Biodiversity conservation and public support for sustainable wildlife harvesting: A case study

Abstract

If sustainable use of wildlife is to be adopted as a strategy for nature conservation, it is important that it be supported by the public. This paper examines public attitudes to and support for sustainable harvesting of wildlife by surveying a sample of the Australian public. Participants' attitudes to sustainable commercial harvesting of wildlife in general and to the possible sustainable commercial harvesting of 24 Australian animal species is evaluated. The relationship between respondents' support for the sustainable commercial harvesting of the species and the species' degree of endangerment is found to be inverse. Support for sustainable commercial harvesting is also inversely related to respondents' allocation of funds for the conservation of each of the species. In turn, this allocation of funds increased with the degree of endangerment of the species. Harvest was supported only for some abundant species. None of the species listed in the Red List received majority support for harvesting. This suggests that the public is more likely to prefer the regulatory approach of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) to conserving threatened species than the more market-oriented approach advocated in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).