Researchers from The Universities of Oxford and Stirling, UK, Wildlife Conservation Society, DRC, The Intitut de Recherche en Ecologie Tropicale, Gabon and The École Régionale Post-universitaire D’aménagement et de Gestion Intégrés des Forêts Tropicales, ROC, are collaborating on a new programme: Assessing the COVID-19 pandemic’s influence on perceptions around wildlife consumption and wildlife management policies. This project will:
- Explore the perceptions, and behaviour of wildlife consumption in China, DRC, Gabon, ROC and the UK,
- Understand the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on these perceptions
- Understand how these public responses are shaped by media discourses.
Research will investigate which information sources on COVID-19 are used by media and social media, and how much scientific evidence underpins these narratives. We will investigate the extent that these different media outlets and sources are trusted by the public, and in particular wild meat users. Our teams will compare policy suggestions on wildlife consumption emerging in the media in response to Covid-19, and explore support for these policies across demographics.
This research will be used to provide evidence-based policy briefs to inform national and regional wild meat policy design and implementation, with aim of reducing and regulating wild meat consumption in urban areas