School of Life Sciences and State Key Laboratory of Biological Control, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, Guangdong, China.
School of Computer Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510006, Guangdong, China.
Ambio. 2022 Jul;51(7):1643-1657. doi: 10.1007/s13280-021-01686-9. Epub 2021 Dec 28.
Illegal wildlife trade enforcement is a cornerstone conservation strategy worldwide, yet we have a limited understanding on its social impacts. Using Chinese online wildlife seizure news (2003-2018), we evaluated the interactions among enforcement operations, news frequency, and social engagement (i.e., whistle-blowing) frequency. Our results showed that intensive enforcement operations, which commenced after 2012, have social impacts by increasing the frequency of all seizure news significantly by 28% [95% Confidence Interval (CI): 5%, 51%] and those via whistle-blowing by 24% [95% CI: 2%, 45%], when compared to counterfactual models where possible confounding factors were accounted for. Furthermore, we revealed the potential interaction between enforcement seizure news with and without social engagement, and the consequential social feedback process. Of the species identified from 'whistle-blowing' news, up to 28% are considered as high conservation priorities. Overall, we expanded our understanding of the enforcement impacts to social dimensions, which could contribute to improving the cost-effectiveness of such conservation efforts.
非法野生动植物贸易执法是全球范围内保护的基石策略,但我们对其社会影响的了解有限。本研究利用中国在线野生动物扣押新闻(2003-2018 年),评估了执法行动、新闻频率和社会参与(即举报)频率之间的相互作用。结果表明,自 2012 年以来密集开展的执法行动通过将所有扣押新闻的频率显著增加 28%[95%置信区间(CI):5%,51%],以及通过举报增加 24%[95% CI:2%,45%],产生了社会影响,与可能存在混杂因素的对照模型相比。此外,我们揭示了执法扣押新闻与具有和不具有社会参与之间的潜在相互作用,以及由此产生的社会反馈过程。在从“举报”新闻中确定的物种中,高达 28%被认为是高度优先保护的物种。总体而言,我们将执法影响扩展到社会层面,这有助于提高此类保护工作的成本效益。