Attitudes Toward Wild Animal Conservation

Biodiversity conservation has been a global reseach focus because the loss of biodiversity will bring significant impact on human beings. It is of great importance to carry out researches in biodiversity hotspots worldwidly. Besides paying much attention to specific endengered species, some researches on local human residents should accordingly be undertaken. As one of the major and most imorptant biodiversity hotspots in China, Yunnan is also abundant with minority population and diverse cultures. Since the relationship between traditional culture and conservation enjoys growing attentions, it has been found that minority culture will influence people's attitudes toward biodiversity. From June to July,2008, sampling questionnaire survey and face to face interview methods were employed in this study to examine the differences of wild animal conservation atttitudes between Yi people and Mosuo people in Ninglang, Yunnnan. Though they have been living in this high biodiversity area together for quite a long history, Yi people with a patrilineal-small-family culture and Mosuo people with a matrillineal-large-family culture are quite different in many ways. They are taken as two typical examples to test the hypotheses that:a) they have different attitudes toward wild animal conservation and traditional culture, ethnicity, religious beliefs, age, gender, level of education, and income may be related factors shaping people's attitudes;b) their parental wild animal conservation education to children may be different and traditional culture, ethnicity, religious beliefs, age, gender, level of education, and income may be influencing factors.Random non-repeated sampling combined with semi-structured questionnaire method was applied in four representative areas:Daxing, Yongning, Ningli and Xinyingpan, with a total sample of 176 Yi adults and 96 Mosuo adults. The 95.6% samples(169 and 91) are valid for statistical analysis.Meanwhile, purposive sampling method was used to survey on 35 Yi children,30 Mosuo children and 12 key informants, including the officials in county and village forestry department, respected Yi and Mosuo elders and experienced hunters.Data collected was inputed into Excel and SPSS 16.0 softwares for coding and performing the following statistical analysis:frequency, mean, corelations and GLM Univariate analysis. The results supporting conclusions are as follows:a) Both Mosuo people's (x=1.33) and Yi people's (x=1.18) attitudes towards wild animal conservation and their parental wild animal conservation education to children are different (p<0.05).b) Ethnicity (p<0.05), awareness of traditional wild animal conservation culture (p<0.05), gender (p<0.05), level of education (p<0.05) and religious beliefs (Mosuo: Male 83.3%/, Female 95.2%; Yi:Male 31.9%/, Female 18.7%) (p<0.05) are factors corelated to the proven difference between Yi people and Mosuo people, while age (p>0.05) and income (p>0.05) are not recognized as influencing factors in this study.c) Mosuo people, with a higher awareness of traditional wild animal conservation culture (x=0.53), have more positive attitude than Yi people (x=0.09) do (p<0.05).d) In both ethnic groups, females are more positive than males in personal attitude towards wild animal conservation(Mosuo Female/Male:x=1.37/1.16; Yi Female/Male:x=1.11/1.07) (p<0.05), and Mosuo females are even more positive than Yi females (p<0.05).e) Both Yi males (p<0.05) (x=1.3) and Mosuo females (x=1.55) (p<0.05) give significantly more parental wild animal education to children than their spouses.f) People with higher level of education give more parental education to children in both ethnic groups (p<0.05).g) The GLM Univariate analysis confirmed that people's conservation willingness is mainly attributed to religious beliefs (p<0.05) and level of education (p<0.05). the proportions of people with religious beliefs (p<0.05) and animal worships (p<0.05) are significantly higher in Mosuo group than that in Yi group.Under the background of continuous pressure from Ninglang development of economy, forestry industry and tourism, It urges integration of traditional miority cultures and conservation practices in Ninglang. The author proposed following recommendations:a) to encourage passing-down of wild animal conservation related traditional cultures; b) to reinforce informal institutions; c) to strengthen understanding of wild animal conservation by minority people through promoting local education and d) to recognize gender differences in wild animal conservation practices to help local Yi and Mosuo people shape more positive attitudes as well as shed some light on protecting local biodiversity. Comparisons of contents and results between this paper and other attitudinal studies are also discussed.