IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Reducing consumer demand for tigers - A workshop

15 May 2012 | News story

From IUCN CEC member Pauline Verheij comes a report of the creative experts' meeting on reducing demand for tigers and other endangered species

TRAFFIC is pleased to present the report of the creative experts' meeting on messaging to reduce consumer demand for tigers and other endangered species in China and Vietnam, Hong Kong 22-23 November 2011.

The meeting was organised by TRAFFIC, with the invaluable support of Frits Hesselink, IUCN CEC Special Advisor. Frits did a fantastic job facilitating the meeting, and his expertise in the field of influencing consumer behaviour was a key success factor in steering the brainstorm discussions during the two-day workshop in the right direction. His report of the event has also been of great use to us in the drafting of the attached report. We at TRAFFIC feel very fortunate to benefit from IUCN CEC's expertise through Frits' involvement.

We hope the report will be of use to anyone interested in the issue of changing consumer demand.

NEXT STEPS

Here is a brief summary of our next steps on the road to reducing consumer demand for tigers and other endangered species in Asia.

The outcomes of the meeting are being used to develop a strategic framework as guidance for governments and NGOs interested in developing demand reduction campaigns. The framework, that Frits will also contribute to, will be finalised early May, and will feed into the global support program on demand reduction of the Global Tiger Recovery Program. It will be openly available for all interested stakeholders.

Both the workshop results and the strategic framework will be presented to senior government officials of the 13 Tiger range countries at the first Global Tiger Recovery Program Stocktaking Conference which will take place in New Delhi, 15-17 May 2012.

The results of the workshop have also inspired TRAFFIC's thinking about tackling the issue of demand reduction in its Global Conservation Programme FY13-FY16 and as such will be used as a basis for further work in China and Vietnam, for which we hope to raise funds this year.

Best regards,
Pauline Verheij  pauline.verheij@traffic.org 

Tiger trade programme manager
TRAFFIC/WWF Tigers Alive Initiative
Skype: pauline_marie1

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