Phobias of spiders, bats and snakes could be hindering efforts to conserve them. That鈥檚 the implication from a study which found that people with an understanding of ecology are willing to pay to preserve scary animals, while those less knowledgeable prefer cuddlier ones.
Berta Mart铆n-L贸pez and colleagues at the Autonomous University of Madrid conducted a survey of 650 visitors to 鈥� a World Heritage park in Spain. The park is home to 4000 species many of which are endemic or threatened, including the iconic (Lynx pardinus), the world鈥檚 most threatened cat.
The team asked visitors to classify 15 animals found in the park in order of preference, then asked them how much they would be willing to pay for their top five preferred species.
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Other questions in the survey allowed the team to identify six main categories of visitors to the park: ranging from beach tourists 鈥� who were there to enjoy the shoreline 鈥� to environmental professionals. Nature tourists were defined as having some awareness of the local ecology and conservation.
The researchers found that, on average, visitors were willing to put 23.2 euros (拢15.75/$31.6) a year towards conservation efforts. But this money tended to be allocated to emblematic species.
鈥淭he top three preferred species were the Iberian lynx, the Spanish imperial eagle, and the greater flamingo,鈥� says Mart铆n-L贸pez. 鈥淏ut different users of biodiversity have different interests in biodiversity, and different reasons to pay.鈥�
Sympathetic conservation
Residents of the area showed a preference for 鈥渦seful鈥� species such as a local breed of horse. But nature tourists said they were more willing to pay to conserve endemic species, as well as spiders, bats and snakes.
鈥淏ased on their knowledge of ecology, it is reasonable to think that this group prefers to conserve species that have an important ecological role or are endemic. Bats are ecologically important because they control the population of insects, and snakes control rodents.鈥�
But Mart铆n-L贸pez thinks the nature tourists may have another, more provocative reason for wanting to protect the creepy-crawlies. 鈥淭hey may suspect that people hate this type of species, and therefore support their conservation.鈥�
One quarter of visitors said they would not be prepared to give their own money to conservation efforts, mostly because they felt this was the responsibility of regional and national governments.
Endearing eyes
Mart铆n-L贸pez is looking at other surveys to get a global picture of the public鈥檚 willingness to pay for conservation in different environments.
She says preliminary results suggest that the similarity between an animal and humans heavily influences its popularity. Deer, whales and seals seem to do rather well in surveys, she says, possibly because humans prefer features such as large, round eyes.
But Mart铆n-L贸pez believes her results show that more public education about less popular species could expand conservation efforts. 鈥淚f nature tourists are aware of the importance of conserving ugly or repulsive animals because they have some knowledge about them,鈥� she says, 鈥渢he general public would agree to conserve these species if [environment agencies] focused more effort on education programmes.鈥�
Jean-Christophe Vi茅, of the , believes the attractiveness of certain species stems from a poor understanding of the complexity of ecosystems. 鈥淧eople forget the Iberian lynx needs rabbits for food,鈥� he says, adding that conservation biologists would support rabbits in order to save the lynx.
But he says the public鈥檚 simplistic view is not something that necessarily needs to be fought. 鈥淲hat we, as conservation professionals, need to do is see that we can use the money to protect the charismatic species and others underneath it 鈥� if we conserve the tiger鈥檚 habitat, we protect other species that live there too.鈥�
Journal reference:
Endangered species 鈥� Learn more about the conservation battle in our comprehensive special report.
