مطالعه زمینه ای قاچاق حیات وحش در ایران (مطالعه موردی: بازار پرندگان خلیج فارس تهران) (مقاله علمی وزارت علوم)
درجه علمی: نشریه علمی (وزارت علوم)
آرشیو
چکیده
هدف پژوهش حاضر، مطالعه زمینه ای قاچاق حیات وحش در بازار پرندگان خلیج فارس تهران است. رویکرد این مطالعه «کیفی»، روش پژوهش «نظریه داده بنیاد» و ابزار گردآوری داده ها، «مصاحبه عمیق نیمه ساختاریافته» بود. پس از شناسایی گروه های گرودار اصلی، به کمک روش نمونه گیری هدفمند با 23 نفر از آنها (12 فروشنده و 11 خریدار) تا زمان دستیابی به «حداکثر تنوع در پاسخ ها» و «اشباع نظری» مصاحبه شد. پس از پیاده سازی کامل متن مصاحبه ها و سه مرحله کدگذاری باز، بسته و محوری صورت گرفت.برون داد کدهای محوری در قالب شرایط علی شامل «سرگرمی و لذت جویی»، «ادای سنت»، «تفاخر و ثروت نمایی» «آزمایش و پژوهش علمی»، «واسطه گری برای قاچاق» و «مصرف دارویی» بود. شرایط مداخله گر «باورهای خرافی»، «تبلیغات» و «تقلید از دیگران» و شرایط زمینه ای «قبح زدایی و مشروعیت بخشی اجتماعی و اخلاقی»، «اجرانکردن عملی قوانین و مقررات محیط زیست»، «فقر و بی کاری»، «بی تفاوتی و مسخ فردی و جمعی» و «ناآگاهی از عواقب قاچاق حیات وحش» شناسایی شد. همچنین راهبردهای مقابله ای «آموزش و فرهنگ پروری»، «تشدید نظارت های قانونی»، «ارائه فرصت های اشتغال جایگزین به فروشندگان» و «ارائه سازوکارهای لازم برای تجارت قانونی با اهداف مجاز» تعیین و پیش بینی شد. پیامدهای مقابله با قاچاق حیات وحش شامل «حفاظت از تنوع زیستی»، «بازیابی کرامت و شأن انسانی متخلفان» و «رعایت حقوق حیوانات» خواهد بود. درنهایت، یافته های پژوهش در قالب مدل پارادایمی، ارائه شد.A Contextual Study of Wildlife Trafficking in Iran (Case Study: Khalij-e-Fars Bird Market in Tehran)
Introduction
Illegal wildlife hunting, trading, and smuggling have devastating effects on both species' lives and society's economy. This phenomenon has several socio-economic causes and consequences. The effective management of wildlife trafficking requires identification and inclusion of all stakeholders (Kolahi, 2021: 26) involved in the supply and demand sides of wildlife trafficking in hard and soft management and planning frameworks (Kasterine & Lichtenstein, 2018: 23-24). Some studies show that focusing solely on restrictions and prohibitions on the supply side without considering the social actions of actors on the demand side can have unintended consequences. Trade bans, for example, can increase consumer demand and make poaching a more profitable activity by driving up the price of trafficked wildlife (Cronin et al., 2015; Leader-Williams, 2014: 112). The absence of strong supervision and continuous monitoring can strengthen black markets and perpetually increase the economic profit of wildlife trafficking for black market dealers (Challender et al., 2019: 2). Additionally, environmental sociologists aim to design and implement supply-side interventions that recognize the drivers of trafficking and reduce consumer demand (Wright et al., 2016: 5). It is argued that many wild species are currently caught by poachers through various methods, including direct hunting with guns, trapping in nets, and poisoning with chemical poisons, thus entering the cycle of trafficking due to unfavorable social conditions (Olea et al., 2022: 2-3; De Lange et al., 2021: 889). However, the various drivers involved in the wildlife trafficking process are still not well understood (Thomas-Walters et al., 2021: 489; Margulies et al., 2019: 216) and have been neglected by researchers, planners, and policymakers (Phelps et al., 2016: 483). Despite wildlife trafficking being a pervasive phenomenon in contemporary Iran, few studies have been conducted on its social, moral, and cultural aspects. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies on the drivers and consequences of wildlife trafficking. The current research aimed to investigate the phenomenon of wildlife trafficking in Iran as a social action from the perspective of environmental sociology. In this regard, a qualitative approach was used to study the two main groups of stakeholders in the Khalij-e-Fars Bird Market of Tehran: the sellers of smuggled wildlife and its buyers. A paradigm model of wildlife trafficking in Khalij-e-Fars Bird Market is presented based on the results of the study.
Materials & Methods
The present study took a qualitative approach based on "Grounded Theory" with the aim of theory-making based on interpretative-constructive foundations. This method was used to build a data-oriented theory for criticizing, expanding, and testing formal theories. This study used the same methodology as applied by Zare Shahabadi & Mohammadi (2021) and Ghaderzadeh et al. (2013), who previously explored the phenomenon of trafficking from a sociological perspective.
The research tool was a semi-structured in-depth interview. The interviewees were stakeholders, who were active in the field of illegal wildlife trade in Khalij-e-Fars Bird Market in Tehran. They were selected through purposive sampling by using the snowball model. In the sample selection, we aimed to achieve "maximum variety" and "theoretical saturation." In this regard, 12 sellers and 11 buyers, who had extensive knowledge and experience in this field, were selected.
After 20 interviews, no new information was presented, indicating "theoretical saturation." However, for more certainty, three more interviews were conducted. After each interview, the full text was carefully listened to and transcribed, capturing all the words. Data analysis was done through constant comparison and simultaneous data collection. The interviews’ texts were read multiple times to gain a general understanding of the data. At this stage, the primary (open and selective) codes were identified and grouped into categories. Finally, summarization was continued as much as possible and all the axial codes were used in the paradigm model.
To ensure reliability of the research findings, all research processes, such as the research model, study group, data collection process, and analysis, were explained in detail. Additionally, the data obtained from the interviews were individually coded by two individuals: a main researcher and an invited colleague. The percentage of agreement between the coders was calculated using the following formula:
Reliability = consensus / (consensus + difference) × 100
The data obtained by the two researchers underwent content analysis and were compared using separate codes. As a result, a reliability of 85% was obtained by using the mentioned formula.
Discussion of Results & Conclusion
The results of this research showed that causal conditions in phenomenology of “wildlife trafficking” were "entertainment and enjoyment", "tradition", "pride and wealth", "experiment and scientific research", "mediation for smuggling" and "drug use", intervening conditions of "superstitious beliefs", "propaganda", and "imitation of others". The background conditions were "social and moral legitimization", "non-practical implementation of environmental laws and regulations", "poverty and unemployment", "individual and collective indifference and distortion", and "ignorance of the consequences of wildlife trafficking". The coping strategies included "education and culture", "intensification of legal supervision", "providing alternative employment opportunities to sellers", and "providing the necessary mechanisms for legal trade with permitted purposes". The consequences of coping with wildlife trafficking were "biodiversity protection", "restoring the human dignity of violators", and "respecting animal rights". Finally, the research findings were presented in a paradigm model.
In line with the results obtained by Zhang et al. (2020), a wide range of drives, including recreational, food, and medicinal and cultural motives for wildlife trafficking, were identified as the causal, contextual, and intervening conditions in the current research. The present study showed that one of the main drives of wildlife trafficking was consumption of meat or body parts of wildlife as traditional medicines with therapeutic motivation. In line with this finding, other researches showed that in other countries, bear bile (Feng et al., 2009), pangolin meat (Newman et al., 2014), rattlesnake venom (Alves et al., 2013), and rhino horn (Watts, 2011) were bought and sold as medicine with the motive of relieving physical pain. Of course, despite the general perception, so far many of these medicinal and health agents are facing serious ambiguity of effectiveness from the viewpoint of modern medicine.
In addition, the consumption of wildlife meat was one of the other findings of the present study. Due to the cultural differences in diets of nations, trafficking with the motive of buying and selling pangolin meat (Mason et al., 2012; McEvoy et al., 2019) and bat meat (Anti et al., 2015; Suwannarong & Schuler, 2016) were reported in similar studies, while the interviewees of the present study were looking for buying and selling the meat of wild birds, such as goose or wild duck.
The findings of this study showed that preservation of wildlife or their body parts has become a means of showing wealth and pride among wealthy groups of people due to such reasons as high price, rarity, and special facilities it requires. In line with this finding, similar studies showed that the drives of some buyers of illegal wildlife products, such as rhino horn (Truong et al., 2016), tiger bone (Moyle, 2009) and elephant skin (McEvoy et al., 2019), or people, who served special dishes like shark fin soup to their guests (Brierley, 2007), were boasting, showing wealth, or trying to show their belonging to special and prosperous classes of the society.
In line with the results of the study of Day et al. (2014), the present research showed that some actors of wildlife trafficking tended to trade exotic wild animals, especially reptiles and rare ornamental amphibians. They did this with the motivation of entertainment and pleasure, boasting, and displaying wealth. Although tiger bone wine in the research of Feng et al. (2009) and rhinoceros horn opium in the study of Trang et al. (2016) were shown to be sold illegally with the motive of intoxication, no similar drives were found in the current research.
Compared to previous studies, contribution of the present research in the production of knowledge should be considered as a qualitative explanation of the concept of wildlife trafficking in the Iranian context so as to bring the main stakeholders’ experiences of this illegal trade to the official knowledge. The findings of the present study could contribute to ensuring social health, environmental protection, and sustainability of economy based on biological resource-carrying capacity for future studies.
تبلیغات
