Insights into medicinal wildlife consumption and bear part use in Rakhine, Myanmar

Myanmar is an area of high diversity with prolific illegal wildlife trade, including trade in bear products for medicine. We focused on Rakhine State, Myanmar, which retains sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) populations despite poaching. To better understand why poaching continues to occur and whether poaching is motivated by regional demand for bear products for medicine, we performed a mixed methods study of structured questionnaires (n = 327) and semi-structured interviews (n = 66), in 52 villages. We specifically investigated the extent of traditional medicine use in Rakhine, as well as the consumption of bear bile and other medicinal wildlife products. We found that individuals largely do not use bear bile; however, individuals do use traditional medicine and consume a variety of other wildlife for medicine. Our study reveals that greater research is needed to understand the specific motivations behind the poaching of sun bears in Rakhine, though we suspect that external demand from China fuels trade in bear products within Rakhine. Our study also shows that there is a need for further studies that explore motivations for medicinal use of endangered and threatened wildlife in Rakhine, which can inform campaigns to reduce demand for these products.