Wildlife law enforcement in Sub-Saharan African protected areas : a review of best practices

Henson, David W.; Malpas, Robert C.; D'udine, Floris A.C.

doi:10.2305/iucn.ch.2015.ssc-op.58.en

Cited by 20 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Knapp (2012) suggested that the threat of detection by patrols had caused a shift towards night-time hunting in the western Serengeti, though such behaviour might equally reflect a need for increased efficiency in the face of declining wildlife abundance. Conversely, whilst gun-hunters are presumably more conspicuous than snare-hunters, they are also perceived to be more dangerous by ranger patrols (Ford 2005;Henson et al 2016;Moreto 2016), who may consequently avoid confrontations for fear of injury or death (Holmern et al 2007).…”

Section: Hunting Methods and Their Determinantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Framework for Assessing Impacts of Wild Meat Hunting Practices in the Tropics

et al. 2019

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Terrestrial wildlife is being hunted for consumption by humans in the tropics at an unprecedented rate, and the often unsustainable nature of this harvest has profound implications not only for biodiversity and ecosystem function, but also for human livelihoods. Whilst the nature and impacts of this practice have been studied in numerous contexts and localities, a comprehensive treatment of the social, economic, and environmental determinants of both hunter decision-making and hunting outcomes has been lacking. In this review we discuss influences of hunting methods and effort on the types of animals caught, the efficiency of harvest, and the implications of these factors for sustainability. We highlight gaps in current understanding, and identify the most important data requirements. Our approach provides a framework for the design of future studies into wild meat hunting and its impacts, promoting the efficient targeting of priority areas of research.

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Section: Hunting Methods and Their Determinantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Framework for Assessing Impacts of Wild Meat Hunting Practices in the Tropics

et al. 2019

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“…A similar effect can come about if the frequency of activities is constant but their detectability falls, for example due to a switch in the methods or timing of hunting (Gibson & Marks ; Henson et al. ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Detecting deterrence from patrol data

Dobson

Milner‐Gulland

Beale

et al. 2018

Conservation Biology

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The threat posed to protected areas by the illegal killing of wildlife is countered principally by ranger patrols that aim to detect and deter potential offenders. Deterring poaching is a fundamental conservation objective, but its achievement is difficult to identify, especially when the prime source of information comes in the form of the patrols’ own records, which inevitably contain biases. The most common metric of deterrence is a plot of illegal activities detected per unit of patrol effort (CPUE) against patrol effort (CPUE‐E). We devised a simple, mechanistic model of law breaking and law enforcement in which we simulated deterrence alongside exogenous changes in the frequency of offences under different temporal patterns of enforcement effort. The CPUE‐E plots were not reliable indicators of deterrence. However, plots of change in CPUE over change in effort (ΔCPUE‐ΔE) reliably identified deterrence, regardless of the temporal distribution of effort or any exogenous change in illegal activity levels as long as the time lag between patrol effort and subsequent behavioral change among offenders was approximately known. The ΔCPUE‐ΔE plots offered a robust, simple metric for monitoring patrol effectiveness; were no more conceptually complicated than the basic CPUE‐E plots; and required no specialist knowledge or software to produce. Our findings demonstrate the need to account for temporal autocorrelation in patrol data and to consider appropriate (and poaching‐activity‐specific) intervals for aggregation. They also reveal important gaps in understanding of deterrence in this context, especially the mechanisms by which it occurs. In practical applications, we recommend the use of ΔCPUE‐ΔE plots in preference to other basic metrics and advise that deterrence should be suspected only if there is a clear negative slope. Distinct types of illegal activity should not be grouped together for analysis, especially if the signs of their occurrence have different persistence times in the environment.

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“…This, together with Risk 8, which relates to the fact that protected area boundaries are not recognised or respected, poses numerous risks to any protected area system. The importance of law enforcement for protected areas and the negative consequences of ineffective law enforcement for conservation in such areas are not disputed (Tranquilli et al 2014;Fischer et al 2014;Henson et al 2016;Akella and Cannon 2017). The nature and form that these law enforcement efforts should take are, however, debatable (Fischer 2008;Inogwabini 2020) with numerous strategies and models being presented from strict militarised areas to more community-orientated enforcement approaches.…”

Section: Exploring the Risks For The South African Protected Area Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying key risks to the achievement of protected area system objectives

Alberts¹,

Retief²,

Roos³

et al. 2022

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Protected area systems are designed in law and policy towards achieving certain policy objectives. These systems rely on legal frameworks that determine how countries designate, declare and manage their protected areas. To date, little research has been conducted on the risks faced by protected area systems. To this end, this paper aims to identify the key risks for protected area systems achieving their objectives. This is achieved through the application of Theory of Change (ToC), which is internationally recognised as the preferred method to identify underlying assumptions and risks within policy and legal frameworks. We achieve this aim through a case study analysis of the South African protected area system as embedded in law and policy. The application of the ToC method identified 25 underlying assumptions and risks which are central to the protected area system achieving its objectives. Understanding these risks allows for a better understanding of the potential failure of the system and how to avoid it. The paper then explores and discusses the identified risks in terms of existing literature and concludes by making recommendations related to further research for the identified risks.

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Wildlife law enforcement in Sub-Saharan African protected areas : a review of best practices

Cited by 20 publications

References 14 publications

A Framework for Assessing Impacts of Wild Meat Hunting Practices in the Tropics

A Framework for Assessing Impacts of Wild Meat Hunting Practices in the Tropics

Detecting deterrence from patrol data

Identifying key risks to the achievement of protected area system objectives

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Wildlife law enforcement in Sub-Saharan African protected areas : a review of best practices

Cited by 20 publications

References 14 publications

A Framework for Assessing Impacts of Wild Meat Hunting Practices in the Tropics

A Framework for Assessing Impacts of Wild Meat Hunting Practices in the Tropics

Detecting deterrence from patrol data

﻿Identifying key risks to the achievement of protected area system objectives

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Identifying key risks to the achievement of protected area system objectives