The Complex Links between Governance and Biodiversity

Abstract

Abstract:We argue that two problems weaken the claims of those who link corruption and the exploitation of natural resources. The first is conceptual. Studies that use national level indicators of corruption fail to note that corruption comes in many fofms, at multiple levels, that may affect resource use quite differently: negatively, positively or not at all. Without a clear causal model of the mechanism by which corruption affects resources, one should treat with caution any estimated relationship between corruption and the state of natural resources. The second problem is methodological. Simple, atheoretical models linking corruption measures and natural resource use typically 4o not account for other important control variables pivotal to the relationship between huijaans and natural resources. By way of illustration of these two general concerns, we demonstrate that the findings of a recent, well-known study that posits a link between corruption and decreases in forests and elephants are not robust to simple conceptuaf and methodological refinements.

Devastating Decline of Forest Elephants in Central Africa

“…Because the CPI is strongly associated with other factors within countries (rule of law, governance, development), it may be considered as a proxy for overall functioning of civil society of each country, and indeed development variables associated with poverty were also found to be associated with PIKE in both 2009 and 2012 [16], [33]. A previous analysis using data from the African Elephant Database [60] suggesting a link between elephant decline and poor governance was criticized [61], because latitude was a better explanatory variable and the data were collected using different methods of varying quality [4], [47]. The more recent analysis using the 2007 AED showed that the “country” variable, a complex interaction of human development and governance factors, explained elephant density very well [30].…”

Global Trends and Factors Associated with the Illegal Killing of Elephants: A Hierarchical Bayesian Analysis of Carcass Encounter Data

“…Other studies [8], [17] have found statistical relationships between governance, or corruption, and conservation failures or biodiversity loss. These analyses have been criticised on both conceptual and statistical grounds [23]. The conceptual issue concerned how corruption is used to infer causality from an analysis which fails to account for the complex causal mechanisms that probably link it with conservation outcomes.…”

Prioritizing conservation investments for mammal species globally

“…Between 1950 and 2000, over 90 per cent of the major armed conflicts in the world occurred within countries containing biodiversity hotspots, and 80 per cent took place directly in biodiversity hotspot areas [39]. In general, the links between governance and the loss of biodiversity are complex [40–42] but conflicts have been found to result in habitat destruction as a result of an ineffective enforcement [40,43,44]. This means that the chance of successful investments varies from place to place but this variation has not been incorporated in global prioritization templates [1,42,45].…”

“…In general, the links between governance and the loss of biodiversity are complex [40–42] but conflicts have been found to result in habitat destruction as a result of an ineffective enforcement [40,43,44]. This means that the chance of successful investments varies from place to place but this variation has not been incorporated in global prioritization templates [1,42,45]. With biodiversity hotspots concentrated in politically volatile regions, it has been recommended that the conservation community maintains continuous engagement during periods of conflict [39].…”