Evaluating Support for Clouded Leopard Reintroduction in Taiwan: Insights from Surveys of Indigenous and Urban Communiti
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Evaluating Support for Clouded Leopard Reintroduction in Taiwan: Insights from Surveys of Indigenous and Urban Communities Evan Greenspan 1,2
&
Anthony J. Giordano 1,2 & Clayton K. Nielsen 1 & Nick Ching-Min Sun 3 & Kurtis Jai-Chyi Pei 2,4
Accepted: 21 October 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The Indochinese clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) was recently declared extinct in Taiwan but is a potential candidate for reintroduction. We assessed the level of public support for reintroduction and the value of clouded leopards to Taiwanese residents via their willingness-to-pay (WTP) among indigenous and urban communities for a potential reintroduction to the Tawushan Nature Reserve. We also investigated sociodemographic factors related to such support or lack thereof. Questionnaires were completed by 263 rural indigenous residents and 500 urban residents across three metropolitan areas. We found 48%, 31%, and 21% of rural respondents supported, were neutral toward, or opposed a reintroduction, respectively, whereas for urban respondents these percentages were 71%, 22%, and 7% respectively. Rural and urban residents were >3 and >7 times more likely to pay to support a reintroduction than those willing to pay to prevent it, respectively, and the hypothetical donations of urban and rural supporters totaled 11.1 and 21.3 times more than opposition WTP totals. More positive attitudes towards clouded leopards were positively related to respondent support and greater WTP for reintroduction. Clouded leopard reintroduction is generally supported by the Taiwanese public, but rural support could change post-release given the large percentage of neutral respondents. We recommend indigenous involvement in any reintroduction effort and an educational campaign to increase awareness among Taiwanese residents about clouded leopards and their potential reintroduction. Keywords Rural and urban attitudes . Carnivores . Felids . Clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) . Indigenous communities . Extinct species reintroduction . Willingness-to-pay (WTP) . Tawushan nature reserve . Taiwan
Introduction Carnivore populations, particularly felids, are in decline globally due to habitat loss, fragmentation, overexploitation, and direct persecution (Ripple et al. 2014; Wolf and Ripple 2017). Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-02000195-9. * Evan Greenspan [email protected] 1
Department of Forestry and Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA
2
SPECIES, P.O. Box 7403, Ventura, CA 93006, USA
3
Graduate Institute of Bioresources, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Neipu 91201, Taiwan
4
Institute of Wildlife Conservation, College of Veterinary Medicine, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Neipu 91201, Taiwan
As top predators in their native ecosystems, felids are an essential component of healthy ecosystem f
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