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- Title
Financial speculation meets cultural heritage in China's wildlife markets.
- Authors
Zhu, Annah Lake; Zhu, George
- Abstract
Environmental regulations restricting the use of a natural resource or species often have unintended consequences. One example is prohibitions on the international trade in culturally important endangered wildlife. Trade restrictions may artificially increase scarcity and, consequently, value. In China, international trade restrictions may trigger bouts of speculative investment that have the opposite effect of the restrictions' intent. We examined how China's speculative economy and cultural history have together led to unintended consequences when regulating wildlife trade. In China, wildlife markets occupy a legal gray area that can make regulations ineffectual or even counterproductive. In extreme cases, prohibiting trade can provoke market booms. Further unintended consequences include potential cultural backlash. In China and across the Global South, international trade restrictions are sometimes considered a continuation of a longstanding history of Western intervention and thus may not be enforced as strongly or may generate resentment. This pushback has contributed to rising calls to decolonialize conservation and may lead to growing alliances between China and other Global South countries when negotiating international wildlife trade restrictions in the future.
- Subjects
TRADE regulation; ECONOMIC conditions in China; NATURAL resources; WILD animal trade; ENDANGERED species
- Publication
Conservation Biology, 2024, Vol 38, Issue 5, p1
- ISSN
0888-8892
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/cobi.14339