Restoration and conservation for declined carnivore populations by economic exploitation in China

对野生动物日益增长的经济开发，加上非法偷猎，导致中国许多食肉动物种群数量最近下降，对保护和可持续发展构成了挑战。然而，将野生捕获的食肉动物用于中药，并作为丛林肉的来源，是东亚传统文化的一个既定组成部分。为了研究如何最好地解决这一矛盾，在2006年至2011年期间，我们在中国南方的广州地区进行了实地调查，并采访了农场，市场和丛林肉餐馆的所有者，重点是：我们确定了被交易的食肉动物种类、数量和具体目的。我们在2012年至2013年的进一步调查显示，与非常有限和过时的生态信息（分布、栖息地使用）相关的物种执法困难重重，而且违反国际禁令的非法动物贸易仍在发生。

The increasing economic exploitation of wildlife, in tandem with illegal poaching, has led to recent population declines amongst many carnivore species in China, creating a challenge for conservation and sustainability. The use of wild-caught carnivores for Chinese traditional medicine, and as a source of bushmeat is, however, an established part of traditional east-Asian culture. To investigate how best to resolve this paradox, between 2006 and 2011, we conducted field surveys and interviewed owners at farms, markets and bushmeat restaurants, in the Guanzhou region of southern China, focusing. We established which carnivore species were being traded, in what numbers, and for what specific purpose. Our further investigation in 2012-13 exposed the difficulties of enforcing species connected to very limited and out-dated ecological information (distribution, habitat use), and that illegal trade in animals was still taking place, contrary to an international ban.