social media. Beyond biological extinction, which takes place when the last animal or plant of its kind dies, species can live on in our collective memory, … [Read more…]
I recently wrote a book review for the journal Conservation Biology, focused on the two books below: The Wicked Problem of Forest Policy: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Sustainability in Forest Landscapes. Nikolakis W., and J. L. Innes, editors. 2020. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K. x + 400 pp. ISBN 978-1-108-47140-4. Sustainable Governance of Wildlife and Community Based … [Read more…]
What do consumers of a wildlife product do when a market closes? We mostly have no clue. Today we had a paper published on the intentions of bear bile consumers to the closing of the market in Vietnam. We sampled at seven areas across the country of Vietnam (total respondents = 2,463). We found low … [Read more…]
Online crowdfunding can help address the perennial financial shortfalls in environmental conservation and management. Although many online crowdfunding campaigns fail to collect any funds due to not achieving their targets, little is known about what drives success. To address this knowledge gap, we applied a mixed-methods approach to data from 473 successful and failed campaigns … [Read more…]
New article out today on Conservation Science and Practice: Investigating the international and pan‐African trade in giraffe parts and derivatives. Here we review the evidence and interview experts about giraffe trade, concluding in the end that ” the dynamics of legal and illegal trade and the use of giraffe parts vary throughout Africa, ranging from … [Read more…]
This NEW paper in Animal Conservation looks at the trade-offs made by people in China across rural and urban areas when it comes to the use of trophy hunting. Download it here! The use of trophy hunting as a wildlife management option has been a highly controversial topic, especially in southern Africa, but trophy hunting … [Read more…]