Doctoral Dissertation Research: Improving management of wildlife poaching risks: Using perceptions of risk and situational crime prevention to protect endangered wildlife

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

This research assesses poaching risks associated with endangered wildlife, examines stakeholder perceptions of risk, and measures situational factors associated with poaching-related crimes. Wildlife poaching is a global risk that threatens biological, ecological, economic, sociocultural and security systems. The situation of African rhinoceroses and the communities and countries that manage them provide an appropriate context to study the poaching of endangered wildllife. The rhinoceroses and the places that manage them are facing increases in the risks from the recent upsurge in poaching. In Namibia the rural economy is heavily tied to wildlife resources through hunting for subsistence and trophy purposes, as well as ecotourism. Rhinoceros poaching translates into significant stolen benefits and decreased security for rural communities. This research merges theory from risk and decision sciences, criminology, and natural resource management to generate novel understandings about managing this global environmental risk. The objectives of this research are to: (1) develop, test and validate an integrated model of wildlife-related risk perception, and (2) evaluate the situational crime prevention approach as a tool to manage wildlife poaching risks. The researcher collects from individual surveys, existing enforcement data, focus groups within management units (e.g., community-based management areas, private reserves, national parks), and with wildlife stakeholders (e.g., ecotourism operators, professional hunters) and enforcement professionals (e.g., police officers, traditional authorities). Results have broad theoretical, methodological, and practical implications for understanding and managing environmental crimes and risks. Implications extend beyond the case of wildlife poaching to other global environmental risks such as illegal fishing or logging. First, the study provides an empirical test of methods and theories in risk and decision sciences, natural resource management, and criminology outside the typical western, developed-country context. Second, the knowledge that emerges from this research will provide pragmatic, theory-based analysis of situational factors affecting environmental crimes. Understanding these factors is key for tailoring a suit of risk management responses that most effectively reduce the conditions that facilitate poaching activities. Lastly, this research generates new methodological and theoretical tools that can be used by researchers and practitioners to study poaching of other species in different contexts.