The recent announcement from Vietnam’s Prime Minister asking all government departments to react strongly on wildlife crime is good news and an important step forward in the fight to end rhino poaching, according to the WWF’s Rhino Programme Manager for South Africa, Dr Jo Shaw.

‘It’s a significant step in the right direction, similar to last month’s London conference,’ she told us in an exclusive interview this week about WWF South Africa’s plans for a targeted ‘behaviour change’ public information campaign, in conjunction with TRAFFIC, designed to curb increasing consumption of rhino horn in the country.

Survey reveals many Vietnamese aspire to use horn

‘A lot of high level leaders are acknowledging wildlife crime and the need to act on it as a serious issue,’ she said. ‘Even at the time we were releasing our survey results about the use of rhino horn in Vietnam last year, the Vietnamese government was still being very defensive and arguing against the idea the problem was actually anything to do with them. So the fact that the government has acknowledged it and is now talking about the problem is quite a big step forward.’

Working to change behaviour in rhino horn consumer countries is just part of a five-pronged approach the WWF is now taking to tackle the problem of rhino poaching. Its survey to find out exactly who is using rhino horn and why is part of this and has thrown up some worrying findings. For example it found that the main driver for consumption of rhino horn among users in Vietnam was emotional rather than purely medicinal. It also found the main users are consuming real horn, not fake horn. More worryingly it revealed the current demand for rhino horn in the country was just the tip of a potentially much larger iceberg.

Consumers were proud of using rhino horn

‘There’s this latent demand underneath. Economically Vietnam has been growing very strongly over the past few years, and has not been impacted by the global recession like other places. There’s every indication it will continue to do so. It’s a very young population that’s continuing to increase rapidly and people will continue to become more wealthy. The guys we identified as intending to consume rhino horn will become wealthy enough to do so and that’s a very worrying trend.’

‘Our work so far has been about understanding who the consumers are, what it is that drives them to buy and consume horn and how we can change that behaviour,’ Dr Shaw went on to explain.

‘We acknowledged from the beginning that work in Vietnam was desperately needed, but when we sat down to start looking at the campaign messaging, what we should be saying and who we should be saying it to, we realised that actually we weren’t completely sure. Some research we did made us concerned we could inadvertently end up increasing the desirability of rhino horn if we weren’t very clear in our understanding of who was buying it and why they were doing it. For that reason TRAFFIC employed IPSOS a market research company, to undertake some broad quantitative interviews, and some more focused qualitative ones, in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. It wasn’t a random survey, it was a targeted campaign. We needed to identify the archetypal buyer, so we could understand how to talk to them.’

Horn is seen as a preventive medicine, a panacea

Dr Shaw said that at first there was some concern people might not admit to using or buying horn as it is what she describes as ‘a nominally illegal activity’ in Vietnam.

‘But almost the first week the surveyors went out – and I should just emphasise that these are Vietnamese nationals, speaking in Vietnamese, and using the same kind of methodology they would to find out about washing powder or a new brand of beer – people were not only very willing to admit that they were buying and using rhino horn, but also almost proud of it, boastful that this was a world that they were part of.’

So what is the market for rhino horn in Vietnam, who is using it?

Dr Shaw said their findings identified three groups:

• ‘The real drivers of the market appear to be wealthy older businessmen, who are both buying and consuming horn and doing it very much within their group of friends. These people are in the upper echelons of society and form quite a tight-knit group; using rhino horn with friends and colleagues and buying the horn from people they knew. Being part of an exclusive network seems to be a big part of the appeal. For these guys making money and showing their colleagues how much money they are making is the most important thing in their world. They are not particularly influenced by their wives or their children, or things we might imagine are driving their consumption.’
• ‘Older women in their fifties, who are often educated and quite wealthy. They tend to just buy the horn. There’s a split between people who are just buying and using, and people who are buying for others. So these women were tending to gift the horn either to their older parents, or to their children. These older wealthy women are often just buying it, driven by both medicinal and emotional reasons.’
• ‘The third group we identified are what we call ”the intenders”. If the first group are the Mr Bigs, these are the Mr Bigs of the future. Mr Big is the boss at the moment, he’s the most important person in their world, they want to be him, they want to emulate him. They can’t afford to buy rhino horn at the moment, but a large proportion of people indicated they wanted to do so in the future. They are primarily just restricted by income. As soon as they have the funds to do so this is something they want to be part of.’

Vietnamese see poaching as South Africa’s problem

What are people in Vietnam using rhino horn for?

‘In essence there’s still a belief in it’s medicinal properties, the fact that it’s a very powerful medicine, that it can cleanse and cool the body. It’s being prescribed for a very wide range of symptoms and illnesses, much broader than we perhaps expected. It’s also being perceived as a kind of preventive medicine, a panacea, and people are gifting it to older family members to help them stay healthy in the future, not necessarily to treat a chronic illness right now,’ said Dr Shaw.

‘But the primary driver seems to be the emotional benefits that are associated with it – the fact it’s supposed to make you feel strong and powerful and wealthy. Because it’s so expensive and rare and powerful, by giving it to someone you are bestowing great favour upon them. You are showing in what high esteem you hold them.

Is a lot of the horn being consumed fake?

‘The people we were talking to, the guys who are using the real stuff, are not going to medicine shops and buying it. They are buying it from a friend of a friend, they are buying it through word of mouth from within their trusted groups,’ Dr Shaw suggested. ‘I’m sure it’s very likely that the stuff that’s advertised more widely in traditional medicine shops isn’t the real thing, that the shops are preying on the broader demand. But the guys at the level of the market that we’re looking at are getting horn from what they consider trusted sources, and that’s part of the appeal.’

Do horn consumers care about wild rhinos and the poaching?

The survey revealed just how disassociated people using rhino horn felt from rhinos in the wild. ‘The rhino message didn’t resonate very strongly with them,’ said Dr Shaw. ‘People felt very disassociated from the wildlife. The accusation that Vietnamese were responsible for the death of rhinos didn’t really have a logical connection. People would say, ”well I didn’t shoot the rhino”, or ”the rhinos are hidden in the forest, we don’t see them. They don’t matter to us”.’

There wasn’t a strong link with nature, so trying to educate people by showing them pictures of dead rhinos and carcasses didn’t have any resonance. She explained that it was difficult using images of rhinos because of the myth around rhinos associated with how big, powerful and strong they are. ‘Images showing rhinos with big horns, is simply reinforcing that message. So for us that’s been something really important to learn.’

What happens next?

‘We’re just about to finish a second quick survey to be clear on what exactly the message should be, if it’s not ‘don’t kill our rhinos’ because that doesn’t have any impact. And to find out who should be saying it? Are celebrities the right way to get the message across? If David Beckham does TV adverts telling you to switch off the tap while you’re cleaning your teeth, are you actually going to do that? Or is it better coming from someone within your peer group? It’s also best to work with positive messaging.’

One thing that did come through quite strongly in the survey has been the need for any campaign to be backed up by strong law enforcement. ‘In terms of changing behaviour, you need to inform people, but the more likely they are to be penalised, the more the message is reinforced.’

‘There’s been almost no risk of people being caught so far,’ Dr Shaw explained. ‘There have been very few arrests for anyone, maybe a few traffickers for horn coming into the country, but almost nothing at the consumer end. It’s not seen as a risk. In fact when asked for a solution the Vietnamese said South Africa should be doing more, they should crack down on the poachers. They found it very difficult to understand why this should be Vietnam’s problem. So I think it’s a good step in the right direction the Government has acknowledged the problem and is now talking about it. ‘

‘The brief will now be going out to advertisers to design a campaign for us. The group we have decided to focus on is the current user, because given so many of the drivers influencing him are around his status and how he’s viewed, that in some ways makes him quite vulnerable. If you can just get the whispers starting in those groups that actually this isn’t so clever, potentially there’s a way to shift things there, and in doing so you would hopefully change the behaviour of the intender market which is modelling behaviour on Mr Big and wants to be him,’ she added.

‘We do have quite a short period of time to make a really big change, to influence the users at the moment. I don’t think we should be niaïve about what a challenge that is. I don’t think it’s impossible, but I don’t think it’s going to be easy either. If we want to have an impact that’s where we have to start. Obviously long term the demand is not only rhino horn, but any number of other wildlife products. Demand from Asia is going to be a problem long term, but in terms of rhinos we have decided to focus this campaign on the main driver that we see at the moment.’

Dr Shaw stressed it was important to get the message out there. ‘We need high level political commitment to combating wildlife crime. Wildlife crime is becoming a threat to national security and national economies in Africa. It was great at the London conference to see that being acknowledged. We’ve seen the launch of the US strategy by President Obama. But there’s still a lot of misconception about where rhino horn goes and what it’s being used for. In South Africa there almost seems to be a sense of defeat, that this problem is bigger than us and we can’t solve it. That’s absolutely not the case, we can’t give up now, there’s still a lot that can be done.’