Successful reduction of bear bile consumption in Vietnam using behavior change

Bear bile is a highly demanded medicinal product in certain areas of Vietnam, which contributes to the decline of Asiatic black bears and sun bears. Multiple conservation strategies, such as closing bear farms and raising awareness, have been enacted in Vietnam to address this issue, but there have been few targeted demand reduction efforts. Here, we present the design and evaluation of a campaign to reduce demand for bear bile, founded on the principles of conservation marketing. We used a Theory of Change informed by baseline consumer research and consultations with international and local stakeholders to guide the design of the campaign. We used quantitative surveys to measure the prevalence of bear bile use in a Before-After-Control-Treatment (BACT) design (n = 1,690 individuals (pre-campaign: 767; post-campaign: 923)). Bear bile use declined by 97% in our treatment site (from 16% (CI: 12 – 19%) to 1% (CI: 0.3 – 2%)), and did not change significantly in the control site. We can conclude that our campaign did change behavior, and reduced demand for bear bile in our target community. We also found a significant shift to disagreement for the belief “Bears are easy to find in the wild”, indicating that accurate knowledge about bear population decline in Vietnam increased in the treatment site. Our results illustrate the conservation potential of demand reduction campaigns, particularly when paired with efforts to decrease the available supply of wildlife products.