What is driving the increased demand for red panda pelts?

ABSTRACT

Recent seizures of red panda pelts suggest an increasing illegal trade. Our study documents the socio-cultural perspectives affecting red panda conservation in Nepal in an attempt to determine what might be driving this increased trade. To do this, we interviewed local people; reviewed published and unpublished works, websites, and newspapers; and consulted experts. The majority of people living in red panda habitat seem familiar with this species, but it rarely has any medicinal, cultural, or religious significance. Currently, what is driving the demand for pelts is a mystery and cannot be explained by inherent negative perceptions about the animal’s value to society or positive perceptions about its economic value within Nepal. Nonetheless, we suggest that insufficient knowledge about red panda-related crime, miscommunication during awareness-building campaigns, investigators’ influence indicating a demand for pelts with a high price, and poverty-induced, easy money-making motives could be possible drivers for increasing the supply of pelts.

KEYWORDS:

• Awareness
• ethnozoological use
• red panda
• pelt trade
• poaching

Acknowledgments

We are thankful to the Red Panda Network and WWF/USAID/Hariyo Ban Program for providing access to use some of the data used in this manuscript. We are grateful to Angela Glatston, Prakash Kumar Paudel, and Sonam Tashi Lama for their constructive comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. We also acknowledge the support received from Ang Phuri Sherpa, Arjun Thapa, Axel Gebaueur, Bishal Bhattarai, Bishnu Thapa, Brian Williams, Dinesh Ghale, Ganga Bahadur Shah, Haris Chandra Rai, Karan Bahadur Shah, Krishna Prasad Acharya, Manoj Bhatta, Raju Acharya, Ramesh Rai, Saroj Shrestha, Shant Raj Jnawali, Sonam Tashi Lama, and Yadav Ghimire. We are equally indebted to all of the respondents who actively responded to our emails and telephone calls. The lead author’s work is supported by the University of Queensland’s Research Training Scholarship and Wildlife Conservation Network.

Declaration of interest statement

We declare no competing interests.