School of Economics and Management, Beijing Forestry University, BJ 100083, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Feb 1;702:134709. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134709. Epub 2019 Nov 3.
Eco-labeling of products such as ivory contributes to conservation of wildlife species and is most effective when potential consumers of such products are made aware of the threats to wildlife and protections associated with the labels. This paper investigates factors affecting citizens' perceptions of China's eco-labeling system for elephant ivory, which was established in 2004, using unique datasets collected in 2015 and 2017. The results indicate that citizens in China have little understanding of the ivory-labeling system. <10% of the participants were aware of the three accreditation subsystems for ivory products regulating manufacturers, retailers, and the products and only about 20% were familiar with one subsystem. The results of Bayesian logit models show that citizens' demographic and other characteristics are significantly correlated with their knowledge of the labeling system for elephant ivory, and the effects varied for the 2015 and 2017 samples. The one consistent influence was income level, which had similar significant and positive impacts in all of the models. The temporal coefficients reflecting changes in awareness between 2015 and 2017 were not significant, indicating that knowledge of the ivory-labeling system did not increase overall during that period. Our results indicate that significantly greater outreach is needed for China's ivory-labeling system so citizens can consistently play a role in ridding the market of illegal ivory products and regulating noncommercial ivory trading. Special attention should be given to groups of citizens who have relatively little education, income, and awareness of wildlife conservation efforts.
产品的生态标签，如象牙，有助于保护野生物种，当这些产品的潜在消费者意识到对野生动物的威胁和标签所带来的保护时，其效果最为显著。本文利用 2015 年和 2017 年收集的独特数据集，调查了影响中国 2004 年建立的象牙生态标签制度的公民认知的因素。结果表明，中国公民对象牙标签制度的了解甚少。<10%的参与者了解监管制造商、零售商和产品的象牙产品认证子系统，只有约 20%的参与者熟悉一个子系统。贝叶斯逻辑模型的结果表明，公民的人口统计和其他特征与他们对大象象牙标签系统的了解显著相关，并且在 2015 年和 2017 年的样本中影响不同。唯一一致的影响是收入水平，在所有模型中都具有相似的显著和积极影响。反映 2015 年至 2017 年期间意识变化的时间系数不显著，表明在此期间，象牙标签系统的知识总体上没有增加。我们的结果表明，中国的象牙标签系统需要进行更大规模的推广，以便公民能够始终如一地在消除非法象牙产品市场和规范非商业象牙交易中发挥作用。应特别关注那些教育程度、收入和对野生动物保护工作意识相对较低的公民群体。
