Abstract

Illegal logging is a key driver of deforestation in tropical countries and benefits a large number of stakeholders, including urban domestic buyers. Changing the latter’s purchasing behavior could produce significant shifts in the illegal trade market. Based on survey data (n= 463), this paper assesses the impact of a media campaign on consumers’ purchase intentions for legal timber and wooden furniture in Yaoundé and analyses the underlying psychological mechanisms. Combining covariate matching and mediation analysis, we found a significant positive effect of the media campaign on the declared intention to purchase legally-sourced timber and the mediation effect of two out of three precursors of the theory of planned behaviors, namely attitude and subjective norms. This study provides critical inputs to frame future media campaign messages and, by demonstrating some consumers’ interest in legal timber, to strengthen the domestic legitimacy of policies such as the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade.

摘要

非法采伐是热带国家森林砍伐的主要驱动因素，并使包括城市国内买家在内的大量利益相关者受益。改变后者的购买行为可能会导致非法贸易市场发生重大变化。根据调查数据 ( n= 463)，本文评估了媒体宣传活动对雅温得消费者购买合法木材和木制家具的意愿的影响，并分析了潜在的心理机制。结合协变量匹配和中介分析，我们发现媒体宣传活动对声明的合法采购木材购买意向具有显着的正向影响，以及计划行为理论的三个前兆中的两个，即态度和主观规范的中介作用。本研究为构建未来的媒体宣传信息提供了关键投入，并通过展示一些消费者对合法木材的兴趣，加强森林执法、治理和贸易等政策的国内合法性。