Insights for reducing the consumption of wildlife: The use of bear bile and gallbladder in Cambodia

Abstract

Abstract Unsustainable wildlife use is one of the leading threats to earth's biodiversity. Historically, efforts to address this issue have been focused on increasing enforcement and anti‐poaching measures. However, recognition that such supply‐reduction measures may be inefficient has spurred a movement towards consumer research and behaviour change. Here, we used consumer research to investigate the consumption of bear bile and gallbladder in Cambodia. Our aim was to gather key consumer insights such as demographics, beliefs and the identification of trusted individuals and communication channels, which could be used to underpin future behaviour change efforts to reduce the consumption of bear bile and gallbladder. To accomplish this, we conducted 4,512 structured quantitative interviews and 132 qualitative, semi‐structured interviews across Cambodia. We found that although the level of bear bile and gallbladder consumption varied across the country, consumers were largely homogenous in their beliefs and choice of trusted messengers. This indicates that behaviour change interventions grounded in these results may be effective in any of the eight areas surveyed. We believe our study strategy can be adapted and followed by other conservation organizations to ensure they are capturing essential information necessary for designing effective behaviour change campaigns. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Keywords

• Asiatic black bear
• demand reduction
• Khmer
• social marketing
• specialized questioning techniques
• sun bear