Peter Knights

Peter Knights, Co-Founder and CEO of WildAid, joins Earth Live to discuss one of the most innovative approaches in wildlife conservation: using mass-media campaigns to reduce consumer demand for wildlife products.

While traditional conservation focuses on protecting animals in the field, WildAid takes a different approach, targeting the demand side of the wildlife trade through celebrity-driven public awareness campaigns that have reached billions of people across Asia and Africa. Knights explains the theory of change behind this strategy and shares results from campaigns targeting shark fin, elephant ivory, rhino horn, and pangolin consumption.

The conversation explores the economics of wildlife trafficking, the effectiveness of demand reduction versus enforcement, and the lessons WildAid's work offers for other conservation challenges where consumer behavior drives environmental destruction.