Reducing Demand for Overexploited Wildlife Products: Lessons from Systematic Reviews from Outside Conservation Science

Conservationists have long sought to reduce consumer demand for overexploited wildlife products. More recently, health practitioners and others have begun calling for reductions in the wildlife trade to reduce the risk of pandemics. Despite this broadening interest, most wildlife-focused demand reduction campaigns have lacked rigorous evaluations and thus their impacts remain unknown. There is thus an urgent need to review the evidence from beyond conservation science to inform future demand-reduction efforts. We searched for systematic reviews of interventions that aimed to reduce consumer demand for harmful products (e.g., cigarettes and illicit drugs). In total, 41 systematic reviews were assessed, and their data extracted. Mass-media campaigns and incentive programs were, on average, ineffective. While advertising bans, social marketing and location bans were promising, there was insufficient robust evidence to draw firm conclusions. In contrast, the evidence for the effectiveness of risk warnings and appeals to norms was stronger, with some caveats.