Annette Hübschle

University of Cape Town | UCT · Department of Public Law

In light of the high incidence of rhino poaching in southern Africa, the African rhinoceros might become extinct in the wild in the near future. Scholars from a variety of disciplines have analysed drivers of illegal hunting and poaching behaviour in general terms. Existing scholarship on rhino poaching proffers a simplistic concurrence of interlin...

This chapter shows that the illegalization of an economic exchange is not a straightforward political decision with fixed goalposts, but a protracted process that may encounter unexpected hurdles along the way to effective implementation and enforcement. While political considerations informed the decision to ban trade in rhino horn initially, diff...

The COVID-19 pandemic was an unexpected event with far-reaching long-term economic, political, and social consequences, entailing disruptive changes with potentially existence- and livelihood threatening consequences. Lessons in resilience from illegal economies such as the illegal wildlife trade could help society better cope with harms and risk f...

This article examines the interplay between local activism and external and elite actors in response to ReconAfrica's oil and gas exploration activities in Namibia's Kavango and Botswana's Okavango Delta regions. The research demonstrates local communities’ challenges with confronting environmental degradation, unfulfilled promises, and legal trans...

This paper examines the dynamics of ‘irregularly regulated markets’, specifically those dealing with what we term ‘criminogenic collectables’: antiquities, fossils, and wildlife. Through the lens of ‘irregular regulation’ we consider how inconsistencies and loopholes in legal frameworks contribute to criminal activities in these markets. We outline...

Transnational Maritime Environmental Crimes (TMEC) pose a significant threat to marine ecosystems, biodiversity, and the socio-economic sustainability of coastal communities, particularly in the Global South. These crimes, including illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and the trafficking of marine species, demand innovative and inclu...

The burgeoning illegal trade in succulents in southern Africa presents a critical conservation and social development challenge. Drawing parallels with the trajectory of the response to rhinoceros poaching, we considered the consequences of conservation law enforcement measures, particularly the militarization of antipoaching efforts. The response...

This is the third special issue of the IJCJSD seeking to engage in global Green Criminological Dialogues, previously presenting ‘Voices from the Americas and Europe’ (Goyes et al, 2019) and then ‘Voices from Asia’ (Goyes et al, 2022). The focus for this collection is Africa, a continent of enormous diversity—in Indigenous Peoples and Local Communit...

South Africa is home to a rich diversity of endemic and endangered species of fauna and flora, many of which are poached, illegally harvested or captured. Traditional law enforcement and criminal justice steps have been taken to disrupt wildlife crimes, but they are reactive in nature and thus fail to address the root causes that lead to the commis...

One of my lockdown projects was the development of a teaching module on sustainable livelihoods and community engagement as a whole-of-society response to wildlife crime for the Education for Justice initiative (E4J) of UNODC - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The module is open access and provides a great introduction for our community-fo...

Illicit supply networks (ISNs) are composed of coordinated human actors that source, transit, and distribute illicitly traded goods to consumers, while also creating widespread social and environmental harms. Despite growing documentation of ISNs and their impacts, efforts to understand and disrupt ISNs remain insufficient due to the persistent lac...

An iterative participative research methodology developed for research on conservation matters and community safety in communities living in the Greater Kruger Landscape.

Several southern African countries have implemented community-focused conservation management approaches with varying levels of success. Community-based approaches are recognised as requiring long-term commitment and resources through genuine partnerships between local people and protected areas (PA). The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) South Afri...

Vulture declines are uniquely problematic for socioecological systems because they are nature’s most important scavengers. Intentional and unintentional poisoning, human-wildlife conflict, energy infrastructure, belief-based use, and illegal hunting activities remain threats to vulture populations across Africa. Conservation stakeholders have ident...

Report on the findings of a mixed methods study on wildlife poisoning in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area between 2008 and mid-2019

This article introduces a pilot project that seeks to apply restorative justice principles to wildlife crime offences in South Africa. A local conservation NGO, the Endangered Wildlife Trust, under the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) South Africa Khetha Programme and supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is p...

Book review of The Illicit Economy in Turkey: How Criminals, Terrorists, and the Syrian Conflict Fuel Underground Markets.

In this chapter, we first argue for a green criminological perspective on culture as well as nature, as those concepts are framed in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Second, from within this green criminological perspective we discern a neocolonial hegemony in the resource extraction from developing countries that is represented by...

Vulture declines are uniquely problematic for socioecological systems because they are nature's most important scavengers. Intentional and unintentional poisoning, human-wildlife conflict, energy infrastructure, belief-based use, and illegal hunting activities remain threats to vulture populations across Africa. Conservation stakeholders have ident...

Counterfeit commodities and sweatshops in Argentina, diamonds in Sierra Leone and rhinoceros horn in southern Africa were the research themes of Matias Dewey, Nina Engwicht and Annette Hübschle. As part of their program of research on illegal markets at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, the researchers conducted hundreds of inter...

A large number of anti-poaching, conservation and management measures have been implemented to protect rhinos. None of these responses has achieved tangible results in lowering unnatural rhino deaths through illegal hunting in southern Africa. The international donor community, conservation NGOs and governments have disbursed millions of dollars to...

A large number of anti-poaching, conservation and management measures have been implemented to protect rhinos. None of these responses has achieved tangible results in lowering unnatural rhino deaths through illegal hunting in southern Africa. The international donor community, conservation NGOs and governments have disbursed millions of dollars to...

Scholars, practitioners, international donors and development NGOs have been turning to gendered responses on a range of social, crime and development issues in the Global South, including, amongst others, climate change mitigation, natural resource management and security studies. Although gender mainstreaming has become a key consideration, sever...

A large number of anti-poaching, conservation and management measures have been implemented to protect rhinos. None of these responses has achieved tangible results in lowering unnatural rhino deaths through illegal hunting in southern Africa. The international donor community, conservation NGOs and governments have disbursed millions of dollars to...

Short piece on the importance of local communities in mitigating wildlife crime and poaching. Available at: https://theconversation.com/the-fight-against-poaching-must-shift-to-empowering-communities-83828

In spite of the regulation, financial assistance and securitisation of responses to rhino poaching, rhino deaths have escalated over the past decade. This article discusses why efforts to disrupt illegal flows of rhino horn have been unsuccessful by honing in on structural and functional aspects of the broader rhino horn economy. Existing scholarly...

A multitude of measures, including regulatory changes, law enforcement measures and demand reduction campaigns, appear to have done little to stem the tide against organised environmental crimes. However, fewer rhinos were poached in South Africa’s signature national park, the Kruger National Park (KNP), in 2015 and 2016 than in the year before and...

A plethora of protective and regulatory national and international measures have failed to disrupt the consumer markets and criminal networks that allow wildlife trades to flourish. While conservation is often regarded as a pastime of economic elites, the impact of environmental degradation disproportionately affects poor people. The role of local...

Once considered peripheral and a green matter, wildlife crimes have moved up global security and policy agendas. The UN General Assembly, for example, adopted two resolutions to tackle wildlife crimes in 2015 and 2016. Meanwhile the South Africa and the Southern African Development (SADC) have declared wildlife trafficking a priority crime issue. R...

A multitude of measures, including regulatory changes, law enforcement measures and demandreduction campaigns, appear to have done little to stem the tide against organised environmentalcrimes. However, fewer rhinos were poached in South Africa’s signature national park, the KrugerNational Park (KNP), in 2015 and 2016 than in the year before and a...

The paper provides a brief analysis of the SNA model created by Salcedo– Albaran et al (2015) of the Groenewald gang’s involvement in illegal transnational rhinoceros horn trade between southern Africa and Asia. What renders the case particularly interesting is the demonstrable interface between legality and illegality. This paper provides a brief...

The following paper provides a brief analysis of the SNA model created by Salcedo–Albaran et al (2015) of the Groenewald gang’s involvement in illegal transnational rhinoceros horn trade between southern Africa and Asia. What renders the case particularly interesting is the demonstrable interface between legality and illegality. This paper provides...

In the run up to CITES CoP17, the Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs invited the Minister of Environmental Affairs to provide feedback on South Africa's readiness for the international event and the status of the country's anti-poaching strategies. A number of external presentations were also heard, including Dr Sam Ferreira and Mr Xolani...

This report is the final product of a one-year research project that delved into the socio-economic impacts of specific drug markets in South Africa. The research forms part of a USAID-funded three-year project analyzing the intersections of transnational organized crime (TOC) and development in Africa. This particular study focuses on the socio-ec...

Interview on the preliminary findings of my doctoral research project on illegal rhino horn markets

During 2005 representatives of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and the Secretariat of the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO) discussed the lack of reliable information and research on organised crime and how it impacted law enforcement in southern Africa. The lack of credible homegrown research data...

Anti-poaching measures, regulatory interventions and demand reduction campaigns have been instituted to curb the flow of illegal wildlife contraband. While these measures are laudable, they appear to achieve limited success in disrupting illegal wildlife markets. Using the example of the illegal market in rhinoceros horn, this article focuses on se...

In discussions around southern Africa’s wildlife crime challenges, is usually assumed that there is a high degree of engagement by communities that live adjacent to national parks. Common wisdom suggests that this is predominantly for economic reasons, but a recent research study undertaken by Global Initiative member Annette Hübschle-Finch suggest...

A multi-sectorial regime of protection including international treaties, conservation and security measures, demand reduction campaigns and quasi-military interventions has been established to protect rhinos. Despite these efforts, the poaching of rhinos and trafficking of rhino horn continue unabated. This dissertation asks why the illegal market...

Organized crime scholars have paid scant attention to gender and stereotyped roles of women in the commission of organized crime activities. Traditionally, organized crime is seen as a form of criminality perpetrated by men only. Women are usually portrayed as victims of organized crime or as “mean girls”, girlfriends, wives, lovers of brides of no...

From the early 1990s onwards, research and policies concerning organised crime in the southern African region have grown apace. But the quest for both quantitative and qualitative research is far from being satisfied. The paper uses an ambitious research project (titled Enhancing Regional Responses to Organised Crime, or EROC) as a case study in or...

A growing body of scholarly literature suggests confluence or even convergence of organized crime and terrorism in various parts of the world. However, links remain somewhat nebulous at this stage and vary considerably, based on region and context. Africa has come under the spotlight due to perceived weaknesses in the criminal justice sector, limit...

September 11 2001 has put the spotlight on terrorism, and it has been at the apex of the international security agenda ever since. Politicians, lawmakers, scholars and others have been debating the meaning and definition of terrorism for many years. Numerous myths and misconceptions persist on this highly debated issue. With the aid of historical c...

Tough anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regimes have become the key tools in fighting terrorism in the post 9/11 world. The stakes in what the Bush government in the United States has called a ‘war on terrorism’, have been raised on account of the inevitable friction between the trappings of development, on one hand, and the imperative...

September 11 2001 precipitated the introduction of anti-terrorism legislation in most states and enhanced cooperation between states around the world. Africa may not have witnessed many incidents of international terrorism on its soil, yet the continent has, in the post 9/11 era, often been referred to as the ‘breeding ground of terrorism’ or the c...

South Africa’s anti-terror legislation, the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorism and Related Activities Act (Act 33 of 2004), came into operation on 20 May 2005. Throughout the drafting process concerns were raised from a number of civil society and faith organisations that aspects of the new law could detract from basic human r...

The structural, economic, social and political weaknesses in southern Africa, combined with well-organised and firmly entrenched criminal networks would, on the face of it, suggest that linkages between organised crime and terrorism are plausible. However, none of the cases examined in this paper could establish a clear linkage between organised cr...