Wildlife consumption and conservation awareness in China: a long way to go

Abstract

An attitudinal survey on wildlife consumption and conservation awareness was conducted in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Kunming and Nanning of China recently. Comparison with the results from a similar survey we did in 2004, after 8 years, the proportion of respondents who had consumed wildlife was dropped slightly from 31.3 % down to 29.6 %. It showed that the rates of wildlife consumed as food and as ingredients for traditional medicines in Guangzhou and Nanning ranked in the top. The consumptions in these two cities were mostly driven by utilitarian motivation, and mainly for food. Meanwhile, the rate of consumers taking wildlife as food was declining significantly in Beijing after 8 years. The results also showed that 52.7 % agreed that wildlife should not be consumed, which was significantly increased comparison with the survey result of 42.7 % in 2004. In addition, respondents agreed that wildlife could be used significantly decline from 42.8 to 34.8 %. It’s indicated that wildlife conservation awareness was raised in China in the past years. We also founded that consumers with higher income and higher educational background were having higher wildlife consumption rate. It suggested that to strengthen the law enforcement and to promote the public awareness were keys to reduce wildlife consumption in China.