Should we farm tigers?

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  • Created by: maya
  • Created on: 10-06-17 21:24

Should we farm tigers?

Talk about scarce resources that people want to use
how can we reconcile

-tigers
-fish in the sea

scarcity - plants, timber, resources used

Thailand and Indonesia (research areas)

continuous drive expoloitation security 

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Overview

—What does illegal wildlife trade include?

—What makes species vulnerable to illegal trade?
—What are we to do!?: Stopping trade through legislation
—What are we to do!?: Creating a legal trade through wildlife farming
Different considerations when evaluating wildlife farming 

concered with environmental problems- what is the illegal wildlife trade?
Two major approaches, policy approached, environmentalists , consumers

what makes species more vulnerable than others?

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what species are threatened by wildlife trade?

media engagement with the wildlife trade, most of it is ivory, tigers, rhinos

In fact many broader species

  • Reptiles
  • Birds
  • Wild plants
  • Turtles
  • Lizards
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What species are threatened by wildlife trade?

Tokay gecko (reptile) 

reptiles

SouthEastern Asia - medicinal use 

Used for 4,000 years - boomed in recent years, advertised new claims 
saying they can cure cancer aids so on = spike in demand 

detailing with historical pressures and changes in facts like in other area people starting to demand animal products  

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Pangulin

South Asia, Africa

- Harvested especially meat- high value, luxury meat produce

- Also scales used medicinally traditional Asian medicine 

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cat skins

seen at a market

jaw primate

Turtle 

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wild plants

wild plants people harvesting want to collect them for gardens 

ornamenta SE Asia & Internationally 

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Wood

timber 

wildlife resource

wildly extracted

trade 

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megafauna

characteristic megafauna

Baby Malay sunbear found in Laos (country

birds there 

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leather industry

python 

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wildlife for meat

basic protein consumption

Number of countries

or preference for wild food

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varanus salvator

aka water monitor lizard

large lizard SE Asia

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Illegal wildlife trade = not a single phenomenon

—Wide diversity of taxa

—Wide range of types of products - broad range of uses 

  • ¡Medicinal
  • ¡Food (luxury, household subsistence) ¡Luxury products (curious, leather, collectibles) 
  • ¡Cultural items
  • ¡Pets ¡
  • Building materials

—Wide range of actors and types of trade 

wildlife trade broad range of taxa, not small number of species

number of diffferent people

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What makes species vulnerable to trade?

what makes species more vulnerable than others 

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Targeted pressure

Not all species are harvested with the same intensity 

not all species are subject to the same pressure

Large, yellow flwer attracts more harvest than bland, small flower

habitat degradation - some species are affected differently wildlife trade- small number of individual species

fishing - little discrimination 

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Rarity

Range: Large (historically)
Specificity: Wide
Population: Low

Tiger habitat generalist - ccan live in number of different forests including disturbed habitats
This species is functionally extinct 

Range: Small
Specificity: Narrow
Population: Large

Three diff attributes how does targeted pressure of specie afffect its ability to survive in the wild?
even though there is a fairly large population locally they can become extinct partly because there's just a few places where it exists - arguably this species is more attracted by wildlife trade.
From vietnam- only exists in limestone parks, specificity narrow- can only survive in acidic limestne yet population locally large.

So which of these is more threatened by the wildlife trade? Many diff factors 

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Desireability

another factor that affects animals in the wildlife trade is attributes of how we engage with them

so there is an interesting dynamic over time, our relationship with species changes their population dynamic - abundance changes the way we interact with them- this has implications for how we protect them in the wild manage them sustainably.

Desireability is a big factor.
How much we want these speciesrelative to each other- collected butterflies collectable

There is a pattern between the rarity of the species of how much people are willing to pay for them.

This vortex of increasing rarity and increasing prices is called the anthropogenic allee effect.

Different types of montain sheep hunted recreational hunters - trophy

this tells us about hman psychology and consumption people want them status, rare, expensive. As a result these species abundance in the wild goes down = rarer
so harvest more, more expensive, more rare/endangered. 

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Accessibility

people have to go out and harvest these species in the wild TWO THINGS

1) Not all species distributed same way across all landscapes, one is found only in limestone parks, others are found in loads - uniformed or clustered distribution.
Trade locally/inrernationally

2) Roads into areas creates access conservation are trying to  limit road expansion around protected areas 

roads opening up areas to business, agriculture, trade, local interaction
open up land for agriculture 

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What are policy makers to do?

how do we stop this?

So considering all of these factors; the attributes- targeted pressure, rarity, desirability, accesibility, what do we do?

How do we get people to harvest the right amount/ - monitoring- power, surveillance , enforcement

- range of biodiversity facing challlenges, deforestation, widlife trade
- how do we design policies/gov schemes to meet political, economic, social, sustainability objs
- sustainable use of resources conservation of biodiversity

not necessarily interested in blanket coverage of protection, understtand that we have to use these but in a sustainably way
how do we do that? 

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stop trade by forbidding it

classical approach

protect say no

military into protected areas guns rhino

people have said its complicated  let's just stop people doing it - 178 countries identify species- quotas , monitors, heavily regulate

CITES is the convention of international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora

international treaty drawn up in 1973 protect wildlife against over-exploitation 

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Do restrictions work? Pangolin trade 1977-2013

obvious question to ask how does this work?

Results are mixed

Pangolin were traded for a long time until 2000 cities said you cannot trade Pangolins internationally- zero export quote cannot ttrade internationally - drmamatic reduction in trading.

This drives trading underground - official numbers- goes undetected, this trade illegal trade 
number underneath, trade continues 

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South African rhino poaching

- millions of dollars invested in patrolling

BUT we see steadily increase in hunting
- growing demand, growing effort to stop trade trade
- used set of tools we thought would stop this environment challenge yet it has not

RHINO POACHING INCREASES >9,300% 

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SE Asian orchid trade

more results looking at Asian orchid trade - work on less exciting trade
1) people dont like to talk about rhino. species extinction hard to talk about -> inconspicuous 

over 9 yrs- chinese market one woman traded one genera of species more than 168 individuals.

Go out to markets and look at species being traded, more than official numbers.

yet policies made on official numbers SE Asian orchid trade look at official numbers- not a problem 

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Hard to stop people from doing what they want

WAR ON DRUGS - cannabis 
$1 million spent- drug war
8 million arrested for pot since 2000

classical examples drugs.
lots politicals say marijuana BAD not going to allow medicinal use, UK invested billions of pounds: monitor and enforce banning of use of drugs trade

Been largely unsuccessful had unintended implications:

  • violent people capture market
  • Drug users - jail 
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Stop illegal trade by creating a legal alternative

Legalise and regulate
Create a ‘legitimate’ economy and push out criminals
Drive down prices
Collect taxes
Reduce negative social effects

infact tide is changing on marijuana US people realising users are going to use consumers continuing to use this

recognition if we want to manage this market need to monitor this
guys are out with guns

let's continue to monitor wildlife trade instead of blaming all trade, allow some to go on sustainably yet this is easier said than done.

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Can we do this for flora and fauna?

•There is clear demand (existing illegal trade)
•Limited supply (e.g., threatened, endangered species)

•Feasible to farm many species

can producewild species (Farm) can investigate species

Tigers, cats, not hard to breed cats, mature rapdily.

can produce these wildlife domestically to satisfy demand and reduce populations legally

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salmon

already started to do this: 

Salmon - late 1980s started producing these huge scale

People realised huge demand, lets produce them instead of harvesting in the wiild

- commercial crocodiles 

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same thing happens in the UK

vegetables, peasant chicks rlease them and shoot them

better than shooting them n the wild

might reduce people trying to hunt other species 

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butterflies

been done with butterflies farming them, breed them, have food

beautifula dults, kill them, stick them on a pegboard sell to people who want them.

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wildlife entertainment

people want to use wildlife for entertainment people who enjioy going out shooting large mammals can shoot wild ones legally if population can be maintained and policy allows it- or it is illegal. 

Southern tiger species in southern china extinct in the wild- yet  in these farms are species that match this

protecting genetic stock- selective breeding difficult 

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crocodiles- leather industry

also happens with crocodiles - leather industry

crocodiles functionally extinct most of SE Asia

100s of individuals still existing in farms

actual financial incentive to keep them alive. 

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Abalone farming,

species that is eaten primarily Asia

really sloe to mature, faintly abundant, harvest becomes verry unsustainable 

fffarming makes money and protect high value product creating legal trade 

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conditions for wildlife farming to work?

why don't we just farm them? give people what they want
in order for cultivated to replace wild
why are people buying wild ones instead of cultivated ones which are nicer (conditions below)

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Farming case study: Rhynchostylis gigantea

very fragant - people in SE Asia - have it in their gardens enjoy it, traditional thing to do 
huge number of them from wild in markets

look at differences between farmed and wild individuals 

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When can wildlife farming support conservation?

condition- 
farmed quality good/superior to wild

condition met for R. gigantea?
Yes

Farmed plants were significantly:

• Larger: more leaves, longer leaves, longer roots, more flowers

• Healthier: plants and flowers in better condition

• More plants in bloom 

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When can wildlife farming support conservation?

Condition
Farmed same price or cheaper than wild

Condition met for R. gigantea?
Yes 

 Little price difference  = US$0.02 

people wil noy esny yo nuy if it is more expensive 

This is not true for all species - elephants 18 yrs until mature- more expensive
very significiant price difference- elephants very expensive 

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condition consumer preference ffor wild

condition 
no/imited consumer preferences for wild

condition met for R. gigantea?
No 

wild was more fragrant, easier to grow, "Authentic" 

in order for people to want cultivated flowers must be no/little consumer preference
hard to find this out- hard to approach markets, traders get annoyed if you approach people
people don't care some prefer cultivated

prefer wild but no difference in fragrance - some proportion of population perceived belief over preference - medicinal and farm crop 

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Alaska’s farmed vs. wild salmon harvest

what has this done to wild population

producing and consuming lots of farmed salmon 

yet consuming same amount of wild salmon 

what happens if instant farming tigers and it actually increases demand instead of subsituting farmed over wild - WORRY 

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When can wildlife farming support conservation?

Condition
Farming is socially acceptable

Condition met for R. gigantea?
Yes

What makes these trades different?
Can wildlife farming be humane?
Who’s opinions matter?

who is society? make public policy choices based on what society wants. 
orchids okay
what about rhinos/tigers
big difference between farming orchids and tigers
internatioal community decided one is not a good choice 

who decides what is socially acceptable? whose value system are we following - no way, yay good. mental model 'view good' trade-offs, stakeholders, how people work through emotional upsets that accompany science- whose opinions matter 

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Should we farm tigers?

think about public policy need to think about whole range of conditions and interactions.

understand context, work through it systematically

different approaches what is more appropriate?

think about different type of approaches
maybe more or less appropiate in a certain context
reality wildlife farming works sometimes certain species, certain contexts
understanding context not magic, work through systematically. 

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Should we farm tigers?

.

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Philips et al 2010

international wildlife trade - leading threat - biodiversity conservation
CITES most important global iniiative monitor and regulate international trade - plants & animals

CITES regulates trade nearly 34,000 species and reduced threats associated - overharvest of imperiled species for international trade. 

credible biological and trade data necessary informing political decisions - CITES

many CITES parties fail to systematically monitor & report international wildlife trade
Brazil sig source illegal fauna - lacks functional central mechanism - reporting wildlife confiscations
many CITES parties fail collect domestic population & harvest data
most taxa understuided 

inadequate species identification - leading challenge
more than 50% documented live-animal imports into US from 2000 to 2006 identified only by class- nly 14% identified to species

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Philips et al 2010

international wildlife trade - leading threat - biodiversity conservation
CITES most important global iniiative monitor and regulate international trade - plants & animals

CITES regulates trade nearly 34,000 species and reduced threats associated - overharvest of imperiled species for international trade. 

credible biological and trade data necessary informing political decisions - CITES

many CITES parties fail to systematically monitor & report international wildlife trade
Brazil sig source illegal fauna - lacks functional central mechanism - reporting wildlife confiscations
many CITES parties fail collect domestic population & harvest data
most taxa understuided 

inadequate species identification - leading challenge
more than 50% documented live-animal imports into US from 2000 to 2006 identified only by class- nly 14% identified to species. traditional identification methods bad - require revision 

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flexible methods

CITES 'airport bias' fails detect majority illicit trade
trade data collected from easily accessed trade routs (airports) cannot capture true dynamic. 

e.g. a single small-scale trader at informal border market on Mekong can sell more plants in a single day than reported by CITES over 9 year period

some efforts made interate alternative, investigative approaches into CITES e.g. Lusaka agreement & CITES-IN-INTERPOL collab
but overall  CITES 'airport bias' fails detect majority illicit trade

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Philips et al 2010

CITES relies on country self-reporting

most CITES-listed species ocur- tropics- weak governance and high corruption

national-level funding CITES enforcement restricted 
need for parties to increase contributions 

CITE costs should be extended participating industires and consumers 

increased resources = CITES move towards proactive, rel-time monitoring & regulation -
strengthen enforcement and data quality.

strenghtened convention essential biodiversity 

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Journal called Conservation Biology

illegal trade tigers remains major conservation problem

tiger markets imperfect, dominated by few producers who control price

consumers prefer wild tigers to farmed tigers - not pure substitutes

economics - products from wild tigers are luxury goods, commanding price premium

no evidence farmed tigers can be produced or sold more cheaply than wild tigers - see elephants

in sum unlikely farming will drive down price wild-caught tigers or decrease profitability- tiger poachers 

tiger farming more likely increase aggregate demand - tiger products and stimulate higher levels poaching 

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Conservation biology

tiger populations decreasing - occur just 7% historic range 

habitat highly fragmented 

poaching accounted for annual mortality over 20% tigers canot sustain high mortality rates 

in 1993 China banned all domestic trade in the species- the continuing decline in wild tiger populations since 1993 partly caused by market demand in China- calls for review domestic ban 

supporters tiger farming 
always be a demand for tiger products - nonthreatened supply must be found
flooding market legally suplied tiger partly undercuts illegal supply from tiger poachers
had success in farming other species - crocodiles

opponents of tiger farming 
demand for tiger products reduced -- selling farmed tigers would inflame demand
legal tiger market not undercut poachers- wild cheaper, some people will always prefer wild tiger
tigers v different and more endangered crocodiles- tigers deserve precuationary approach 

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Conservation biology

Tiger markets and supply-side conservation

basic model says an increase in suppply = price decrease so... price decreases as farmed animals flood markets and as wildlife farmes increase competition in markets originally dependent on overexploited stocks.

markets adjusting to these conditions - poacher profits decrease
pressure on wild stocks overexploited species reduced poachers < econonic incentive harvest

this is imperfect idea
South America illegal poaching parrots sig higher when trade in parrots still legal
legal trade increased poaching - not decrease it
contrary predictions of supply-side conservation

theory: price of wild products decreases as supply of farmed products increase
occurs with some species - crocodile farmed stocks replaced wild stocks
BUT not true for tiger
Consumers usually prefer wild animal products from farms particularly true- medicinal products, wild perceived as more potent this belief may continue to spur wild collection after intro wild s

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supply-side conservation theory probs beep boop

if farmed products cheaper market entry drive down producer profitability per unit

supply-side conservation assumes sellers wild-harvest products will withdraw from market- profits decline. 

conventional economics suggests that producers may increase volume of products being sold- maintain profit. 

thus farmed products will increase aggregate supply

Gratwicke et al 2008

  • - recent China consumer surveys show continuing demand for tiger products and legal trade will increase that demand. 
  • unlikely farmers will oversupply markets so prices decrease- particularly for luxury products tiger bone wine 
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Conservation biology

dual stremas may increase burden law enforcement send false signal that tiers may be bought and sold indiscriminately 

legal trade likely result - increased demand
tiger farming high risks wild tigers 

tiger farming would increase poaching, prices would remain high, demand would increase

because level of endangerment v high tigers- precautionary approach needed
supply-side conservation should only be tried species allow substantial margin error 

fundamental error wildlife farming is its total faith in workings of tmarkets - focuses on economics 
theory not put into practice 

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Biggs et al 2013

South africa home to more than 905 world's 20,000 white rhinos
and 40% of the 5000 remaining black rhino.

yet poaching in SA has doubled each yr over past 5 yrs
if poaching continues accelerate- Africa's remaining rhino pop may become extinct  wild- 20 yrs 

because CITES ban on rhino horn trade since 1997 demand can only be met- illegal market- maily relies killing of rhinos by poachers 4 horns 

ONE REMAINING OPTION: carefully regulated legal trade - humane and renewable harvesting of horn from live white rhinos 

Failed trade ban 
skyrocketing poaching levels- tremendous growth retail price $65,000 per kg 2012
rhinohorn now worth more per unit than gold, diamonds or cocaine
dehorning rhinos with incentive to reduce poaching -proven ineffective without additional security cos of value of remaining horn stubs 

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Biggs et al 2013

rhino horn 

- dagger handles Yemen

- used Chinese traditional medicine as presumed cure wide rainge ailments 

financial rewards led poachers use sopgistifacted tech - helicopters - immobilization darts 

- increased militarization of rhino protection adversly affecting other conservation actions = reallocation of conservation resources 

higher levels miitarized enforcement trade ban with higher penalties
may^£ cos supply restricted inelastic and growing demand 

as wildlife products - rhinos become rarer- prices  soar pushes them further into anthropogenic allee effect

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Biggs et al 2013

legal trade can reduce incentive for poaching if regulators can prevent decreasing threatening illegal supply through legal trade

legal supply can deliver horn more easily, reliably and cost-effectively than illegal trade.

demand does not escalate to dangerous levels as stigma associated with illegality of product reduced 

legally harvested horns from live animals can substitute for horns obtained wild, poached animals.

rhino horn composed of keratin and regrows when cut- sedating a rhino to shave it's horn - $20+ 
current demand for rhino horn could be met by 5000 white rhinos on private conservation land in SA alone.
current tech - risks to rinos dehorning minimal

legal trade - supply horns, fund rhino protection & provide incentive for sustainable use + long-term survival.  CROCODILE SKIN TRADE: e.g. legal market reduced poaching pressure -wild populationsbi

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Biggs et al 2013

opponents of legal trade in rhino horn argue bulk sales of ivory by countries S.Africa = increased poaching elsewhere- continent

yet no conclusive empirical evidence for this ^^^^

Attempts surpress horn supply though CITES trade ban failing Africa
education, education, protection & awareness efforts aimed at reducing use of horn failed to turn tide of rising demand.

Legitimising market is probably only way to prevent extinction- African's remaining rhino - demonstrated by successful legal trade- crocodile skin. 

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