The Integration of Conservation and Security

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosaleen Duffy ◽  
Francis Massé
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Conservation Policy ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Global Security ◽  
Illegal Wildlife Trade ◽  
Conservation Authorities

This chapter examines the intersections among violence, security, and the environment. It uses a political ecology lens to analyze the violences that arise from “enforcement-first” approaches in tackling the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) as one aspect of conservation. Growing concern about IWT as a threat to biodiversity and security has led to calls for an urgent response. This has encouraged and facilitated the development of responses that are anchored in law enforcement and militarization. This is in part due to the redefining of IWT as a global security threat because it is deemed as a source of funding for armed groups and involves organized crime networks. The intense focus on the need to tackle IWT has led to shifts in conservation policy, such that anti-poaching operations are often accompanied by considerable levels of violence by conservation authorities.

Crime, Security, and Illegal Wildlife Trade: Political Ecologies of International Conservation

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Rosaleen Duffy
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Illegal Wildlife Trade ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Competitive Funding ◽  
Political Ecologies ◽  
Funding Environment

Abstract This article takes a political ecology approach to understanding the integration of conservation with security in tackling the illegal wildlife trade. It builds on political ecology debates on militarization by connecting it to the dynamics of global environmental politics, specifically the discursive and material support from donors, governments, and conservation nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The combined effects of a highly competitive funding environment and security concerns of governments has produced a context in which NGOs strategically invoke the idea of the illegal wildlife trade as a security threat. For donors and governments, tackling the illegal wildlife trade is a means through which they can address security threats. However, this has material outcomes for marginalized peoples living with wildlife, including militarization, human rights abuses, enhanced surveillance, and law enforcement.

scholarly journals Trend, Challenges and Opportunities of Illegal Wildlife Trafficking and Trade Activities within and through Ethiopia

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-61
Author(s):  
Mekbeb Tessema ◽  
Kumara Wakjira ◽  
Daniel Paulos ◽  
Wubua Mekonnen ◽  
Arega Mekonnen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Relative Weight ◽  
Relative Number ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Illegal Wildlife Trade ◽  
Key Species ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Wildlife Trafficking ◽  
National Trends ◽  
Polynomial Regressions

Having improved knowledge on global, regional and/or national trends in illegal wildlife trade is required to develop effective combating strategies. In this paper, nine years (2011–2019) data on illegal wildlife trade and trafficking (iwt) seizure records were used to explore trends in iwt activities in Ethiopia and to identify countries involved most in the iwt. Trends of iwt activities were assessed in two indicators: as relative transaction index (ti), and as relative weight index (for ivory [wi]) or as relative number of items for ivory and other wildlife products [ni]. To account for potential yearly variations in seizure rates, proxy variables to law enforcement efforts and effectiveness were used and predictive models that produced bias-adjusted estimates of relative trends in iwt activities were built. To explore the underlying reasons for the trend observed, relevant national officers were also interviewed to assess how well has been wildlife law enforcement working in combatting iwt in the country. Linear or polynomial regressions, where appropriate, were fitted to the seizure data to establish trends in transaction index over the nine years. A total of 842 incidences of iwt seizure instance reports, involving 18 animal species, were recorded in the country during the nine years period. However, the highest seizure (94%) rate was ivory and ivory products. Our results generally showed declining trends in both ti and wi or ni. The observed trend was also supported by the experts’ opinions and likely reflects the positive impacts of the country’s implementation of its wildlife laws. Other interesting findings of this study were that China represented the single most important destination country and Chinese nationalities were the most traffickers. In conclusion, the results provide detailed evidence to inform national and international decision making on key species implicated in the illegal trade. Similar periodic assessment of the situation of iwt within the country is needed to evaluate effectiveness of the country’s past and present measures and to revise its future combatting policies and strategies.

scholarly journals Community-Based Approaches to Tackling Illegal Wildlife Trade—What Works and How Is It Measured?

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Wilson-Holt ◽  
Dilys Roe
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Illegal Wildlife Trade ◽  
Learning Platform ◽  
What Works ◽  
Global Issue ◽  
Source Countries

The illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is a global issue that threatens the conservation of many species of fauna and flora and affects the livelihoods of people who are dependent upon wildlife. By far the most common approach to tackling IWT is to enhance law enforcement, including arming rangers and tougher penalties for perpetrators. Yet, critics of this approach argue that efforts to reduce IWT in source countries are likely to fail without the involvement of local people. However, little is known about the effectiveness of community-based approaches to tackling IWT or how this is being measured. We used information from the www.peoplenotpoaching.org learning platform to analyze over 100 case studies of community-based anti-IWT interventions to understand what proportion have been effective and how this has been measured. We present a typology of frequently reported outcomes, their indicators and means of verification. We show that effectiveness in community-based anti-IWT interventions is measured by a number of indicators and using a variety of verification means. Our findings suggest that conservation practitioners more frequently implement activities to measure conservation outcomes in comparison to livelihood outcomes, which has implications for how we consider if a community-based anti-IWT project has been effective. We recommend that future community-based anti-IWT projects build in more robust monitoring, evaluation and learning activities to measure how livelihood benefits impact local communities given their support is crucial to achieving long-term conservation success.

scholarly journals The Illegal Wildlife Trade: Through The Eyes of a One-Year-Old Pangolin (Manis javanica)

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lelia Bridgeland-Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Source Areas ◽  
Illegal Wildlife Trade ◽  
Fictional Narrative ◽  
Manis Javanica ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
One Year

This paper explores the literature on the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) by following the journey of a single imagined Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) through the entire trading process. Literature on IWT frequently refers to non-human animals in terms of collectives, species, or body parts, for example ‘tons of pangolin scales’, rather than as subjective individuals. In contrast, this paper centralizes the experiences of an individual pangolin by using a cross- disciplinary methodology, combining fact with a fictional narrative of subjective pangolin experience, in an empathetic and egomorphic process. The paper draws together known legislation, trade practices, and pangolin biology, structured around the journey of an imagined pangolin. At each stage of IWT, from poaching to consumption, the relationships between various actors are contextualized, helping to untangle the complex networks and relationships (both human-human and human-animal) involved in IWT. Concluding recommendations are made about ways to address IWT, including supporting locals in source areas, educating consumers, and improving law enforcement. It is hoped that this methodology will be applied to further studies of human and non-human animal interactions in this area of research, in order to individualize non-human animals and recognize their subjective experiences.

OPTIMALISASI PERAN PPNS BEA DAN CUKAI DALAM PENANGANAN PERKARA KEPABEANAN PERDAGANGAN SATWA DILINDUNGI

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rizki Zakariya
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Civil Servant ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Strength Of Evidence ◽  
Illegal Wildlife Trade ◽  
Electronic Evidence ◽  
Directorate General

 ABSTRACT: The rise of illegal wildlife trade threatens Indonesia's biodiversity. This was compounded by the development of an increasingly organized and transnational mode of perpetrators of crime. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out optimal and up-to-date law enforcement efforts for illegal wildlife traffickers, particularly by the Civil Servant Investigator at the Directorate General of Customs and Excise. The results of this study indicate the urgency of optimizing the role of customs and excise PPNS in handling customs cases of trade in protected animals because of the increase in protected wild animals that are threatened with extinction; weak strength of evidence of illegal wildlife trade cases at the trial; and the development of an illegal wildlife trade crime mode. Then the optimization efforts can be made by pursuing assets of perpetrators of crime, the use of electronic evidence, and strengthening the cooperation of national and multi-national institutions. So hopefully with these efforts, the purpose of this writing, namely the handling of protected wildlife trade cases run optimally by PPNS Directorate General of Customs and Excise. This research is a qualitative normative juridical research study using a statute approach, a case approach, and a comparative approach.Keywords: Biodiversity, Trade, Animals, Protected. ABSTRAK: Maraknya perdagangan satwa liar ilegal mengancam keanekaragaman hayati Indonesia. Hal itu ditambah dengan berkembangnya modus pelaku kejahatan yang semakin terorganisir dan transnasional. Oleh karena itu, perlu dilakukan upaya penegakan hukum secara optimal dan mutakhir kepada para pelaku perdagangan satwa liar illegal, khususnya oleh Penyidik Pegawai Negeri Sipil Direktorat Jenderal Bea dan Cukai. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan urgensi optimalisasi peran PPNS Bea dan Cukai dalam penanganan perkara kepabeanan perdagangan satwa dilindungi karena meningkatnya satwa liar dilindungi yang terancam punah; lemahnya kekuatan pembuktian perkara perdagangan satwa liar illegal di persidangan; dan berkembangnya modus kejahatan perdagangan satwa liar ilegal. Kemudian upaya optimalisasi tersebut dapat dilakukan dengan pengejaran aset pelaku kejahatan, pemanfaatan bukti elektronik, dan penguatan kerjasama lembaga nasional maupun multi nasioanl. Sehingga diharapkan dengan upaya tersebut, maka tujuan penulisan ini, yakni penanganan perkara perdagangan satwa liar dilindungi berjalan optimal oleh PPNS Bea dan Cukai. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian hukum yuridis normatif kualitatif dengan menggunakan pendekatan undang-undang (statute approach), pendekatan kasus (case approach), dan pendekatan komparatif (comparative approach).Kata Kunci: Keanekaragaman Hayati, Perdagangan, Satwa, Dilindungi.  

scholarly journals Conservation and crime convergence? Situating the 2018 London Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Massé ◽  
Hannah Dickinson ◽  
Jared Margulies ◽  
Laure Joanny ◽  
Teresa Lappe-Osthege ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Critical Criminology ◽  
Environmental Crime ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Judicial Reform ◽  
Intelligence Gathering ◽  
Illegal Wildlife Trade ◽  
Serious Crime ◽  
The Uk

<p>The 2018 London Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) Conference was the fourth and biggest meeting on IWT convened at the initiative of the UK Government. Using a collaborative event ethnography, we examine the Conference as a site where key actors defined the problem of IWT as one of serious crime that needs to be addressed as such. We ask (a) how was IWT framed as serious crime, (b) how was this framing mobilized to promote particular policy responses, and (c) how did the framing and suggested responses reflect the privileging of elite voices? Answering these questions demonstrates the expanding ways in which thinking related to crime and policing are an increasingly forceful dynamic shaping conservation-related policy at the global level. We argue that the conservation-crime convergence on display at the 2018 London IWT Conference is characteristic of a conservation policy landscape that increasingly promotes and privileges responses to IWT that are based on legal and judicial reform, criminal investigations, intelligence gathering, and law enforcement technologies. Marginalized are those voices that seek to address the underlying drivers of IWT by promoting solutions rooted in sustainable livelihoods in source countries and global demand reduction. We suggest that political ecology of conservation and environmental crime would benefit from greater engagement with critical criminology, a discipline that critically interrogates the uneven power dynamics that shape ideas of crime, criminality, how they are politicized, and how they frame policy decisions. This would add further conceptual rigor to political ecological work that deconstructs conservation and environmental crime.</p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>illegal wildlife trade, poaching, conservation, crime, event ethnography, criminology</p>

scholarly journals Darknet Usage in the Illegal Wildlife Trade

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joss Wright
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ongoing Study ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Illegal Drugs ◽  
Online Services ◽  
Illegal Wildlife Trade ◽  
Special Software

The darknet is a network of websites that can be accessed only via special software that hides the details of the user’s connection, and also allows websites to be hosted without revealing their location or operator. Today, large-scale darknet marketplaces exist for illegal drugs, firearms, hacking tools, stolen identity documents, and a wide variety of other illicit goods. The darknet has not, to date, proven to be a particularly attractive platform for the buying and selling of illegal wildlife products. Despite this, the darknet provides a 'marketplace of last resort' that becomes increasingly attractive over other, more accessible, online services as law enforcement and platform operators enforce policies against trading in illegal wildlife products. This makes the ongoing study of darknet markets an important avenue for research as other policies against online illegal wildlife trading emerge.

scholarly journals To What Extent Is Social Marketing Used in Demand Reduction Campaigns for Illegal Wildlife Products? Insights From Elephant Ivory and Rhino Horn

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Greenfield ◽  
Diogo Veríssimo
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Social Marketing ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Illegal Wildlife Trade ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Demand Reduction ◽  
Elephant Ivory ◽  
Global Threat

The illegal wildlife trade is a global threat to biodiversity as well as to public health and good governance. As legislation and law enforcement have been insufficient to protect many wildlife species, conservationists are increasingly focused on campaigns to help reduce demand for wildlife products. Social marketing is increasingly being used to support biodiversity conservation efforts, but the extent of its use has seldom been researched. Based on interviews with conservation practitioners, we assess the extent to which social marketing has been used in demand reduction campaign design. We do this by investigating the level to which demand reduction campaigns met the benchmarks defined by the UK’s National Social Marketing Centre. We focus on rhino horn and elephant ivory, two high-profile products in the illegal wildlife trade and in China and Vietnam given their role as key consumer countries. We also investigate how conservation practitioners view the opportunities and challenges of using social marketing in the context of reducing demand for illegally traded wildlife products. Our findings highlight that there are substantial gaps between best practice in social marketing and current practices in the design of demand reduction campaigns. However, several elements of social marketing are widely utilized and a platform exists from which to build more comprehensive behavioral influence campaigns in future. In terms of future needs, practitioners highlighted the need for independent consumer research upon which to build target audience insights, a focus on broader audience segments beyond the product consumers, and the improvement of collaborations across institutions.

Mind the Gap! Decoupling Between Policy and Practice in the Policing of Illegal Wildlife Trade

2020 ◽  
pp. 0306624X2096795
Author(s):  
Siv Rebekka Runhovde
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Wild Plants ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Illegal Trade ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Work Activities ◽  
Daily Work ◽  
Illegal Wildlife Trade ◽  
Conflicting Demands

Despite numerous promises and pledges at national and international levels to confront what many acknowledge as a crisis, illegal trade in wild plants and animals continues to grow and diversify. Empirical research conducted in Norway and Uganda from 2013 to 2015 indicates that despite the different circumstances in which law enforcement operates in the two countries, policing agents face a number of comparable challenges. Drawing on institutional theory the paper argues that decoupling, that is, gaps between official policies and daily work activities within the policing organizations, compromises enforcement in both countries. Challenges stem from conflicting demands, poor resources and want of guidelines that oblige officers to prioritize the control of illegal wildlife trade in practice.

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