CASE STUDY 3: A CUTTING-EDGE AND EVIDENCE-BASED

BEHAVIOUR CHANGE INTERVENTION ON SAIGA HORN IN

SINGAPORE
Oxford Researchers: Dr Hunter Doughty, Dr Diogo Veríssimo, Dr Joss Wright

Saiga horn based TCM product used for fever and heatiness

A plethora of demand reduction efforts on wildlife trade products are carried out each year
across the globe, however, shortcomings in interventions attempting to change consumers’
behaviour have been widely noted. In other disciplines like public health though, behaviour
change interventions have been extensively implemented and offer useful insights for increasing
the success of wildlife trade interventions. As such, we designed, implemented, and evaluated an
evidence-based behaviour change intervention that applies robust approaches from outside of
conservation science. We targeted saiga horn (marketed as líng yáng, 羚羊) usage in Singapore.
The saiga (Saiga tatarica) is a Critically Endangered antelope from Central Asia whose horn is
used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat fever and heatiness (a TCM state of illness
with symptoms like cough). We accomplished this work through four stages:
 By conducting extensive consumer research, we found that not only is saiga horn
commonly used in Singapore, but many Chinese Singaporeans consider saiga horn
the product option they use most often for treating fever and heatiness. Further
findings showed that middle-aged Chinese Singaporean women were an ideal
target for an intervention. Read more here (open access):
H Doughty, D Veríssimo, R Tan, JSH Lee, LR Carrasco, K Oliver, EJ
Milner-Gulland (2019). Saiga horn user characteristics, motivations, and
purchasing behaviour in Singapore. PLOS ONE.
DOI: 1371/journal.pone.0222038.
 By weaving together empirical evidence and human behaviour theory, we have
not only identified key influences to leverage on our target audience – i.e., middle-
aged Chinese Singaporean women, but also provided a reproducible process for
others to design their own interventions. Read more here (open access):