Drivers and facilitators of the illegal killing of elephants across 64
African sitesTimothy Kuiper, Res Altwegg, Colin Beale, Thea Carroll, Holly
T. Dublin, Severin Hauenstein, Mrigesh Kshatriya, Carl Schwarz, Chris R.
Thouless, Andrew Royle & E.J. Milner-GullandProceedings of the Royal
Society BJanuary 11, 2023 Abstract
Ivory poaching continues to threaten African elephants. We (1) used
criminology theory and literature evidence to generate hypotheses about
factors that may drive, facilitate or motivate poaching, (2) identified
datasets representing these factors, and (3) tested those factors with
strong hypotheses and sufficient data quality for empirical associations
with poaching. We advance on previous analyses of correlates of elephant
poaching by using additional poaching data and leveraging new datasets for
previously untested explanatory variables. Using data on 10 286 illegally
killed elephants detected at 64 sites in 30 African countries (2002–2020),
we found strong evidence to support the hypotheses that the illegal killing
of elephants is associated with poor national governance, low law
enforcement capacity, low household wealth and health, and global elephant
ivory prices. Forest elephant populations suffered higher rates of illegal
killing than savannah elephants. We found only weak evidence that armed
conflicts may increase the illegal killing of elephants, and no evidence
for effects of site accessibility, vegetation density, elephant population
density, precipitation or site area. Results suggest that addressing wider
systemic challenges of human development, corruption and consumer demand
would help reduce poaching, corroborating broader work highlighting these
more ultimate drivers of the global illegal wildlife trade.
NEW FULL PAPER PDF
LINKhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1fcovxKeWnTYnAU0EaKSPTUYCDaMeOREU/view?usp=share_link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fcovxKeWnTYnAU0EaKSPTUYCDaMeOREU/view?usp=share_link
NEW FULL PAPER WEB
LINKhttps://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.2270
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.2270
*Drivers and facilitators of the illegal killing of elephants across 64
African sitesTimothy Kuiper, Res Altwegg, Colin Beale, Thea Carroll, Holly
T. Dublin, Severin Hauenstein, Mrigesh Kshatriya, Carl Schwarz, Chris R.
Thouless, Andrew Royle & E.J. Milner-GullandProceedings of the Royal
Society BJanuary 11, 2023 Abstract*
Ivory poaching continues to threaten African elephants. We (1) used
criminology theory and literature evidence to generate hypotheses about
factors that may drive, facilitate or motivate poaching, (2) identified
datasets representing these factors, and (3) tested those factors with
strong hypotheses and sufficient data quality for empirical associations
with poaching. We advance on previous analyses of correlates of elephant
poaching by using additional poaching data and leveraging new datasets for
previously untested explanatory variables. Using data on 10 286 illegally
killed elephants detected at 64 sites in 30 African countries (2002–2020),
we found strong evidence to support the hypotheses that the illegal killing
of elephants is associated with poor national governance, low law
enforcement capacity, low household wealth and health, and global elephant
ivory prices. Forest elephant populations suffered higher rates of illegal
killing than savannah elephants. We found only weak evidence that armed
conflicts may increase the illegal killing of elephants, and no evidence
for effects of site accessibility, vegetation density, elephant population
density, precipitation or site area. Results suggest that addressing wider
systemic challenges of human development, corruption and consumer demand
would help reduce poaching, corroborating broader work highlighting these
more ultimate drivers of the global illegal wildlife trade.
*NEW FULL PAPER PDF
LINKhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1fcovxKeWnTYnAU0EaKSPTUYCDaMeOREU/view?usp=share_link
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fcovxKeWnTYnAU0EaKSPTUYCDaMeOREU/view?usp=share_link>*
*NEW FULL PAPER WEB
LINKhttps://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.2270
<https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.2270>*
