Abstract
Reintroducing captive-born individuals of some extirpated flagship animal species is a helpful and remedy measure for promoting biodiversity conservation, and a successful reintroduction relies heavily on public support. However, little information is available on the factors affecting the public support for reintroduction of large carnivore species. In order to evaluate public support and willingness to pay for the Giant Panda Reintroduction Project (GPRP), we conducted 1100 interviews in August 2014 at Huaying city, Sichuan, China, close to where captive-born giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) will be reintroduced. The results showed that local people strongly support this project and that 78.5 % of them are willing to pay an annual contribution. Per capita annual payments averaged USD31, and the potential value of donations to the GPRP in Huaying is about 11 million USD per year. Factors like interviewees’ residential area, occupation, education level, liking of wildlife, level of concern for wildlife conservation, the degree of familiarity with giant pandas, and the frequency of visiting captive giant pandas significantly affected their attitudes and willingness to pay for the project. The notion of “because I love pandas” was the main reason why respondents were willing to pay for the project; respondents’ doubts about the appropriate use of donated funds made them be unwilling to pay for the project. The results suggest that the GPRP is highly and socially acceptable amongst locals due to perceived social, economic and ecological benefits of the reintroduction. These findings clearly indicate, for the chances of reintroduction to be most socially accepted, governments should improve management and accountability when using donated funds, and create more opportunities for the public to engage with giant pandas, thereby encouraging people to become involved in conservation work benefiting conservation for the giant pandas and other endangered species.
Highlights
As a remedial measure preventing species from extinction, the reintroduction of extirpated threatened species is well entrenched as a conservation tool (Bar-David et al 2005)
We evaluated the public acceptance of a reintroduction program of the giant panda in Huaying city (Sichuan, Southwest China) to evaluate the potential for a human-wildlife conflict prior to the actual reintroduction
The positive attitude is associated with a high degree of concern about giant pandas obtained from various media
Summary
As a remedial measure preventing species from extinction, the reintroduction of extirpated threatened species is well entrenched as a conservation tool (Bar-David et al 2005). Reviews of reintroduction projects have generally reported a low rate of success (less than 20 %; Osborne and Seddon 2012) and conservation biologists believe that a failure to properly consider the socioeconomic and political aspects of reintroductions may explain the predominance of poor outcomes (Arts et al 2012; Bruskotter et al 2010; Reading and Kellert 1993). Kleiman (1989) emphasized that a reintroduction cannot succeed without public support. Human-wildlife conflict often causes people to take a negative attitude toward reintroduced species and can greatly reduce the success rate of reintroduction projects (Campbell and Alvarado 2011; O’Rourke 2014; Wilson 2004). The local people hunted and killed the reintroduced wild dogs because they believed those dogs would pose threats to livestock and children (Davies and du Toit 2004). In Argentina, the local community strongly supports the return of jaguars (Panthera onca) and human-jaguar conflict was well handled via ecotourism-mediated financial compensation schemes (Caruso and Perez 2013)
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