Abstract
International trade has become a major threat to biodiversity in the telecoupled world. The literature on biodiversity loss mostly concentrates on wild species; however, the increasing loss of and demand for domesticated species are overlooked. Donkeys are decreasing in many countries because of economic development, urbanization, and increased demand for donkey hides in China. The donkey population in Africa has rapidly declined recently due to supplying China with donkey hides for the production of highly demanded and legalized traditional medicine, ejiao. As a result, some African countries, including Botswana, banned the export of donkey hides. Animal protection and media continuously reported threats over the extinction of donkeys and exacerbated rural livelihood in developing countries, however, limited literature has investigated the causes and effects of donkey-hide trade and its policy interventions. This paper applies the telecoupling framework and uses the data extracted from the media reports and FAO, to understand the scale and impacts of donkey-hide trade from Botswana to China. We also explore the challenges and opportunities of donkey-hide trade for Botswana, highlighting the mechanisms need to be established to regulate the donkey-hide trade, and also to harness available opportunities if the trade ban is lifted in the future.
Highlights
Africa’s rich and diverse ecosystems generate goods and services that are essential to provide food, water, energy, health, and livelihood needs for the continent [1]
We adapted the telecoupling framework to examine the donkey-hide trade from Botswana to China (Figure 1), by understanding the rising demand of donkey hides in China, increasing export of donkey hides, the impacts on human-natural systems in Botswana, the policy responses to the negative impacts, and the challenges and opportunities of the donkey-hide trade from Botswana to China
We focus on international trade, a major channel of telecoupling flows, and in particular on the international trade of donkey hides
Summary
Africa’s rich and diverse ecosystems generate goods and services that are essential to provide food, water, energy, health, and livelihood needs for the continent [1]. Theft and smuggling of donkeys and/or their hides has persisted in Botswana, despite the restriction imposed on trade [8] This resulted in inadequate information on the trade volume of donkey hides. The ban on donkey-hides export in Botswana was introduced with no survey conducted on the donkey population nor an assessment on the impacts of trade on the livelihoods of farmers. This study, reviewed donkey-hide trade from Botswana to China and the causes of restrictions imposed on trade and assessed challenges and opportunities for the sector using the telecoupling framework. Information on Botswana–China donkey-hide trade was extracted from reports, news articles, literature and FAO dataset from 2010 to 2019, examining the rise and fall of donkey-hide trade from Botswana to China, and identifying its impact and potential opportunities. The paper first looked at the roles of donkeys in Botswana, explained the trade of donkey hides and its ban in Botswana, concluding with an assessment of challenges and opportunities of donkey-hide trade from Botswana to China
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