The global trade in cephalopods is a multi-billion dollar business involving the fishing and prod... more The global trade in cephalopods is a multi-billion dollar business involving the fishing and production of more than ten commercially valuable species. It also contributes, in whole or in part, to the subsistence and economic livelihoods of thousands of coastal communities around the world. The importance of cephalopods as a major cultural, social, economic, and ecological resource has been widely recognised, but research efforts to describe the extent and scope of the global cephalopod trade are limited. So far, there are no specific regulatory and monitoring systems in place to analyse the traceability of the global trade in cephalopods at the international level. To understand who are the main global players in cephalopod seafood markets, this paper provides, for the first time, a global overview of the legal trade in cephalopods. Twenty years of records compiled in the UN COMTRADE database were analysed. The database contained 115,108 records for squid and cuttlefish and 71,659 records for octopus, including commodity flows between traders (territories or countries) weighted by monetary value (USD) and volume (kg). A theoretical network analysis was used to identify the emergent properties of this large trade network by analysing centrality measures that revealed key insights into the role of traders. The results illustrate that three countries (China, Spain, and Japan) led the majority of global market movements between 2000 and 2019. Based on volume and value, as well as the number of transactions, 11 groups of traders were identified. The leading cluster consisted of only eight traders, who dominated the cephalopod market in Asia (China, India, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam), Europe (the Netherlands, and Spain), and the USA. This paper identifies the countries and territories that acted as major importers or exporters, the best-connected traders, the hubs or accumulators, the modulators, the main flow routes, and the weak points of the global cephalopod trade network over the last 20 years. This knowledge of the network is crucial to move towards an environmentally sustainable, transparent, and food-secure global cephalopod trade. Cephalopods account for around 2.5% of seafood production. Landings have increased in relative terms by 416% since 1961 to reach an all-time maximum of around 4 million tonnes in 2013, before dropping to around 3 million tonnes in 2019 (Fig. 1a). East Asia and South America, led by China and Peru, drive the increase in production, while Japan has halved its cephalopod production over the past 50 years 1,2 (Fig. 1b,c). Despite an evident global trend of declining cephalopod catches since 2013, their commercialisation in volume (tonnes) and monetary value (USA dollars, hereafter USD) has followed a steady increasing trend, by sixfold in volume and 14-fold in USD, since the 1950s. East Asia and South America (particularly Peru and Argentina, including Malvinas/Falkland Islands) have concentrated the highest production of volume in the last 20 years, staying in the same predominant position since the 80s (Fig. 1b,c). Regarding cephalopod market value, Asian (China, Japan, Thailand, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Vietnam, India), European (Spain, Italy), African (Morocco) and North American (the USA) countries hold the 10 most important fishing fleets in the world 2. Considering relevant stocks of squid and octopus, worldwide catches of shortfin squid (Illex spp., see family Ommastrephidae in Fig. 1a) fell from 850,000 tonnes in 2014 to 200,000 tonnes or less in recent years. Shortfin squid catches in the Malvinas/Falkland Islands have been low (43,400 t) in recent years, and the year 2019 marked the third consecutive year of slow recovery of the South Patagonian stock after its extremely low abundance
Human impacts on the marine environment threaten the wellbeing of hundreds of millions of people.... more Human impacts on the marine environment threaten the wellbeing of hundreds of millions of people. Marine environments are a common-pool resource (CPR) and one of their major management challenges is how to incorporate the value of ecosystem services to society in decision-making. Cultural ecosystem services (CES) relate to the often intangible benefits people receive from their interactions with the natural environment and contribute to individual and collective human wellbeing. Priority knowledge gaps include the need to better understand shared values regarding CES, and how to effectively integrate these values into decision-making. We filmed 40 Community Voice Method interviews with marine stakeholders in two areas of the UK to improve on the valuation of coastal and marine CES. Results show that cultural benefits including sense of place, aesthetic pleasure and cultural identity were bi-directional, contributed directly to a 'fulfilled human life' and were associated with charismatic marine life and biodiversity. Other-regarding self-transcendence values were salient underscoring a desire for sustainable marine management. We critically reflect on our analytical framework that integrates aspects of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment and IPBES conceptual frameworks. The thematic codebook developed for this study could prove useful for future comparative studies in other marine CES contexts. We propose that values-led management could increase the efficacy of marine planning strategies.
Of equal, and perhaps greater, importance to the project has been the input from the many 'stakeh... more Of equal, and perhaps greater, importance to the project has been the input from the many 'stakeholders'. They have contributed to the project in many ways: adding posts to the project's blog; completing questionnaires; attending the workshops; supplying additional literature for review; attending the project review seminars; completing the final survey; and, above all, taking part in the discussion. This project has not been delivered by a few computer slaves; it has harnessed the knowledge, experience and perspectives of a very large number of people. They have given their time freely to tell us what they think.
This research aims to understand why one of two almost identical subspecies of the Australian yel... more This research aims to understand why one of two almost identical subspecies of the Australian yellow chat Ephthianura crocea has received significantly higher levels of local and institutional support than the other despite both having the same conservation status and taxonomic distinctiveness, factors commonly thought to influence conservation effort. Using a qualitative multiple case study approach we explored how a range of social factors, including stakeholder attitudes and institutional, policy and operational aspects, might have affected conservation efforts for the two taxa. Our results suggest that the conservation trajectories of these two subspecies have diverged since their identification as threatened species in because of differences in the social landscapes within which they persist. For one subspecies local advocacy was kindled initially by the small number of local endemic bird species but developed into a strong emotional engagement, resulting in increased local awareness, government funding, and effectiveness of conservation action. The other subspecies has had to compete for attention with approximately other threatened taxa occurring in its region. No individual advocate has accorded this subspecies a high priority for action, and none of those responsible for its conservation have seen it or acknowledged an emotional attachment to it. Our findings confirm that initiation of conservation effort is strongly tied to the social values of individuals with power to take action, regardless of legislation.
We investigated how the socio-political and ecological environment are associated with the conser... more We investigated how the socio-political and ecological environment are associated with the conservation management strategies for two rare, endemic and almost identical Australian white-tailed blackcockatoos: Baudin's (Calyptorhynchus baudinii) and Carnaby's black-cockatoo (C. latirostris). Substantially less investment and action has occurred for Baudin's black-cockatoo. Interviews with key informants revealed that this disparity has probably arisen because Baudin's black-cockatoo has long been considered a pest to the apple industry, lives primarily in tall forests and has had little research undertaken on its biology and threats. By contrast, Carnaby's blackcockatoo has been the subject of one of the longest running research projects in Australia, is highly visible within the urban environment and does not appear to affect the livelihoods of any strong stakeholder group. We suggest the social context within which recovery efforts occur could be an important determinant in species persistence. We argue that social research is fundamental to a better understanding of the nature of efforts to conserve particular species, the factors associated with these efforts and their likelihood of success.
Birds are of significant scientific and public interest yet although human interactions with bird... more Birds are of significant scientific and public interest yet although human interactions with birds are widespread and diverse in nature, relatively few people participate in conservation initiatives. Understanding how conservation practitioners describe conservation issues and whether this resonates with recipients' attitudes could help create more appealing conservation strategies. This study applied a new typology of 12 avifaunal attitudes during 74 qualitative interviews with Australian conservation practitioners from the government, non-government, private, public and scientific sectors to investigate how they frame threatened bird issues. Messages about threatened bird conservation were typically positive and framed according to four major themes: morality, intrinsic value, empathy and loss. A strong link between empathy for wildlife and moral justification for preventing extinctions emerged. We recommend that public messages advocating for threatened bird conservation could be framed in positive ways that arouse emotions. Expressing a broad range of attitudes could appeal at both public interest and policymaker levels and assist with developing more effective frames to capture some of the complex social landscape within which threatened species conservation operates. These findings could apply to wildlife conservation in Australia and elsewhere. Finally, the typology can assist with developing appropriately framed and targeted conservation engagement strategies.
Iconic, flagship and rare threatened bird taxa attract disproportionate amounts of public attenti... more Iconic, flagship and rare threatened bird taxa attract disproportionate amounts of public attention, and are often used to enable broader conservation strategies. Yet, little is known about why certain taxa achieve iconic or flagship status. Also unclear is whether the perception of rarity among those acting to conserve threatened birds is sufficient to influence attitudes and behaviour that lead to effective conservation action and, if so, which characteristics of rare birds are important to their conservation. We interviewed 74 threatened bird conservation stakeholders to explore perceptions about iconic, flagship and rare threatened birds and classified their attitudes using a new typology of avifaunal attitudes. There was a relationship between societal interest and conservation effort for threatened species characterised as iconic, flagship and rare. Iconic species tended to arouse interest or emotion in people due to being appealing and readily encountered, thereby attracting conservation interest that can benefit other biodiversity. Flagships tended Communicated by Danna J Leaman. This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Biodiversity appreciation and engagement.
From attitudes to action: how understanding public values can increase the success of threatened ... more From attitudes to action: how understanding public values can increase the success of threatened bird conservation Orange-bellied Parrot; functionally extinct in the wild 2010 The influence of values on conservation outcomes for Australian threatened birds Gill Ainsworth 3rd year of PhD: Social Values of Australian Threatened Birds Australian Research Council Linkage project: 'Increasing the effectiveness & efficiency of threatened bird conservation'
The global trade in cephalopods is a multi-billion dollar business involving the fishing and prod... more The global trade in cephalopods is a multi-billion dollar business involving the fishing and production of more than ten commercially valuable species. It also contributes, in whole or in part, to the subsistence and economic livelihoods of thousands of coastal communities around the world. The importance of cephalopods as a major cultural, social, economic, and ecological resource has been widely recognised, but research efforts to describe the extent and scope of the global cephalopod trade are limited. So far, there are no specific regulatory and monitoring systems in place to analyse the traceability of the global trade in cephalopods at the international level. To understand who are the main global players in cephalopod seafood markets, this paper provides, for the first time, a global overview of the legal trade in cephalopods. Twenty years of records compiled in the UN COMTRADE database were analysed. The database contained 115,108 records for squid and cuttlefish and 71,659 records for octopus, including commodity flows between traders (territories or countries) weighted by monetary value (USD) and volume (kg). A theoretical network analysis was used to identify the emergent properties of this large trade network by analysing centrality measures that revealed key insights into the role of traders. The results illustrate that three countries (China, Spain, and Japan) led the majority of global market movements between 2000 and 2019. Based on volume and value, as well as the number of transactions, 11 groups of traders were identified. The leading cluster consisted of only eight traders, who dominated the cephalopod market in Asia (China, India, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam), Europe (the Netherlands, and Spain), and the USA. This paper identifies the countries and territories that acted as major importers or exporters, the best-connected traders, the hubs or accumulators, the modulators, the main flow routes, and the weak points of the global cephalopod trade network over the last 20 years. This knowledge of the network is crucial to move towards an environmentally sustainable, transparent, and food-secure global cephalopod trade. Cephalopods account for around 2.5% of seafood production. Landings have increased in relative terms by 416% since 1961 to reach an all-time maximum of around 4 million tonnes in 2013, before dropping to around 3 million tonnes in 2019 (Fig. 1a). East Asia and South America, led by China and Peru, drive the increase in production, while Japan has halved its cephalopod production over the past 50 years 1,2 (Fig. 1b,c). Despite an evident global trend of declining cephalopod catches since 2013, their commercialisation in volume (tonnes) and monetary value (USA dollars, hereafter USD) has followed a steady increasing trend, by sixfold in volume and 14-fold in USD, since the 1950s. East Asia and South America (particularly Peru and Argentina, including Malvinas/Falkland Islands) have concentrated the highest production of volume in the last 20 years, staying in the same predominant position since the 80s (Fig. 1b,c). Regarding cephalopod market value, Asian (China, Japan, Thailand, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Vietnam, India), European (Spain, Italy), African (Morocco) and North American (the USA) countries hold the 10 most important fishing fleets in the world 2. Considering relevant stocks of squid and octopus, worldwide catches of shortfin squid (Illex spp., see family Ommastrephidae in Fig. 1a) fell from 850,000 tonnes in 2014 to 200,000 tonnes or less in recent years. Shortfin squid catches in the Malvinas/Falkland Islands have been low (43,400 t) in recent years, and the year 2019 marked the third consecutive year of slow recovery of the South Patagonian stock after its extremely low abundance
Human impacts on the marine environment threaten the wellbeing of hundreds of millions of people.... more Human impacts on the marine environment threaten the wellbeing of hundreds of millions of people. Marine environments are a common-pool resource (CPR) and one of their major management challenges is how to incorporate the value of ecosystem services to society in decision-making. Cultural ecosystem services (CES) relate to the often intangible benefits people receive from their interactions with the natural environment and contribute to individual and collective human wellbeing. Priority knowledge gaps include the need to better understand shared values regarding CES, and how to effectively integrate these values into decision-making. We filmed 40 Community Voice Method interviews with marine stakeholders in two areas of the UK to improve on the valuation of coastal and marine CES. Results show that cultural benefits including sense of place, aesthetic pleasure and cultural identity were bi-directional, contributed directly to a 'fulfilled human life' and were associated with charismatic marine life and biodiversity. Other-regarding self-transcendence values were salient underscoring a desire for sustainable marine management. We critically reflect on our analytical framework that integrates aspects of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment and IPBES conceptual frameworks. The thematic codebook developed for this study could prove useful for future comparative studies in other marine CES contexts. We propose that values-led management could increase the efficacy of marine planning strategies.
Of equal, and perhaps greater, importance to the project has been the input from the many 'stakeh... more Of equal, and perhaps greater, importance to the project has been the input from the many 'stakeholders'. They have contributed to the project in many ways: adding posts to the project's blog; completing questionnaires; attending the workshops; supplying additional literature for review; attending the project review seminars; completing the final survey; and, above all, taking part in the discussion. This project has not been delivered by a few computer slaves; it has harnessed the knowledge, experience and perspectives of a very large number of people. They have given their time freely to tell us what they think.
This research aims to understand why one of two almost identical subspecies of the Australian yel... more This research aims to understand why one of two almost identical subspecies of the Australian yellow chat Ephthianura crocea has received significantly higher levels of local and institutional support than the other despite both having the same conservation status and taxonomic distinctiveness, factors commonly thought to influence conservation effort. Using a qualitative multiple case study approach we explored how a range of social factors, including stakeholder attitudes and institutional, policy and operational aspects, might have affected conservation efforts for the two taxa. Our results suggest that the conservation trajectories of these two subspecies have diverged since their identification as threatened species in because of differences in the social landscapes within which they persist. For one subspecies local advocacy was kindled initially by the small number of local endemic bird species but developed into a strong emotional engagement, resulting in increased local awareness, government funding, and effectiveness of conservation action. The other subspecies has had to compete for attention with approximately other threatened taxa occurring in its region. No individual advocate has accorded this subspecies a high priority for action, and none of those responsible for its conservation have seen it or acknowledged an emotional attachment to it. Our findings confirm that initiation of conservation effort is strongly tied to the social values of individuals with power to take action, regardless of legislation.
We investigated how the socio-political and ecological environment are associated with the conser... more We investigated how the socio-political and ecological environment are associated with the conservation management strategies for two rare, endemic and almost identical Australian white-tailed blackcockatoos: Baudin's (Calyptorhynchus baudinii) and Carnaby's black-cockatoo (C. latirostris). Substantially less investment and action has occurred for Baudin's black-cockatoo. Interviews with key informants revealed that this disparity has probably arisen because Baudin's black-cockatoo has long been considered a pest to the apple industry, lives primarily in tall forests and has had little research undertaken on its biology and threats. By contrast, Carnaby's blackcockatoo has been the subject of one of the longest running research projects in Australia, is highly visible within the urban environment and does not appear to affect the livelihoods of any strong stakeholder group. We suggest the social context within which recovery efforts occur could be an important determinant in species persistence. We argue that social research is fundamental to a better understanding of the nature of efforts to conserve particular species, the factors associated with these efforts and their likelihood of success.
Birds are of significant scientific and public interest yet although human interactions with bird... more Birds are of significant scientific and public interest yet although human interactions with birds are widespread and diverse in nature, relatively few people participate in conservation initiatives. Understanding how conservation practitioners describe conservation issues and whether this resonates with recipients' attitudes could help create more appealing conservation strategies. This study applied a new typology of 12 avifaunal attitudes during 74 qualitative interviews with Australian conservation practitioners from the government, non-government, private, public and scientific sectors to investigate how they frame threatened bird issues. Messages about threatened bird conservation were typically positive and framed according to four major themes: morality, intrinsic value, empathy and loss. A strong link between empathy for wildlife and moral justification for preventing extinctions emerged. We recommend that public messages advocating for threatened bird conservation could be framed in positive ways that arouse emotions. Expressing a broad range of attitudes could appeal at both public interest and policymaker levels and assist with developing more effective frames to capture some of the complex social landscape within which threatened species conservation operates. These findings could apply to wildlife conservation in Australia and elsewhere. Finally, the typology can assist with developing appropriately framed and targeted conservation engagement strategies.
Iconic, flagship and rare threatened bird taxa attract disproportionate amounts of public attenti... more Iconic, flagship and rare threatened bird taxa attract disproportionate amounts of public attention, and are often used to enable broader conservation strategies. Yet, little is known about why certain taxa achieve iconic or flagship status. Also unclear is whether the perception of rarity among those acting to conserve threatened birds is sufficient to influence attitudes and behaviour that lead to effective conservation action and, if so, which characteristics of rare birds are important to their conservation. We interviewed 74 threatened bird conservation stakeholders to explore perceptions about iconic, flagship and rare threatened birds and classified their attitudes using a new typology of avifaunal attitudes. There was a relationship between societal interest and conservation effort for threatened species characterised as iconic, flagship and rare. Iconic species tended to arouse interest or emotion in people due to being appealing and readily encountered, thereby attracting conservation interest that can benefit other biodiversity. Flagships tended Communicated by Danna J Leaman. This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Biodiversity appreciation and engagement.
From attitudes to action: how understanding public values can increase the success of threatened ... more From attitudes to action: how understanding public values can increase the success of threatened bird conservation Orange-bellied Parrot; functionally extinct in the wild 2010 The influence of values on conservation outcomes for Australian threatened birds Gill Ainsworth 3rd year of PhD: Social Values of Australian Threatened Birds Australian Research Council Linkage project: 'Increasing the effectiveness & efficiency of threatened bird conservation'
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