Conservation Law Enforcement: Policing Protected Areas

SummaryThe scope and scale of wildlife crimes around the world have risen in intensity and complexity, yet current enforcement strategies have often not delivered desired effects on illegal activities, even within protected areas. Tackling the array of illegal activities by emphasizing law enforcement above other options is challenging and potentially unsustainable. We explored the potential for social norms, community regulations and socioeconomic factors to promote compliance with wildlife laws by interviewing 334 respondents in 28 villages that share boundaries with protected areas in Nigeria. Using an anonymous direct questioning approach, we recorded a high prevalence of non-compliance behaviours in all studied communities. Injunctive norms (i.e., perceptions of acceptable behaviour within a social group) significantly predicted compliance, as respondents with no complicit friends or family members were more likely to comply with wildlife regulations. Perceived likelihood of community-level sanctions played a more salient role than the fear of arrest by rangers in influencing compliance. In addition, non-compliance increased with number of dependents, but reduced with average monthly household income. Our study demonstrates that clear knowledge of the social norms that drive local behaviour as well as the authorities that enforce them is integral to understanding the forces that drive community involvement and participation in conservation. Incorporating local communities in planning enforcement interventions may help protect threatened species and landscapes.

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Rangers can't be with every elephant: assessing rangers' perceptions of a community, problem-solving policing model for protected areas

Oryx ◽

10.1017/s0030605318001461 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-10

Author(s):

William D. Moreto ◽

Richard Charlton

Keyword(s):

Law Enforcement ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Science Research ◽

Conservation Policy ◽

Front Line ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Wildlife Crime ◽

Illegal Activities ◽

Study Participants

AbstractRecent studies have highlighted that illegal activities occurring within protected areas, including the poaching of fauna and flora, cannot be addressed with increased law enforcement alone. Moreover, research on the increasingly militarized nature of front-line conservation efforts has pointed to potentially detrimental aspects of such approaches. This has led to a shift in focus to identifying ways to further engage local communities in the prevention and reduction of wildlife crimes. However, few studies have examined the potential for changing the responsibilities of front-line conservation personnel or their views on such changes. Such insight is vital in forecasting the successful adoption of, or possible resistance towards, a more community-oriented policy. We examined rangers’ perceptions in Uganda to assess their attitudes towards traditional enforcement strategies and alternative, non-enforcement approaches for reducing illegal activities in protected areas. Our findings suggest that although respondents believed that traditional enforcement strategies (e.g. foot patrols) are important and effective in reducing wildlife crime, these strategies on their own were insufficient to address illegal activities. Study participants emphasized the importance of expanding the role of front-line rangers, in line with approaches suggested in the policing literature. We discuss the implications of our findings for transdisciplinary conservation science research and front-line conservation policy and practice.

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Conservation Law Enforcement in Michigan

The Journal of Criminal Law Criminology and Police Science ◽

10.2307/1141482 ◽

1962 ◽

Vol 53 (3) ◽

pp. 384 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Samuel G. Chapman ◽

Jerry Hartman

Keyword(s):

Law Enforcement ◽

Conservation Law

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KONSERVASI KEANEKARAGAMAN HAYATI DI INDONESIA: REKOMENDASI PERBAIKAN UNDANG-UNDANG KONSERVASI

Jurnal Hukum Lingkungan Indonesia ◽

10.38011/jhli.v2i2.23 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 1 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Samedi Samedi

Keyword(s):

Genetic Resources ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Conservation Law ◽

Biodiversity Loss ◽

Legal Framework ◽

Conservation Strategy ◽

World Conservation ◽

Use Values ◽

Marine Areas ◽

Potential Use

AbstrakKekayaan Indonesia akan keanekaragaman hayati dengan komponen-komponennyamerupakan masa depan umat manusia sebagai sumber ketahanan pangan, kesehatan dan bahkan energi. Dengan potensi ini,Indonesia wajib melakukan upaya konservasi beserta legislasi yang efektif untuk mengatasi laju kerusakan dan kehilangan keaneragaman hayati yang telah mencapai tingkat yang sangat mengkhawatirkan.Tulisan ini membahas mengenai peran hukum dan kerangka hukum konservasi di Indonesia,utamanya kemampuan undang-undang konservasi dalam penyelamatan sumber daya alam hayati, serta saran perbaikan terhadap undang-undang yang saat ini ada.Saat ini kerangka hukum nasional konservasi keanekaragaman hayati berpusat pada Undang-UndangNo. 5Tahun 1990yang mengadopsi World Conservation Strategy IUCN tahun 1980 yang di tingkat internasional telah mengalami perubahan-perubahan mendasar. Terlepas dari keberhasilan UUini, diantaranya dengan mencadangkan lebih dari 25 juta ha ekosistem daratan dan lautan ke dalam sistem kawasan yang dilindungi (protected areas), undang-undang ini mengandung berbagai kelemahan untuk penerapannya saat ini dan perlu segera direvisi, termasuk harmonisasi yang mendalam dengan undang-undang terkait agar dapat dilaksanakan secara efektif di lapangan. AbstractBiodiversity and its components: genetic resources, species and ecosystem with actual or potential use values to humanity is the future for the survival of humankind. With this potential, it is essential for Indonesia to conserve these resources equipped with effective national legislation to stop and reverse the unprecendented rate of biodiversity loss. This paper aims to discuss the conservation legal framework in Indonesia and the capability of the conservation law to halt unprecedented biodiversity loss and suggested revision for this law.The current legal framework for biodiversity conservation stems on the Act No 5 of 1990 which adopts World Conservation Strategy of IUCN 1980. Under the current framework, more than 25 million hectares of terrestrial and marine areas have been totally protected within protected areas systems. However, this centralistic law has some weaknesses to be effectively implemented at the current contexts. This law needs substantial revision and harmonization with other laws in order to make the implementation effective.

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Drones for Conservation in Protected Areas: Present and Future

Drones ◽

10.3390/drones3010010 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 10 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Jesús Jiménez López ◽

Margarita Mulero-Pázmány

Keyword(s):

Law Enforcement ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Disaster Response ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Multidisciplinary Research ◽

Critical Research ◽

Ecosystem Monitoring ◽

Great Expectations ◽

Innovative Solutions ◽

Conservation Actions

Park managers call for cost-effective and innovative solutions to handle a wide variety of environmental problems that threaten biodiversity in protected areas. Recently, drones have been called upon to revolutionize conservation and hold great potential to evolve and raise better-informed decisions to assist management. Despite great expectations, the benefits that drones could bring to foster effectiveness remain fundamentally unexplored. To address this gap, we performed a literature review about the use of drones in conservation. We selected a total of 256 studies, of which 99 were carried out in protected areas. We classified the studies in five distinct areas of applications: “wildlife monitoring and management”; “ecosystem monitoring”; “law enforcement”; “ecotourism”; and “environmental management and disaster response”. We also identified specific gaps and challenges that would allow for the expansion of critical research or monitoring. Our results support the evidence that drones hold merits to serve conservation actions and reinforce effective management, but multidisciplinary research must resolve the operational and analytical shortcomings that undermine the prospects for drones integration in protected areas.

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Evaluating the potential effectiveness of alternative management scenarios in ape habitat

Environmental Conservation ◽

10.1017/s0376892915000417 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 43 (2) ◽

pp. 161-171 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

INAOYOM IMONG ◽

HJALMAR S. KÜHL ◽

MARTHA M. ROBBINS ◽

ROGER MUNDRY

Keyword(s):

Law Enforcement ◽

Functional Connectivity ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Behaviour Change ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Scenario Planning ◽

Human Behaviour ◽

Management Scenarios ◽

Alternative Management ◽

Conservation Actions

SUMMARYChoosing appropriate management strategies and effective conservation actions requires information about the future consequences of current conservation actions; however, this crucial information is rarely available to conservation planners. This study applies scenario planning and agent-based modelling (ABM) to assess the potential impact of alternative management strategies on future suitability and functional connectivity of Cross River gorilla (CRG) habitat in the Nigeria–Cameroon border region. The CRG population is small and fragmented, with many subpopulations and migration corridors located outside protected areas. This study used ABM to simulate human land use in the study area over a period of 15 years under different management scenarios and assessed the impact on future suitability and functional connectivity of CRG habitat. The simulations showed that a landscape approach with greater focus on interventions to change human behaviour towards conserving gorillas and sustainable forest use would result in greater improvement in habitat suitability and functional connectivity compared to focusing on improving law enforcement within existing protected areas. However, the best scenarios were when both law enforcement and behaviour change increased. The results highlight the importance of human behaviour change to conservation in human-dominated landscapes and can inform conservation planning and management of other species and in similar landscapes.

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Game warden perceptions of change in conservation law enforcement

The Police Journal Theory Practice and Principles ◽

10.1177/0032258x16642450 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 89 (3) ◽

pp. 218-226 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Stephen L Eliason

Keyword(s):

Law Enforcement ◽

Conservation Law ◽

Game Warden

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