Safeguarding southern Africa’s succulents through analyzing demand and supply networks.

Project Summary:
This two year project is funded by the UK Government’s Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund. A collaboration between Jared Margulies, Dr. Annette Hübschle (University of Cape Town) and Juneseo Hwang (Universität Hamburg and Sungkonghoe University), the project aims to: 1) characterize illicit supply networks from South Africa to South Korea; 2) analyze the demand for wild-harvested succulents in South Korea; and 3) evaluate opportunities to promote sustainable alternatives in South Africa through legal and regulated succulent trade. Combining focus groups, in depth interviews, consumer surveys, and supply chain analysis in both South Korea and South Africa, the project aims to develop a critical transnational approach to understanding this illicit trade which has already resulted in over 1 million succulent plants disappearing from the South African landscape since 2019. Further, we seek to explore opportunities for advancing a socioecological harm reduction approach to illegal wildlife trades attuned to the relationships between social and environmental forms of injustice.

At UA, a number of graduate and undergraduate students are assisting Jared in developing a crime script analysis of South African illicit supply chains, as well as assisting in (geospatially) characterizing these supply chains.

Project Outputs to Date:
Hübschle, A., & Margulies, J. (2024). The need for a socioecological harm reduction approach to reduce illegal wildlife trade. Conservation Biology, 38(5), e14335. https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.14335. (open access)

Researching the roots and routes of the illegal Venus flytrap trade

Funded by the National Geographic Explorer Program, this one year project builds on Jared’s previously funded research on Venus flytrap conservation and illegal trade, including his past work as a Collaborative Arts Research Initiative Fellow. The project aims to better understand the social dimensions of the illegal trade in one of the world’s most famous plants, the carnivorous Venus flytrap. Through social research, Jared aims to better understand why an illegal trade in the species persists when sustainable, alternative sourcing for the plant exists, attentive to social justice concerns. This an ongoing exploration through socially informed research to imagine more justice-oriented approaches for responding to illegal wildlife trades that impact biodiversity conservation. 

CCGC undergraduate member Benjamin Trost has supported this project as a research assistant, leading our storymap production (see link below) as well as assisting on the project’s first peer-review publication output where he engaged in thematic coding, data analysis, and writing. 

Project Outputs to Date:
Margulies, J. D., Trost, B., Hamon, et al. (2024). Expert assessment of illegal collecting impacts on Venus flytraps and priorities for research on illegal trade. Conservation Biology, 38(5), e14320. https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.14320 (open access).

Hinsley, A., Hughes, A., & Margulies, J. (2024). Creating a more inclusive approach to wildlife trade management. Conservation Biology, 38(5), e14360. https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cobi.14360?casa_token=CC6ttk_dnYMAAAAA:B9lGeofFPta9uBOB8HPxLQC4TndwIpV-EhhRjZO1usUw2Y4usJBR-ehAOI-XCUlN0rZGjQW6ttUProject Storymap: Venus flytrap harvesting: crime, culture, and conservation

​Click below to download the first issue of the collaborative comic book/zine “Traplines” produced by Jared and Joel Fuller with support of the BAND Foundation and the Collaborative Arts Research Initiative at the University of Alabama.

Understanding and improving sustainability of songbird keeping and trade

This new, US Fish and Wildlife Service funded project through the USFWS Species Conservation Catalyst Fund, is a collaboration with colleagues at CIFOR and the University of Oxford. From 2023-2028, we will be part of a large, international consortium studying the impacts, drivers, and social dimensions of songbird trade from the Guiana Shield in South America. As part of this larger team effort, research at CCGC, involving both graduate student Sherrie Alexander and undergraduate student Kayla Battles, will be exploring the digital life of songbird racing culture online, especially on social media platforms. Through non-participatory analysis of publicly available social media content, we seek to better understand how songbird racing culture is experienced digitally and mediated through social media platforms. This work will then inform longer term qualitative research conducted by team members in the New York City area within Guyanese diaspora songbird racing communities to understand how cultures of songbird racing relate to both legal and illegal trade drivers of songbirds from the Guiana Shield. Jared Margulies will be involved in assisting and advising on the conduct and analysis of this qualitative research to be carried out by an external research partner over the coming years.  More soon…