DOI: 10.5061/dryad.zgmsbccmw
title: Data from: Can sustainable biocommerce continue to support conservation, or will the captive breeding of offspring be its Achilles heel?

description: The trade in high-value natural resources, particularly exotic plants and
 animals (henceforth biocommerce), can lead to both positive and negative
 impacts on wild populations. The exotic plant and animal hobbies are
 highly organized with internal cultures that are often poorly understood
 by non-members; however, understanding them is of central importance for
 biocommerce with both direct and indirect consequences for the
 conservation of wild populations. Growing international demands for exotic
 species leaves simple questions related to the economics of biocommerce
 unexplored.  The long-term success of biocommerce businesses
 requires constant income, meaning they obtain and retain significant
 market proportions.  Some biocommerce products can be reproduced
 by hobbyists, and undercut business efforts based on sustainably produced
 exports. We analyze a test case in Neotropical poison frogs where
 sustainable biocommerce is burgeoning, yet (export-based) businesses face
 direct market competition from the offspring produced within the countries
 which receive their exports, and therefore are forced to rely on fervent
 customer support.  We survey customers’ behaviors where we find
 different classes of consumers, which differ in where they place higher
 values within the hobby. By taking into account these different classes we
 gain insights and potential solutions to promote the stability of this
 unique type of biocommerce.
description: <em>Survey design: </em>We created an online survey
 on the SurveyMonkey.com© platform to assess consumer preferences and
 purchasing behaviors (human ethics approval granted from UDLA CEISH
 committee project code: JY-210423-001). Our questions aimed to identify
 specific customer preferences related to their hobby-related interests,
 purchasing decisions and price stability, and specifics related to the
 direct competition dynamics between biocommerce animals and their
 offspring in shared markets.  We assess whether broader ethics such as
 supporting conservation, legality, or sustainability could influence
 consumer decisions.  Three types of questions were used in the survey to
 be able to quantify consumer preferences (Hinsley & ’t Sas-Rolfes,
 2020).  Multiple-choice questions contextualized the individual’s
 participation within the hobby with regards to the diversity of species
 kept, time in the hobby, and annual spending.  Additionally, questions
 with ranked importance (from 1-5) were used to assess the importance of
 provenance and legality of purchases, the importance of price in dictating
 purchasing decisions, the importance of status (gained from owning rare
 species), and their interest in sustainability. Finally, short answer and
 multiple-choice questions sought to clarify details related to offspring
 selling expectations, including understanding the competition between
 biocommerce offerings and in-country produced offspring.
 Surveys were distributed broadly through social networks, with
 personalized invitations sent to active hobbyists.  For two months
 repeated social media posts were made in specialized groups, and we
 created an Instagram profile for the survey which advertised the
 questionnaire using daily posts that featured <em>in situ
 </em>images of rare species of poison frogs to draw in
 participants.  We acknowledge potential downsides of our sampling: first,
 our questionnaire excludes hobbyists (albeit likely a minority) who are
 not active on platforms; second, responses were voluntary and required
 participant motivation, and may underrepresent casual hobbyists; and
 third, although surveys were anonymous, participants’ replies may be
 biased when providing responses that would be looked down upon by the
 hobby (Barnett, 1998)—relevant to questions related to their opinions
 related to the legality of animals, or the importance of the “status” in
 the hobby.  <em>Data analysis: </em>We
 built a Logit model of latent classes (LCM) using Stata statistical
 software® (version 15.1).  We aimed to define types of hobbyists and
 define their interests within the hobby. This type of model has been shown
 to successfully identify heterogeneity of preferences (Hinsley et al.,
 2015). Due to homogeneity in ranked importance responses, a Logit model
 was developed with the variables: price (importance of price purchasing
 decisions), status (importance of rare animals/social status), tendency to
 purchase in-country offspring, and importance of (re)sales (ability to
 generate revenue from offspring). This model identifies the variables that
 best explain the preferences of each latent group or class, but does not
 determine the number of these, so statistical information criteria must be
 used to define discrete groups (Birol, Villalba, & Smale, 2009)
 where we used the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and the Bayesian
 Information Criterion (BIC), for modeling latent class models (MacDonald,
 2018). A latent classes model was built encompassing
 questions related to animal prices, hobby-status (owning rare/expensive
 animals), likelihood of directly purchasing/supporting biocommerce
 businesses, and resale potential using binary variables. In the last
 category data were averaged scores of importance, from different questions
 that were asked in the survey, these values ​​were considered as 0 if they
 belonged to the range between 1-3 and 1 if they belonged to the range
 between&gt; 3-5, apart from the variable resale which was considered
 false = 0 and true = 1.
description: # Data from: Can sustainable biocommerce continue to support conservation,
 or will the captive breeding of offspring be its Achilles heel?
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zgmsbccmw](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zgmsbccmw) ## Description of the data and file structure Data are the survey responses by hobbyists however to protect their anonymity, all identifying information was removed including: IP addresses, names, business names, and emails have been redacted to ensure privacy.  ### Files and variables #### File: Biocommerce raw data redacted info.xlsx **Description:**  ##### Variables Responses #### File: Supplementary\_Preguntas\_artículo.pdf **Description:** Survey questions ## Access information Data was derived from the following sources: * Survey Monkey questionnaire