Economics of conservation law enforcement by rangers across Asia

Abstract

Biodiversity targets, under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, prioritize both conservation area and their effectiveness. The effective management of protected areas (PAs) depends greatly on law enforcement resources, which is often tasked to rangers. We addressed economic aspects of law enforcement by rangers working in terrestrial landscapes across Asia. Accordingly, we used ranger numbers and payment rates to derive continentalscale estimates. Ranger density has decreased by 2.4-fold since the 1990s, increasing the median from 10.9 to 26.4 km 2 of PAs per ranger. Rangers were generally paid more than the minimum wage (median ratio = 1.9) and the typical salaries in agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector (median ratio = 1.2). Annual spending on ranger salaries varied widely among countries, with a median of annual US71 km −2 of PA. Nearly 208,000 rangers patrolling Asian PAs provide an invaluable opportunity to develop ranger-based monitoring plans for evaluating the conservation performance. As decision-makers frequently seek an optimum number of law enforcement staff, our study provides a continental baseline median of 46.3 km 2 PA per ranger. Our findings also provide a baseline for countries to improve their ranger-based law enforcement which is critical for their Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets.

Insufficient numbers and poor working conditions for rangers protecting tigers

“…However, we note that the ranger densities for India which were provided by Appleton et al (2022) are very similar to independently derived estimates exclusively from tiger reserves (Jhala et al, 2021). Farhadinia et al (2023) provide ranger densities across Asia using a similar, but apparently independent, approach to that of Appleton et al (2022). These estimates of ranger density are similar to those which we provide (Figure S1) with the data from Farhadinia et al (2023) supporting our conclusion that there are insufficient ranger numbers across the majority of tiger range countries (Figure S1).…”

“…Farhadinia et al (2023) provide ranger densities across Asia using a similar, but apparently independent, approach to that of Appleton et al (2022). These estimates of ranger density are similar to those which we provide (Figure S1) with the data from Farhadinia et al (2023) supporting our conclusion that there are insufficient ranger numbers across the majority of tiger range countries (Figure S1). The data from Appleton et al (2022) and Belecky et al (2019a), and thus our analysis, focus largely on public sector rangers working within government managed protected areas.…”

Proximity and size of protected areas in Asian borderlands enable transboundary conservation

“…most Asian countries (Farhadinia et al, 2023); thus, enhancing transboundary collaboration among countries could bolster the efficiency of efforts through knowledge sharing, resource pooling, and coordinated efforts (Vasilijevićet al, 2015).…”