China consumer demand reduction

Environmental Investigation Agency, UK (EIA)

EIA investigative products on the trade in tigers and their parts and derivatives, profiling individuals and networks involved in this trade, combined with EIA’s analysis of open source information, assists stakeholders to identify relevant consumer groups and to further target their campaigns to reduce consumer demand – see above description in the law enforcement support section.

Humane Society International (HSI)

HSI worked on demand reduction campaigns concerning shark fin, ivory and pangolins in China. The shark fin campaign, titled the “No Shark Fin Project,” is a partnership with Roots & Shoots of the Jane Goodall Institute China and other local groups. It was initiated in 2011 and promoted awareness about the importance of shark protection, and motivated perception and behavioral changes regarding the consumption and trade of shark fin products. The campaign mainly focused on students encouraging them to engage with businesses and consumers leading to, for example, more than 300 restaurants and several dozen companies to stop consuming shark fin soup. The campaign also published findings on the sale of shark fins at high-end restaurants in major cities across China, generating public and media attention. HSI also partnered with Roots & Shoots on the “Guardians of the Elephants” project since 2014 to raise awareness about the importance of protecting elephants, and to promote attitudinal and behavioral change towards commercial trading and consumption of ivory. Similar to the shark fin campaign, the ivory campaign focuses on students as the next set of potential consumers, and also agents of change in consumer behavior by other sectors of the population. Lastly, HSI partnered with the Aita Foundation to raise awareness about pangolin consumption in China through outreach to young children and university students and with the general public, such as a billboard at the Beijing airport. The campaign also conducted an opinion survey on the Chinese public’s attitude towards pangolins and the consumption of pangolins. This campaign included public events as well as traditional and social media outreach, and showcased celebrity engagement on the issue.

TRAFFIC

TRAFFIC has been helping improve policies and legislation at the national level, engage public-private partnerships, and drive a suite of interventions to catalyze behavior change efforts with partners to reduce demand in major consumer markets in Southeast Asia and China. TRAFFIC hosts the Wildlife Consumer Behaviour Change Toolkit www.changewildlifeconsumers.org and provides a suite of services for the ‘Demand Reduction Community of Practice’ that uses the Toolkit as an information and coordination hub – services include an element of Webinars, learning and experience exchange events, Expert Roundtables on key topics and Good Practice Guidelines on measuring the impact of behavioral change.

TRAFFIC works with a wide range of partners to conduct targeted and evidence based demand reduction efforts. Examples include continuing work with e-Commerce and internet lifestyle companies to reach out to website audiences with various types of messaging; ongoing public awareness activities and events – such as those on World Wildlife Day, Earth Hour, through the WWF/TRAFFIC ‘Linking Fingers’ initiative.

TRAFFIC, together with government partners and WWF, has organized several awareness raising events targeting Chinese nationals in Africa; upcoming ones will take place in Namibia and Zimbabwe.

United for Wildlife (UfW)

UfW has grown a large and engaged social media community through a variety of digital campaigns and activities aimed at young people across the world. With a growing online community to share news with and raise awareness of illegal wildlife trade, United for Wildlife shares unique content and activities enabling young people to engage with the issue of illegal wildlife trade while learning more about conservation in general.

United for Wildlife has also developed a platform for the delivery of online learning material and provides online courses that enable self-paced learning on a number of general and specialized topics relevant to conservation, including a short course focusing on illegal wildlife trade. At the end of 2016 over 8,500 people from 196 countries had registered on the platform and more than 170,000 people follow the course and its content on social media with marketing focused on the priority countries identified by UfW in regards to consumer markets. The platform won a highly regarded Learning Technologies award in 2016. In 2017 efforts are underway to develop course content for the platform that has a focus on conservation issues and efforts in China. This is being done in partnership with locally based organizations and will provide a specific course and translations.

United for Wildlife further works with the online gaming sector to expand the audience of conservation messaging, with 100,000 downloads of the UfW “We Are The Rangers” Minecraft map, and over 2.6 million YouTube play-throughs.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

UNODC launched a brief public service announcement concerning wildlife trafficking in China in 2014-2015.

USAID Wildlife Asia

USAID Wildlife Asia will reduce consumer demand for wildlife parts and products by communicating, mobilizing and advocating ways to change behaviors and build new social norms around the use of wildlife. Planned activities include communication campaigns using proven social and behavior change communication (SBCC) approaches and technical assistance to strengthen capacity of organizations to use SBCC in planning and implementing demand reduction campaigns. Year 1 activities include conduct of a situational analysis to identify priority consumer segments, demand drivers and influencing factors underlying the purchase and use of wildlife products in China, Thailand and Vietnam; development and preparation for implementation of new campaigns in these three countries; as well as providing support to align existing campaigns with USAID Wildlife Asia messages, and SBCC capacity building of organizations involved in wildlife communication. The USAID Wildlife Asia Activity is implemented by the International Resources Group (IRG) – which is owned by RTI International – with a consortium of organizations and companies including FHI 360, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Freeland and Integra.

WildAid

WildAid conducts consumer demand campaigns targeting shark fin (commenced 2006), ivory (commenced 2012), rhino horn (commenced 2012), and pangolins (commenced 2016). The target audience for the campaigns includes medium to high income consumers, business leaders, government officials and policy makers, media influencers. These initiatives address the lack of awareness on the trade in ivory, rhino horn, and pangolins, and the associated poaching crisis; build more pro-conservation attitudes; persuade consumers not to buy the wildlife products, and to support government efforts to end this trade (ivory) or support government enforcement efforts (rhino horn and pangolins). All three recent campaigns have used a combination of strategies including press/media outreach/education, international and Chinese celebrity-driven media campaigns (TV PSAs, billboards, print), online and social media campaigns, and briefings and consultations with relevant government agencies. The ivory and rhino horn campaigns also included a China Central Television (CCTV) documentary film featuring Yao Ming with substantial media promotion; and the ivory campaign further included a business leaders pledge, and a policy recommendation to the National People’s Congress by Yao Ming and prominent CEO delegates. The ivory and rhino horn campaigns further have included sub-campaigns involving a wide range of international and Chinese celebrities. These campaigns will continue their messaging in 2017 and their ongoing activities for ivory include a follow-up documentary film with CCTV featuring Yao Ming, media reports on poaching/reduced demand, social media, etc; for rhino horn, a documentary film with Shanghai Media Group and associated TV PSA/billboard campaign featuring actress Jiang Yiyan, TV shows and a TV PSA with popular antiques collector Ma Weidu on rhino horn, media reports on poaching/reduced demand, social media, etc; and for pangolin, a TV PSA and billboard campaign with Jackie Chan, media reports on poaching/reduced demand, online and social media, cooperation with government agencies on strengthened enforcement (including working with authorities to resolve the pangolin scales stockpile allocated to traditional medicine providers and producers), etc.

WildAid also launched an ivory campaign in Hong Kong initiated in 2015 to address lack of awareness on the ivory trade and elephant poaching crisis, build more pro-conservation attitudes, persuade consumers not to buy ivory and support government efforts to end the ivory trade. Using a combination of strategies including press/media outreach/education, celebrity-driven media campaigns (TV PSAs, billboards, print), online and social media campaigns, government officials and policy makers, media influencers, briefings and consultations with relevant government agencies, etc. Target audience includes medium to high income consumers, business leaders, government officials and policy makers, media influencers, etc. Over two years, the campaign has included sub-campaigns involving a wide range of international and Chinese celebrities. In 2017, the campaign continues to communicate the importance of ending the ivory trade and the urgency of ending the poaching crisis while building support for the current ivory trade ban under consideration by the Legislative Council. Ongoing efforts include legislator outreach and education, TV PSAs/billboards/print, media reports on poaching/reduced demand, and social media.