Beyond ecocentrism and anthropocentrism : a trans-species approach to explore wild boar-human relationship in Hong Kong

Abstract

The discussion of the human-animal relationship is heavily influenced by two environmental ideologies - ecocentrism and anthropocentrism (Purser et al., 1995; Kortenkamp & Moore, 2001; Kopnina, 2012). A new school of thought, trans-speciesism, argues that although humans are different from animals in our biology but share similar nature with them. (Holmberg, 2013). To apply this paradigm in the study of urban development, policy can be approached from a perspective that transcends species boundaries. The present study aims to add trans-speciesism to the academic discussion, with the examination of human-wild boar relationships in Hong Kong, and the motivation behind such relationships. Deductive relational content analysis is employed to understand the government and the NGOs’ perception of the wild boar-human relationships. Diverse sources such as ten documents and reports from the government and the NGOs receptively , seventy pieces of news article and one hundred social media posts are collected and analyzed. Furthermore, twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted. The findings concludes that the government tends to prioritize human interest over wild boar rights, while, the NGOs contrast such point of view by highlighting the intrinsic value of wild boars. Participants from the general public tend take on a more flexible perspective and offer a more objective evaluation of wild-boar-human dynamics based on observed facts. As ecocentrism and anthropocentricism play key roles in guiding governmental policy and NGO campaign, trans-speciesism provides an alternative explanation as to explain the perceived wild boar-human relationship among the general public, which is descriptive rather than being normative as ecocentrism and anthropocentricism do.