A Systems Thinking Perspective on the Motivations and Mechanisms That Drive Wildlife Poaching

Understanding site selection of illegal border crossings into a fenced protected area: a rational choice approach

“…Wildlife conservationists and criminologists have conducted a substantial amount of research on the rhinopoaching crisis in South Africa and on the illegal wildlife trade (Ayling 2013;Haas and Ferreira 2015;Hill 2015;Mulero-Pázmány et al 2014;Warchol and Kapla 2012). Rhino poaching has surged in response to increases in black market prices for horn (Milliken et al 2009).…”

Securing Protected Areas

“…RCP has been applied to explain spatial crime patterns in urban area (Bernasco and Nieuwbeerta 2005;Gottschalk 2016;Vandeviver et al 2015), but can also be used to explain wildlife poaching in protected areas (Hill 2015). Just as offenders and police in urban environments, poachers and rangers can also be seen as goal-oriented people who make decisions to achieve their objectives.…”

“…In the context of this dissertation, ABM allows us to tailor models to specific settings, for example one that is focused on the behaviour of a particular species, patrol strategy, or protected area. In these models we can explore how security is influenced by the micro-level behaviour of the interacting agents (animals, poachers, and rangers) and their spatial-temporal movements (Hill 2015). At the same time, ABM also contributes to theory, because it forces the researcher to be explicit about all the assumptions and behavioural rules inside the model.…”

“…Rhino poaching in South Africa Wildlife conservationists and criminologists have conducted a substantial amount of research on the rhino-poaching crisis in South Africa and on the illegal wildlife trade (Ayling 2013;Haas and Ferreira 2015;Hill 2015;Mulero-Pázmány et al 2014;Warchol and Kapla 2012). Rhino poaching has surged in response to increases in black market prices for horn (Milliken, Emslie, and Talukdar 2009).…”

‘Conservation’ criminology: understanding and preventing illegal fishing in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

“…Wildlife crime is broadly defined as acts in violation of national law and regulations put in place to protected natural resources (Moreto & Pires, 2018). Poaching is a type of wildlife crime referring to the removal (dead or alive) of flora and fauna for some purpose (Hill, 2015) and is undertaken for a number of reasons including, subsistence, traditional use, recreational, and commercial purposes. Indeed, the illegal trade of wildlife products has been estimated to be as high as US$23 billion per year, while illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU) has been estimated to represent an annual economic loss to global fisheries of between US$10-23.5 billion (Kahler & Gore, 2012;Petrossian, 2019).…”