Wildlife royalties - a future for conservation? | University of Oxford

Should people who profit from the cultural representation of wildlife pay towards conservation? That is the question asked in a new opinion piece written by zoologists from Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU. Writing in the journal Animals, they muse on whether organisations that profit in some way from wildlife imagery and popularity, could establish a corporate responsibility to contribute a portion of this income to the conservation of the animals represented. Big cats for example, are a marketing dream. From catwalk trends to product branding and sports team representation, their likeness is everywhere and used to sell everything from patriotism to eggs. In fact, as the face of the British Lion Quality Seal, lions sell about 30 million eggs a day in Britain. Using the product as an example, the paper argues that if a royalty system were introduced, and each lion stamp were to earn the species one tenth of a penny, then every day lion conservation could receive £28,900.That's £10.5 million a year. For centuries these species have brought people feelings of luck and protection, helping shape personal, professional, and national identities.