Application of the integrated threat theory to conservation law enforcement

Interactions between law enforcement agents in conservation (e.g., rangers) and illegal resource users (e.g., illegal hunters) can be violent and sometimes fatal, which negatively affects conservation efforts and people's well-being. Models from social psychology, such as integrated threat theory (ITT) (intergroup interactions shape intergroup emotions, prejudices and perceived threats leading to hostile attitudes or behaviors between groups), are useful in addressing such interactions. Conservation approaches relying mainly on law enforcement have never been investigated using this framework. Using a structured questionnaire, we collected data from 282 rangers in protected and unprotected areas (n = 50) in northern Iran. We applied Bayesian structural equation modeling in an assessment of rangers' affective attitudes (i.e., emotions or feelings that shape attitudes toward a person or object) toward illegal hunters in an ITT framework. Rangers' positive perceptions of illegal hunters were negatively associated with intergroup anxiety (emotional response to fear) and negative stereotypes about a hunter's personality, which mediated the relationship between negative contact and affective attitudes. This suggests that negative contact, such as verbal abuse, may lead rangers to perceive illegal hunters as arrogant or cruel, which likely forms a basis for perceived threats. Rangers' positive contact with illegal hunters, such as playing or working together, likely lowered their perceived realistic threats (i.e., fear of property damage). Perceived realistic threats of rangers were positively associated with negative contacts (e.g., physical harm). The associations we identified suggest that relationships based on positive interactions between rangers and illegal hunters can reduce fear and prejudice. Thus, we suggest that rangers and hunters be provided with safe spaces to have positive interactions, which may help lower tension and develop cooperative conservation mechanisms.

Exploring the Perceptions and Experiences of Local Versus Non-Local Rangers: Insights From Across 11 Countries

Multiple demographic factors can affect ranger experiences and perceptions of their work, including factors like gender, age, and income. Similarly, whether a ranger is local to their conservation area might influence their experiences and perceptions of the work. This premise, however, has received limited attention. In this study we use survey data from across 11 countries to explore how being local to a conservation area might affect ranger experiences and perceptions. We define local rangers as originally being from within 20km of their conservation area. Our findings suggest that being local corresponds to more positive relations with local communities. Our results also imply that whilst being a local ranger might not directly affect job satisfaction, local rangers may well enjoy higher job satisfaction because of how they tend to differ from non-local rangers in other characteristics (e.g., lower formal education; greater access to familial support; more amicable community relations). Moreover, our findings indicate that non-local rangers tend to experience certain symptoms associated with a challenging job (e.g., feeling worn out and emotionally exhausted) more regularly than local rangers, which might correspond to lower welfare. In all, our findings indicate that further, more in-depth research into how the perceptions and experiences of local versus non-local rangers might differ could be useful. Examining the links between being a local ranger and community relations might be especially valuable.

Potential for informal guardianship in community-based wildlife crime prevention: Insights from Vietnam

The notion that indigenous people and local communities can effectively prevent conservation crime rests upon the assumption that they are informal guardians of natural resources. Although informal guardianship is a concept typically applied to “traditional” crimes, urban contexts, and the global North, it has great potential to be combined with formal guardianship (such as ranger patrols) to better protect wildlife, incentivize community participation in conservation, and address the limitations of formal enforcement in the global South. Proactive crime prevention is especially important for illegal snare hunting, a practice that has led to pernicious defaunation and which has proved difficult to control due to its broad scope. This paper uses interview data with community members in protected areas in Viet Nam where illegal snare hunting is commonplace to 1) analyze the conditions for informal guardianship in the study locations; 2) explore how community members can become more effective informal guardians; and 3) examine how formal and informal guardianship mechanisms can be linked to maximize deterrence and limit displacement of illegal snaring. Results indicate that conditions for informal guardianship exist but that respondent willingness to intervene depends upon the location, offender activity, and type of offender (outsider versus community member). While respondents generated numerous strategies for wildlife crime prevention, they also listed crime displacement mechanism offenders used to avoid detection. We discuss how informal guardianship can be integrated with formal guardianship into an overall model of situational crime prevention to protect wildlife and incentivize community-led deterrence of illegal snaring.

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

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.