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There is a group of men in the world who have the potential to influence the primary users of rhino horn, driving the current rhino killing spree, to change their consuming behaviour. These men probably don’t know that they have the power to do this and, even if they do, it is critical that they understand how. In 2013, when I started interviewing the wealthy Vietnamese men living in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, who are considered the primary consumers of rhino horn, I asked them who the people are they like to read about and follow. The pattern that emerged was that they followed and were influenced by the same global male business and political celebrities that business [...]

A couple of weeks ago I posed this question at the Basic Income Congress in Lisbon, Portugal; as I work with Nature Needs More Co-Founder, Peter Lanius, to evolve a model to test this hypothesis. Breaking The Brand’s followers may remember in an August 2016 blog, I posed a similar question: Can a Tiered Basic Income Model Provide an Alternative to Sustainable Utilization? I asked this question because, while it is possible to tackle demand for wildlife ‘products’, any success will be short lived if there are groups of people who are so financially incentivised to supply that they are willing to re-manufacture the demand. Traffickers and people who want a legalised trade in wildlife products are reliant on impoverished people [...]