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To protect or neglect? Design, monitoring, and evaluation of a law enforcement strategy to recover small populations of wild tigers and their prey
Abstract
Many remaining wild tiger populations persist in small numbers at sites where densities are less than half of their estimated carrying capacity and will continue to decline if not protected from poaching. Although law enforcement is frequently used to protect tigers and their prey, the conditions under which enforcement is likely to be effective in recovering small populations of wild tigers are not well understood. We evaluated the effectiveness of a law enforcement strategy to recover tigers and their prey in Lao PDR where extensive habitat provided favorable conditions for large increases in tiger numbers if protected from poaching. Over a seven-year period, we monitored along a theory of change to evaluate assumptions about the causal linkages between intermediate results and biological outcomes. Although we found a strong positive correlation between funding for enforcement and days patrolled (rs = 0.786, n = 7, p = 0.05) and a significant negative correlation between days patrolled and overall hunting catch per unit effort (rs = − 0.893,n = 7, p < 0.05), ultimately a proliferation in snaring was associated with decline in several indices of tiger abundance. We conclude that actions were sufficient to reduce poaching and increase prey populations, but insufficient to curtail extirpation of tigers. Recovering small populations of high-value wildlife such as tigers in promising source sites is dependent on establishing a complete enforcement regime, complimentary strategies that build support for the enforcement regime, and a nimble monitoring and evaluation system for agile adaptive management.
... Although law-enforcement efforts have increased in some areas of the region, the effectiveness of the strategies used is seldom determined. To date, only two studies investigated the effects of increased law enforcement on the conservation of an Endangered species in Indochina, both on tiger (Panthera tigris; Duangchantrasiri et al., 2016, Johnson et al., 2016. ...
... Rare, slow breeding species, with low population sizes but high probability of being captured by a snare, such as tiger and leopard, are particularly sensitive to snaring and can go extinct even when patrolling effort is high (Chapron et al., 2008;Kragt et al., 2020). Accordingly, widespread snaring has been identified as the main culprit behind tiger density declines in Indochina (Belecky and Gray, 2020), and their extirpation from eastern Indochina (Johnson et al., 2016;O'Kelly et al., 2012;Rasphone et al., 2019). Although direct evidence of leopard poaching was scant, the bones and skin of at least one leopard poached in Srepok were confiscated in 2010 (Gray, 2013), and several unofficial reports of additional leopards poached in Srepok and adjacent areas were made by local people during our study (authors' pers. ...
... Therefore, our findings suggest that increases in law enforcement (e.g., snare removal, patrol distances, ranger numbers) alone are unlikely to prevent the imminent extirpation of leopard and other wildlife in the EPL. A similar situation occurred for tiger conservation efforts in Laos, where increases in law enforcement funding and effort were insufficient to prevent the proliferation in snaring, which ultimately caused the recent extirpation of tiger (Johnson et al., 2016;Rasphone et al., 2019). In Vietnam, efforts to save the Critically Endangered saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) resulted in the removal of >75,000 snares from a park, yet levels of snaring remained so high that the IUCN recommended captive breeding to save the species instead of increased funding for law enforcement (IUCN, 2016). ...
... There are three groups of issues faced by protected areas. First, patrolling costs can take up to 66% of the annual operational budget of protected areas (Johnson et al., 2016;Plumptre, 2019). However, only 22% of them receive sufficient funding (Coad et al., 2019), while 33% is under intense human pressure (Geldmann et al., 2014;Jones, Cusack, et al., 2018). ...
... Poachers can reduce detection rates by switching to a different poaching method. Researchers frequently observe a switch from noisy poaching methods, such as using guns, towards the use of snares (Henson et al., 2016;Holmern et al., 2007;Jachmann, 2008;Johnson et al., 2016;Nahonyo, 2009). ...
... However, studies on bushmeat poaching by snaring have not found a relation between patrol effort and snaring levels Campbell et al., 2019;Johnson et al., 2016;Kimanzi et al., 2014;Wato et al., 2006). This study is no exception; there are insufficient monitoring data from Soysambu and publicly available data to compare both patrol efforts and snaring intensities. ...
Research into the protection of protected areas against bushmeat poachers placing snares:
1. How can snaring hotspots be identified?
2. Can the expertise of rangers be used in predicting snaring hotspots?
3. Can current patrolling patterns be improved?
... In fact, NEPL was identified as a tiger priority site because it contained one of the most important tiger populations in all of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam (Walston et al. 2010). However, more recent surveys in 2013-2017 showed that tiger and leopard have become extirpated in NEPL, primarily due to an exponential increase in snaring (Johnson et al. 2016;Rasphone et al. 2019). The loss of tiger and leopard on the remaining felid community is unknown because the density of smaller felids has never been determined in NEPL. ...
... Additionally, naïve occupancy was lowest for all three felid species during the last survey year. These declines were against a background of evidence that snaring began and exponentially increased in NEPL from 2008 to 2012 (Johnson et al. 2016). Snaring has not been quantified in NEPL since 2013, however, the opinion amongst protected area staff and our field teams in NEPL is that snaring has continued to proliferate since the exponential increase recorded from 2008 to 2012, which is consistent with trends of increased snaring recorded throughout Southeast Asia (Gray et al. 2017(Gray et al. , 2018. ...
... This effective enforcement program was successful in reducing poaching and maintaining the tiger density in the sanctuary (Duangchantrasiri et al. 2016). However, snare detectability by rangers in tropical forests of Southeast Asia is relatively low (Ibbett et al. 2020), consequently snaring can increase exponentially in a park even with greater funding for enforcement and increases in days patrolled, as observed in NEPL (Johnson et al. 2016). Therefore, we recommend that the NEPL managers implement a more systematic and intensified snare removal program, in concert with extensive community outreach and engagement of local people to prevent the setting of snares. ...
Determining the density trends of a guild of species can help illuminate their interactions, and the impacts that humans might have on them. We estimated the density trends from 2013 to 2017 of the clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa, leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis and marbled cat Pardofelis marmorata in Nam Et—Phou Louey National Park (NEPL), Laos, using camera trap data and spatial capture-recapture models. Mean (± SD) density estimates (individuals/100 km²) for all years were 1.77 ± 0.30 for clouded leopard, 1.50 ± 0.30 for leopard cat, and 3.80 ± 0.70 for marbled cat. There was a declining trend in density across the study years for all three species, with a ≥ 90% probability of decline for clouded leopard and leopard cat and an 83% probability of decline for marbled cat. There was no evidence that mesopredator release occurred as a result of tiger (Panthera tigris) and leopard (P. pardus) extirpations. We believe that snaring, the factor that led to the extirpation of tiger and leopard in NEPL, is now contributing to the decline of smaller felids, to an extent that over-rides any potential effects of mesopredator release on their densities and interactions. We recommend that the NEPL managers implement a more systematic and intensified snare removal program, in concert with extensive community outreach and engagement of local people to prevent the setting of snares. These actions might be the only hope for saving the remaining members of the felid community in NEPL.
... In the case of tigers, breeding females have been detected in only a few scattered populations, suggesting widespread functional extinction of this apex predator (Lynam, 2010). Several areas previously recognized as priority "source sites" where tiger reproduction was documented a mere decade ago are now devoid of tigers altogether (Johnson et al., 2016;Rasphone et al., 2019) or experiencing rapid declines (Rayan & Linkie, 2015;Steinmetz et al., 2013). ...
... However, insatiable demand and rising wealth in East Asia along with rapidly expanding agricultural frontiers and new, existing, and upgraded road networks in previously remote areas have led to intensive snaring and devastating defaunation (Clements et al., 2014;Gray et al., 2018;Hance, 2018;Tilker et al., 2019). Snares were responsible for the recent extirpation of tigers from Laos (Johnson et al., 2016) and they now represent the greatest existential threat to critically endangered large mammal endemics such as saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) and giant muntjac (Muntiacus vuquangensis) (Tilker et al., 2017;Timmins et al., 2016b). ...
... Consistent enforcement increases the perceived risk of arrest and, consequently, temporarily alters behavior (e.g., fewer trips to the forest to poach in response to greater perceived risk) (Duangchantrasiri et al., 2016). However, without change in underlying social norms, poaching often persists during lapses in enforcement (Hanafiah, 2020;Johnson et al., 2016;Semyonov, 2009). Thus, as part of a larger and more strategic approach, efforts to establish additional informant networks at the community and district (locally known as bupati) level will help make wildlife crime a more punishable offense. ...
Tropical forests are under severe threat from over-hunting. Subsistence harvests and poaching have decimated wildlife populations to the extent that nearly 50% of Earth’s tropical forests are partially or fully devoid of large mammals. Declines are particularly acute in Southeast Asia where ongoing defaunation, largely attributable to indiscriminate snare trapping, is widespread. Using the extensively forested Aceh province in northern Sumatra as a case study, we document rampant snaring, which threatens Earth’s last sympatric population of tigers, rhinoceros, elephants, and orangutans. To prevent catastrophic hunting-induced impacts already experienced in mainland Southeast Asia, we call for more comprehensive conservation planning assessments that strengthen wildlife law enforcement, promote collaborative anti-poaching, and research species-specific snaring impacts, particularly in the context of human-wildlife conflict. We conclude with a discussion of the important linkages between poaching, wildlife trade, and zoonotic disease risk.
... of strategies implemented to conserve tigers and their prey in Lao PDR [19,20]. In the US, this approach supports management of grasslands, woodlands, and freshwater estuaries [21,22], and in Australia, almost 160 million ha of arid shrublands are managed under the adaptive cycle of Open Standards [23 ]. ...
... Although the Open Standards often is applied to projects with a specific geographic scope (e.g. a protected area), this framework also can help address problems that transcend geographic boundaries. For example, Open Standards was key in developing a theory of change for engaging communities in combating illegal wildlife trade [19,26] and for examining political and economic complexities of private sector participation in rhino conservation [27]. Publication of applications of the Open Standards is limited, and we still have much to learn. ...
... Our model also includes revenge killing as a direct threat to large cats linked to livestock management through a series of intermediate factors [40,[49][50][51] (Figure 1). Most of these linkages represent hypotheses about how the system works, which need to be tested and revised through targeted research projects and monitoring in the adaptive management cycle [18,19,20,25,27]. The structure of the modeled system likely will change through this iterative process. ...
Disparity between the knowledge produced and knowledge required to address complex environmental challenges, such as biodiversity conservation and climate adaptation, continues to grow. Systems thinking under the Open Standards for Conservation framework can help close this gap by facilitating interdisciplinary engagement, advancing
conversations on how environmental systems work, and identifying actions that could be implemented to achieve defined conservation goals. Here, we present a modelling exercise for one of the most endangered forested systems in the world: The Gran Chaco. We focus on unsustainable hunting, a pressing threat to this system. We highlight
knowledge gaps that underpin all parts of an adaptive management process from understanding key relationships in social-ecological systems to design and implementation of strategies for Gran Chaco conservation as well as evaluation of outcomes.
... Unregulated over-harvesting of animals and plants as well as loss of forest to agricultural expansion are the main threats to wildlife of the NEPL (Johnson, 2012). The study by Johnson et al. (2016) suggested a decline in abundance of tiger (Panthera tigris) and an increase in the abundance of some large ungulate prey over a period of seven years (2005e2012) during the implementation of a new law enforcement strategy. In this study, we add more recent data from the largest camera trapping effort ever conducted in Laos and assess the most recent status of the carnivores and prey species based on three surveys in four blocks undertaken between 2013 and 2017. ...
... Of all the biodiversity in NEPL, this site has earlier been recognized as globally important for conserving breeding populations of the Endangered tiger (Johnson, 2012), and Endangered dhole (Kamler et al., 2012). In fact, NEPL was thought to harbour the last breeding population of tigers in Indochina (Johnson et al., 2016), and was identified as one of the most important source sites for tiger conservation in Southeast Asia (Walston et al., 2010). Additionally, based on 2000s surveys, it was hoped that NEPL would retain a leopard population, which have dramatically declined throughout all of Southeast Asia (Rostro-García et al., 2016). ...
... Prompted by reports that levels of snaring were unsustainable, and mindful of the national, indeed regional importance of NEPL as an important source population for tiger (Johnson et al., 2016) and dhole (Kamler et al., 2012), we conducted the largest camera trapping survey ever attempted in Laos. While we have no counter-factual to judge how much worse things might have been, our results make sadly apparent that the last decade of management interventions has fallen short of the goal of conserving of the top carnivores: conspicuously, tiger and leopard have been extirpated, and only the dhole persists as the last remaining apex carnivore in the landscape. ...
The Nam Et - Phou Louey National Protected Area (NEPL) is known for its diverse community of carnivores, and a decade ago was identified as an important source site for tiger conservation in Southeast Asia. However, there are reasons for concern that the status of this high priority diverse community has deteriorated, making the need for updated information urgent. This study assesses the current diversity of mammals and birds in NEPL, based on camera trap surveys from 2013 to 2017, facilitating an assessment of protected area management to date. We implemented a dynamic multispecies occupancy model fit in a Bayesian framework to reveal community and species occupancy and diversity. We detected 43 different mammal and bird species, but failed to detect leopard Panthera pardus and only detected two individual tigers Panthera tigris, both in 2013, suggesting that both large felids are now extirpated from NEPL, and presumably also more widely throughout Lao PDR. Mainland clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa had the highest estimates of probability of initial occupancy, persistence and colonization, and appeared to be the most widely distributed large carnivore, followed by dhole Cuon alpinus. Both of these species emerge as a priority for further monitoring and conservation in the NEPL landscape. This study provides the most recent assessment of animal diversity and status in the NEPL. Our analytical approach provides a robust and flexible framework to include sparse and inconsistent data sets of multiple species to assess their status via occupancy as a state process, which can often provide insights into population dynamics. Keywords: Clouded leopard, Dhole, Dynamic multispecies occupancy model, Laos, Nam Et - Phou Louey National Protected Area, Tiger
... This threat was driven by international demand for tiger bones, bears, pangolins, and primates with additional demand from urban markets in Laos for wild meat (e.g., ungulates and large rodents) [28]. Evidence gathered from camera trap surveys, focal group discussions and law enforcement patrols indicated that the hunters were primarily from villages bordering the NPA with access to illegal weapons-including guns, explosives, and traps [26,[29][30][31]. There was little evidence of hunters coming from beyond the NPA, which was likely due to the remote and rugged nature of the heavily forested and mountainous landscape. ...
... Of the 84 hunter groups caught by patrol teams in 2009, only five were from another village sector and one from a non-NPA village. Villagers hunting for large mammals deep in the forest were typically in groups, while people tending to upland rice fields and grazing livestock in satellite locations inside the forest hunted alone or in small pairs [31,32]. Buyers were normally influential villagers that acted as local middlemen, selling their products to other Lao traders from outside the province, or foreign traders from Vietnam or China [27]. ...
... The ecotourism site was located on the Nam Nern River in the NEPL NPA (Fig 1), which was identified as a feasible location for developing wildlife-based tourism because it provided a unique opportunity to see wildlife [36], which was relatively uncommon elsewhere in Laos [7]. This was due in large part to an NPA law enforcement strategy implemented in 2005 [31], and the river that allowed for stealthy boat travel to view wildlife visiting the river for water and minerals. The location was also identified as a viable tourism development area as it is situated at the crossroads of three major tourist destinations: the UNESCO World Heritage site of Luang Prabang Town, the UNESCO World Heritage-nominated Plain of Jars in Xieng Khouang Province, and the Pathet Lao Caves in Viengxay, Houaphanh Province and road to Hanoi [36]. ...
Ecotourism as a strategy for achieving biodiversity conservation often results in limited conservation impact relative to its investment and revenue return. In cases where an ecotourism strategy has been used, projects are frequently criticized for not providing sufficient evidence on how the strategy has reduced threats or improved the status of the biodiversity it purports to protect. In Lao PDR, revenue from ecotourism has not been directly linked to or dependent on improvements in biodiversity and there is no evidence that ecotourism enterprises have contributed to conservation. In other developing countries, direct payments through explicit contracts in return for ecosystem services have been proposed as a more cost-effective means for achieving conservation, although further research is needed to evaluate the impact of this approach. To address this need, a new model was tested in the Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area (NPA) in Lao PDR using a direct payments approach to create ecotourism incentives for villagers to increase wildlife populations. Over a four-year period, we monitored along a theory of change to evaluate assumptions about the linkages between intermediate results and biological outcomes. Preliminary results show a negative correlation between ecotourism benefits and hunting infractions in target villages; no increase in hunting sign in the ecotourism sector of the NPA relative to a three-fold increase in hunting sign across the NPA’s non-tourism sectors; and an overall increase in wildlife sightings. This case provides key lessons on the design of a direct payments approach for an ecotourism strategy, including how to combine threat monitoring and data on wildlife sightings to evaluate strategy effectiveness, on setting rates for wildlife sightings and village fees, and the utility of the approach for protecting very rare species.
... We then combined individual qualitative assessments (from persons familiar with local hunting habits, familiar with the status of the species in question in NEPL, and from experts in the species' biology and conservation) to rank their comparative risk and identify the threats putting them in that placement. For example, we know clouded leopard to be in the area from opportunistic camera traps installed there in 2021; we know the species to be a target of hunting due to high international demand (Nijman and Shepherd 2015; D'Cruze and Macdonald 2015; Ghimirey and Acharya 2020); we know that the species is susceptible to snaring, hunting with rearms and hunting dogs, and to explosive traps placed inside baited carcasses; from ranger observational data, social media, and past research (Johnson et al. 2006(Johnson et al. , 2016Rasphone et al. 2021) we know all these threats to exist in our selected area. Therefore, we rank the risk of extirpation to clouded leopard to be severe, the danger posed by snares to be high, the danger posed by explosives and hunting dogs to be high, and its value as a subsistence food or local-market wildlife meat to be low, but its international demand to be high. ...
... Also featured is the authors' assessment of the comparative threat from the most common tools employed and reasons for harvest. (Davidson 1998;Johnson et al. 2006Johnson et al. , 2016 ...
Scant research has been conducted concerning the impacts of opium cultivation on endangered fauna in Southeast Asia. Remote sensing and ranger patrolling in Nam Et-Phou Louey National Park, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has revealed an alarming growth of opium poppy cultivation inside the park. To avoid government eradication efforts, these fields are cleared in remote areas of the forest overlapping critical habitat for northern white-cheeked gibbon, Asiatic elephant, dhole and clouded leopard. We used satellite imagery, ranger patrol data and social media to (a) measure opium clearings in a section of the park’s totally protected zone and (b) assess its impact on these endangered species and others. We found, from 2018 to 2022, a > 2000% increase in protected forest annually cleared for the crop. Ranger patrol data revealed a ten-fold increase of encounters with cable snares in the same area over this time and videos online reveal cultivators hunting protected species near these fields. Our findings reveal that the displacement of illicit cultivation into protected areas is a side-effect of eradication efforts and has negative ecological impacts beyond deforestation alone. We also report on a strategy in 2022 by the park to reduce the use of these forests for opium cultivation through community outreach and police collaboration. We recommend continued coordination between the park, local communities, and law enforcement and suggest neglecting the eradication of opium poppy in designated agricultural areas before the successful eradication of all opium poppy inside protected areas can be achieved.
... Diets of clouded leopards and tigers were determined by analysis of scats (i.e., feces) that were opportunistically collected on trails by researchers and park staff in NEPL from January 2008 to March 2012. Most scats were collected while conducting camera-trap surveys and grid-based occupancy surveys that covered the entire core zone (Johnson et al., 2016;Vongkhamheng et al., 2013); therefore, we assumed the collected scats represented a random sample of the felid populations. For each scat, the scat diameter (when possible), date, and GPS location were recorded, and then scats were stored in plastic bags with silica pouches to desiccate them. ...
... Based on DNA analysis of tiger scats collected from 2008 to 2010, there were a minimum of 16 different individuals (Vongkhamheng, 2011), suggesting the tiger population remained low but stable in the NEPL core zone during our study. However, because of an exponential increase in illegal snaring that began after 2010 (Johnson et al., 2016), the tiger population quickly decreased to a minimum of 2 individuals by 2013, and soon thereafter likely became extirpated (Rasphone et al., 2019). Nonetheless, most of our data were collected before the exponential increase in snaring, and we assume our results adequately represent tiger dietary habits in a low-density population occupying hilly evergreen forests. ...
In Southeast Asia, conservation of 'Vulnerable' clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa) and 'Endangered' tigers (Panthera tigris) might depend on the management of their preferred prey because large felid populations are limited by the availability of suitable prey. However, the diet of clouded leopards has never been determined, so the preferred prey of this felid remains unknown. The diet of tigers in the region has been studied only from one protected-area complex in western Thailand, but prey preferences were not determined. To better understand the primary and preferred prey of threatened felids, we used DNA-confirmed scats and prey surveys to determine the diet and prey selection of clouded leopards and tigers in a hilly evergreen forest in northern Laos. For clouded leopards, the primary prey was wild pig (Sus scrofa; 33% biomass consumed), followed by greater hog badger (Arctonyx collaris; 28%), small rodents (15%), and mainland serow (Capricornis sumatraensis; 13%; hereafter, serow). For tigers, the primary prey was wild pig (44%), followed by serow (18%), sambar (Rusa unicolor; 12%), and Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus; 10%). Compared to availability, serow was positively selected by both clouded leopards (D = 0.69) and tigers (0.61), whereas all other ungulate species were consumed in proportion to the availability or avoided. Our results indicate that clouded leopards are generalist predators with a wide prey spectrum. Nonetheless, mid-sized ungulates (50-150 kg) comprised nearly half of their diet, and were the preferred prey, supporting a previous hypothesis that the enlarged gape and elongated canines of clouded leopards are adaptations for killing large prey. Because serow was the only ungulate preferred by both felids, we recommend that serow populations be monitored and managed to help conservation efforts for clouded leopards and tigers, at least in hilly evergreen forests of Southeast Asia.
... This poses a clear threat to not only the future availability of high-quality habitat in the region, but also the connectivity between such habitats. While our finding that 31% of the complex overlapped a WDPA-listed protected area might be reassuring, there is no guarantee these areas provide any meaningful protection (so-called "paper parks") and available evidence from within the complex would suggest that even if these areas provided such protection it may not be enough to conserve threatened wildlife (Johnson et al., 2016). If clouded leopards become extirpated from NEPL and Phou Hin Poun, and future surveys do not detect the species in the remaining strongholds, then any hope for future dispersal into the northern Annamites and Laos Highlands would come from either the Shan Highlands in Myanmar or northern Thailand. ...
... First priorities should be to establish baseline population estimates and reduce hunting pressure. In addition to continued patrol efforts, protected area managers and non-governmental organizations should also look into alternative interventions that could help reduce hunting pressure (e.g., community outreach; Steinmetz et al., 2014) as patrols alone may be insufficient (Johnson et al., 2016;Ibbett et al., 2020). ...
To mitigate the ongoing biodiversity crisis in Tropical Asia, caused by extensive deforestation and wildlife poaching, we will need to take more strategic approaches towards identifying and prioritizing meaningful conservation interventions. This, however, can prove difficult for data-limited species. Focusing on the little-studied mainland clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), a potential umbrella species in the region, we demonstrate an accessible, flexible, and scalable approach applicable to any species. First, we model the species' range-wide local extirpation threat using a Bayesian Belief Network, taking into account the distribution of remaining suitable habitat and major anthropogenic threats (habitat loss and poaching). We then identify remaining habitat strongholds (defined as large contiguous areas of high quality habitat where the species could survive over the mid-to-long term) and grouped them into stronghold complexes, which we categorized based on local extirpation threat and recent camera-trap survey status. Our results show a 34% decline in the range-wide area categorized as a stronghold due to forest cover changes between 2000 and 2018, with 80% of remaining strongholds identified as having a high or very high average threat of local extirpation. Based on published records, only 60% of remaining strongholds had at least one site surveyed by camera-traps in the last 10 years, highlighting an important knowledge gap concerning the species' current distribution and population status. Combined, the results of our survey review and threat analysis suggest the species is likely extirpated from all of Vietnam, most of China, and large parts of Cambodia and Laos. Finally, we synthesize our findings, highlight tangible conservation needs, and propose actions for each stronghold complex based on the area's specific threats, protection level, and survey status, paving the way for the detailed local investigations needed to implement meaningful interventions on the ground.
... data). Increases in snaring caused the extirpation of Tiger Panthera tigris in NEPL, the last remaining population of this species in Lao PDR (Johnson et al. 2016), and plausibly caused the extirpation of Leopard in NEPL as well. Although several areas of presumably suitable Leopard habitat in Lao PDR remain inadequately surveyed to know the status of the species within them, Leopard is unlikely to occur in a viable population within any of these areas, especially given that recent surveys have targeted the largest protected areas in the most remote regions of the country (e.g., NEPL and Nakai -Nam Theun National Protected Area). ...
... However, regular enforcement of national laws and patrolling strategies within protected areas are insufficient to provide effective protection of Indochinese Leopard throughout most of the remaining range. For example, in Nam Et -Phou Louey National Protected Area, northern Lao PDR, an increase in funding for enforcement resulted in an increase of days patrolled over a 7-year period, which positively affected gun confiscations and arrest of poachers, but it ultimately failed to prevent the extirpation of Tiger and Leopard because the proliferation of snares was not stopped (Johnson et al. 2016). The development of a systematic, intensified, and effective enforcement regime helped maintain Tiger numbers in Huai Kha Kaeng (Duangchantrasiri et al. 2016). ...
... The park, with an estimated population of 77 (72 -83) adult tigers, can thus support an additional 56 tigers at ECC. However, achieving the population at or close to ECC is influenced by various factors such as social behaviour of tigers (Sunquist, 1981), poaching (Chapron et al., 2008;Johnson et al., 2016), and human disturbance and conflict with local communities (Barber-Meyer et al., 2013;Kerley et al., 2001;Paudel et al., 2024). Its prey density of 69.09 (52.32 -91.23) individuals/km 2 is comparable to several source sites in the TAL, such as Chitwan (71.58) and Shuklaphanta (59.98) ...
Tigers (Panthera tigris) are endangered wild felids, despite ongoing efforts to recover populations globally. The majority of the global population is concentrated within ∼ 40 “source sites”. Protection and effective management of these populations constitute the cornerstone of global tiger conservation strategies. Reliable population estimates and site specific carrying capacities are important for informed management actions. Here, we estimated the ecological carrying capacity of tigers based on prey densities in the Bardia– Banke Complex in western Nepal embedded within the Terai Arc Landscape, a globally significant tiger conservation landscape. A total of 303.8 km line transects (n=195) were surveyed in the Bardia–Banke Complex. We estimated an overall density of 69.09 (95 % CI=52.32 – 91.23) ungulates/km2 and biomass of 2736.92 (1807.83 – 4830.12) kg/km2 in Bardia National Park (NP), and 25.67 (18.22 – 36.18) ungulates/km2 and biomass of 1356.65 (646.85 – 2994.86) kg/km2 in Banke NP. The available prey base can support 133 (101 – 177) adult tigers in Bardia NP and 28 (20 – 40) in Banke NP. We also carried out systematic camera trap survey across the Complex with a sampling effort of 13,365 trap days (719 camera sites). In core habitats of Bardia and Banke NP, we estimated tiger abundance of 77 (72 – 83) and 12 (9 – 15) at a density of 7.96 and 2.18 tigers per 100 km2 respectively. Our study shows the tiger populations in the national parks are below carrying capacity. We emphasize the need for robust estimates of prey abundance and carrying capacity of tigers in a given landscape for effective conservation planning. We highlight the importance of high prey density and biomass with effective human-tiger conflict mitigation measures to sustain a large tiger source population.
... From 2014-present, only our surveys and a 6-month camera-trap survey in 2017 provided any form of tiger-targeted patrols 15 . Spatiotemporal gaps in conservation programs are regularly associated with declines of tigers, which are dependent on consistent, year-round protection 45 . Unfortunately, tiger range-especially in Southeast Asia-has not been surveyed uniformly nor patrolled consistently. ...
Conservation of threatened species is dependent on consistent population monitoring. We present the first status assessment of critically endangered Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae) and their prey in the Ulu Masen Ecosystem, Aceh, Indonesia. Our estimates of tiger habitat use are the first reported for a Sumatran ecosystem unprotected at the national level. During 6,732 trap nights accumulated over 23 months of camera-trap monitoring in 2020 and 2022, tigers were detected 39 times at 16 of the 52 stations. We identified 11 individual tigers but sex ratios were highly skewed: 8 males, 1 female, and 2 individuals of unknown sex. Cubs were not photographed either year and we did not observe evidence of tiger reproduction. Tiger habitat use (Ѱ = 0.52, SE = 0.15) was negatively influenced by human disturbance and positively influenced by elevation but those associations were not significant. Our study documents a widespread prey base but uncovers demographic characteristics of tigers indicative of heavy poaching pressures. We conclude that tiger-targeted protection is urgently needed to ensure the species’ persistence in Ulu Masen which, together with the adjacent Leuser Ecosystem, represents the largest contiguous tiger conservation landscape remaining in Sumatra.
... Four articles examined efforts explicitly involving local communities. Nest protection and surveillance by community members in India (Manchi & Sankaran, 2014) and Venezuela (Briceno-Linares et al., 2011) reportedly resulted in increased bird populations However, despite a decline in observed tiger poaching in Sumatra and Lao PDR respectively (Johnson et al., 2016;Linkie et al., 2015) following enforcement actions conducted by community members, efforts were unable to curtail extirpation of this high-value species due to continued poaching that natural reproduction rates could not compensate for and, to some extent, inconsistent fining and low prosecution and conviction rates. In addition, three articles found limited evidence that detection efforts deterred poaching due to inconsistent patrol quality (Hötte et al., 2016), especially strong incentives to poach highvalue species such as rhinos (Barichievy et al., 2017), good infrastructure near ranger stations that attracted poachers and potential ranger involvement, directly or indirectly, in poaching activities (Jenks et al., 2012). ...
A range of interventions have been established to manage international wildlife trade and protect traded species; however, there is little consensus as to whether, when, and how they are effective. Here, through a comprehensive, systematic review of >8000 articles, we appraise the evidence for the effectiveness of interventions on conservation, biological, and/or socio‐economic outcomes. Our systematic review examined four intervention types: “laws and regulations”, “detection and enforcement”, “efforts to reduce threats to species”, and “support local livelihoods”. We find that while laws and regulations were most well‐studied, with some reported positive outcomes, over half of articles reported unintended consequences including shifting exploitation and trade routes, increased illegal trade, and socio‐economic trade‐offs. Detection and enforcement efforts appeared effective in protecting target species but limited for high‐value species especially when combined with low reproductive rates. Efforts to reduce threats to species (particularly through area protection) had positive biological impacts, but some socio‐economic trade‐offs were reported. Evidence on community‐based approaches was limited but our review indicated positive synergies occurring between conservation and socio‐economic outcomes. Overall, socio‐economic outcomes were underrepresented, limiting understanding of potentially important socio‐ecological feedbacks. This review furthers understanding of relevant conditions, risks and enabling factors around effectiveness of wildlife trade interventions.
... The probable human origin of these carnivores' traumatic injuries reflects the reality that wild felids face where habitat fragmentation forces road crossings (Barrientos et al., 2021) or where leg hold traps such as snares are widely used (Belecky & Gray, 2020). For example, at the Nam Et-Phou Louey National Park (Northern Laos), leopards and tigers have become extirpated principally due to an exponential increase in snares (Johnson et al., 2016;Rasphone et al., 2019). ...
Severe musculoskeletal diseases, such as those associated with congenital or traumatic events, that result in missing limbs may compromise the fitness and survival of free-living felids. Here we report the space use of four amputee individuals from three felid species captured from 2017 to 2022 in Missouri (USA), Toledo and Badajoz (Spain), and Suitai Khairkhan Mountain (Mongolia). We describe home ranges and daily travel distances post-release of free-living felids that had either suffered a traumatic amputation or following a surgical amputation. We compared these data with those reported in the literature for felids without amputations. Forelimb or hindlimb amputation did not affect the hunting, mating, or territory patrolling behavior of any of the individuals. However, we recorded significant differences in the daily movement before and after the traumatic event of the Iberian lynx forelimb amputee. We attribute this difference to the physical impairment, although we consider other variables that may have played a role. Nevertheless, all animals appeared to cope well with their limb loss, showing home ranges and daily
... The probable human origin of these carnivores' traumatic injuries reflects the reality that wild felids face where habitat fragmentation forces road crossings (Barrientos et al., 2021) or where leg hold traps such as snares are widely used (Belecky & Gray, 2020). For example, at the Nam Et-Phou Louey National Park (Northern Laos), leopards and tigers have become extirpated principally due to an exponential increase in snares (Johnson et al., 2016;Rasphone et al., 2019). ...
Severe musculoskeletal diseases, such as those associated with congenital or traumatic events, that result in missing limbs may compromise the fitness and survival of free‐living felids. Here we report the space use of four amputee individuals from three felid species captured from 2017 to 2022 in Missouri (USA), Toledo and Badajoz (Spain), and Suitai Khairkhan Mountain (Mongolia). We describe home ranges and daily travel distances post‐release of free‐living felids that had either suffered a traumatic amputation or following a surgical amputation. We compared these data with those reported in the literature for felids without amputations. Forelimb or hindlimb amputation did not affect the hunting, mating, or territory patrolling behavior of any of the individuals. However, we recorded significant differences in the daily movement before and after the traumatic event of the Iberian lynx forelimb amputee. We attribute this difference to the physical impairment, although we consider other variables that may have played a role. Nevertheless, all animals appeared to cope well with their limb loss, showing home ranges and daily distances within those recorded for their sex and species. Unless amputee felids represent a threat to domestic livestock or humans, our data suggest these individuals may remain free‐living as they contribute to local population persistence and appear to maintain good general health and welfare.
... Lack of understanding importance of nature as well as how to conserve natural resources can lead to activities that harm and impact nature for today and future generation. For instance, Johnson et al. (2016) conducted research highlighting how lack of knowledge about protective measures has led to a decline in populations of animals like wild tigers at Lao. Other studies have shown that poaching has resulted in a significant loss of abundance and diversity in natural forests, putting various animal species at the risk of extinction (Gray et al., 2018;Nittu et al., 2023). ...
The current state of students' knowledge regarding species diversity, particularly when it comes to endangered local species, is a cause for concern. This problem has resulted in a decline in students' attitudes towards conserving these species. To address these issues, providing students with reading resources that incorporate local wisdom is crucial. This research aims to develop a student book centered around real-world problems and incorporate Papuan local wisdom to enhance students' conservation attitudes. The ADDIE model has been employed to guide the product development process, including trials conducted with junior high school students. The effectiveness of the book was evaluated through questionnaires measuring conservation attitudes, expert validation using validation sheets, and student response questionnaires to assess practicality. The research findings indicate that the student book has been deemed valid by experts. Positive responses from students and teachers regarding the book's ability to optimize conservation attitudes suggest that it meets practical criteria. Moreover, statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) in pre and post attitudes demonstrate that problem-based books integrated with local wisdom effectively empower students' conservation attitudes. The inclusion of information on local wisdom, emphasizing the importance of preserving species, has greatly benefited students by enhancing their knowledge and positively impacting their conservation attitudes. Science teachers can utilize problem-based student books that integrate local wisdom as a powerful tool to enhance their students' conservation attitudes.
... Most of the academic research on the impacts of snaring focuses on this region, where it is considered the most widespread form of hunting and impacts over 700 mammal species (Gray et al., 2018;Belecky and Gray, 2020) with dire consequences. Snares have been described as the reason for the disappearance of tigers (Panthera tigris) from Laos, (Johnson et al., 2016), a driving cause for extinction of the saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) (Tilker et al., 2017) and many other species (Gray et al., 2021). ...
... This threat is acutely realised in Southeast Asia, where vast swaths of seemingly intact forests experience hunting-induced defaunation. As a significant cause of this defaunation, indiscriminate snaring driven by the demand for bushmeat locally and in urban centres, as well as wire snares being an inexpensive and highly effective method of capturing several species of commercial importance (Gray et al., 2017), has dramatically altered mammalian assemblages, even leading to the extinction of certain tiger sub-populations (O'Kelly et al., 2012;Johnson et al., 2016;Gray et al., 2017) and range declines of other endangered carnivores such as leopards Panthera pardus (Rostro-Garcıá et al., 2016) and clouded leopards Neofelis nebulosa (Macdonald et al., 2019;Macdonald et al., 2020). In response to the crisis, range country governments and NGOs have improved law enforcement efforts; however, on-the-ground interventions that prevent poaching must be conducted and evaluated (eg. ...
Tigers are a conservation-reliant species, as multiple populations face the risk of local extinction due to poaching arising from the continued demand for their body parts. Preventing tiger poaching poses a challenge for the rangers responsible for their protection, particularly in Southeast Asia, where the protected areas are typically large, mountainous tropical forests guarded by small teams of rangers. Improving counter-wildlife crime tactics is hindered without robust evaluations, and inefficient approaches are perpetuated. We evaluate an eight-year project aiming to recover a tiger population in Peninsular Malaysia. Three distinct poaching problems by Vietnamese, Thai and Cambodian groups, differing by organisation, target species and tactics, were prioritised, and ranger counter-poaching tactics were tailored to reduce these. Applying a framework developed to evaluate crime prevention known by the acronym EMMIE, here we: (1) examine evidence our intervention was Effective in reducing the poaching threat; (2) resolve the Mechanisms by which our intervention caused a reduction in harm from poaching and how intervention effectiveness is Moderated by the three poaching types; (3) define the elements necessary for Implementation and the Economic costs involved. We found poaching incursion frequency fell 40% from baseline years to treatment years across all poaching types while poaching incursion depth declined, with disrupted incursions on average, 2.6 km (Thai) and 9.1 km (Cambodian) closer to the forest edge. However, wire snares increased from baseline to treatment years as Vietnamese poachers increased the number of snares per incursion eightfold. No poaching incursions were observed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Tiger density remained below recovery potential (0.48/100km 2 in 2014 to 0.53/ Frontiers in Conservation Science
... Even within the confines of PAs, direct poaching can lead to "edge effects". This may result in total population declines of carnivores and their prey if balance is not achieved through recruitment (Balme, Slotow and Hunter, 2010;Johnson et al., 2016;Rosenblatt et al., 2016;Carter et al., 2017;Rogan et al., 2018;van Eeden et al., 2018). ...
Protected areas (PAs) form the cornerstone for most carnivore conservation strategies. However, climate change, increased isolation and human pressure along PA boundaries are together reducing the effectiveness of PAs to conserve carnivores. Mesocarnivores, in particular, frequently move beyond the boundaries of PAs where they threaten human livelihoods, and as a result, are often subject to chronic persecution. In South Africa, we know little about the conservation status of mesocarnivores both within and outside of PAs, as most research focuses on large, charismatic apex predators. The goal of my study was to leverage data collected from large carnivore studies to understand variation in mesocarnivore species richness within PAs. Camera trap surveys were conducted as part of Panthera’s 2015 national leopard monitoring programme in seven PAs across northern KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa. Using a multi-species extension of the Royle-Nichols occupancy model, my study explored environmental, interspecific and anthropogenic drivers of mesocarnivore habitat use and species richness. I found a surprisingly low number of detections (N = 356) for all five mesocarnivore species and considerable variation across PAs. Small PAs with a recent history of human disturbance supported more mesocarnivore species and at higher relative abundance. Mesocarnivore species richness was found to decline with increased vegetation and leopard abundance but increased towards the edge of PAs. Variation in species richness estimates decreased significantly with vegetation productivity and domestic dog abundance. Together these results suggest that (1) the edges may provide a refuge for mesocarnivores from more dominant species, (2) mesocarnivores exhibited resilience/adaptability to human disturbance, and (3) primary productivity and domestic dog abundance could mediate mesocarnivore distributions within PAs. My study showed that camera trap data derived from a single-species survey can be used to make inferences about non-target species to great success. Current PAs in KZN may not adequately conserve mesocarnivores, and as a result, emphasis should be placed on coexistence with mesocarnivores in marginal habitat outside of PAs.
... There are fewer than 5,000 wild tiger individuals and these are restricted to less than 10% of their historic distribution (Jhala et al., 2021;Goodrich et al., 2022). Since~1850, tigers have been lost from at least 14 countries with three national extirpations, in Viet Nam, Lao PDR, and Cambodia, having occurred in the past 25 years (O'Kelly et al., 2012;Goodrich et al., 2015;Johnson et al., 2016). The successful long-term recovery of tigers requires both securing current source populations (Walston et al., 2010) and expanding the species' occupied range. ...
Wildlife conservation in the Anthropocene requires bold conservation solutions including restoration of ecosystems and species. The recovery of large carnivore populations is a conservation goal which can generate significant benefits in terms of ecosystem services, ecological functionality, and human well-being. Tigers Panthera tigris , Asia’s most iconic species, are currently restricted to less than 10% of their historic range with recent national extinctions from a number of countries in mainland Southeast Asia. Tiger recovery through range expansion requires suitable habitat, a robust prey base, and high levels of institutional support for conservation. We explored government support for conservation to produce a ranking of the political opportunities for tiger restoration across current and former tiger range countries. We used this analysis, in combination with globally remotely sensed data-sets on human impact, to show that there is potential for significant tiger range expansion. We identified large expanses of currently unoccupied, but potentially suitable, habitat in at least 14 countries including all extant tiger range countries and four countries with extirpated tiger populations – Cambodia, Lao PDR, Viet Nam, and Kazakhstan. Thirty-two percent of expansion areas were within 50-km, and 50% within 100-km, of current tiger populations highlighting that in many landscapes range expansion could be driven by the natural dispersal of tigers provided connectivity is maintained or enhanced. The proportion of potential range within existing protected areas varied between <5% in India, Indonesia, and China, to >60% in Thailand and Cambodia. As such socially appropriate conservation approaches, in collaboration with local communities, will be necessary to support tiger recovery in many areas. We recommend that some of the areas which we have identified should be highlighted as significant for future tiger conservation by tiger range country governments. Whilst the landscapes and sites which we identify will require detailed ground-truthing, and all tiger reintroductions need extensive planning and feasibility assessments, safeguarding these areas for human-carnivore coexistence could provide significant planetary benefits and support both tiger recovery and Global Sustainable Development Goals.
... In contrast, tiger numbers in South-east Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand) continue to decline at the regional level, with only Thailand reporting an increase for one of three remaining landscapes, the Western Forest Complex (Duangchantrasiri et al. 2016, Goodrich et al. 2022. Market-driven poaching of tigers, transboundary trade from tiger farms, and overharvesting of their ungulate prey species are believed to be the primary drivers of declines in South-east Asia and the snaring crisis continues there unabated (Johnson et al. 2016, Gray et al. 2018. Further, habitat loss continues with deforestation rates in South-east Asia among the highest in the world (Zeng et al. 2018). ...
We re-assessed tigers Panthera tigris for the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM, classifying them as Endangered based on an estimated decline of >50% over 3 generations (21–30 years), with an estimated 4,485 (3,726–5,578) tigers in the wild. However, data suggest that the population is likely stabilizing or even increasing in some places - a considerable conservation achievement. Still, tigers occupy only about 7% of their historic range and only about 45% of existing habitat, with roughly 1 million km² of habitat that is void of tigers due to poaching for illegal trade and loss of prey. Tiger numbers have increased in South Asia, appear stable in North-east Asia, but declines continue in South-east Asia. Future, recovery efforts must continue to focus on increasing tiger numbers, while also repopulating unoccupied tiger habitats.
... It has indicated the decline in tiger abundance due to the prevalence of snares. With these significant findings, the researchers concluded that in order to recover scanty tiger populations in the given habitat, the pressing priority is a substantial and ongoing financial and technical support system that has to be provided for law enforcement (Johnson et al., 2016). ...
Wildlife resources are critical to the survival of the human species and have been a matter of concern among conservation stakeholders worldwide. Crimes against wildlife resources pose a significant challenge in the protected areas because these landscapes contain highly rich biodiversity and abundant wild fauna and flora. Therefore, it is imperative that all stakeholders should take measures to prevent crimes against wildlife resources. The existing literature shows that studies have been carried out to examine the various measures undertaken by the conservation stakeholders at different time periods and across various geographical regions. Moreover, the previous literature reveals that studies have been carried out on the different dimensions of wildlife crime prevention measures undertaken in the protected areas from the conservation biology/science perspective rather than the criminological perspective. As prevention of crime is one of the subject matters of criminology, wildlife crime prevention may also be approached from a criminological perspective.
Against this background, an exploratory study was carried out to examine the various wildlife crime prevention measures, such as the proactive mechanism employed to deter wildlife crime, an intelligence-led approach to prevent and detect wildlife crime, the ability and capacity to handle wildlife crime, and the steps taken to involve the local community to conserve wildlife, undertaken by the forest officers/staff. The study also attempted to find out the wildlife conservation/crime prevention measures, namely, the proactive measures that are followed to conserve wildlife, the willingness to share information/intelligence on wildlife with forest officers/staff, the presence of traditional knowledge among the local community to conserve wildlife, and the extent of involvement of the local community to conserve wildlife in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR), a protected area in the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India. The quantitative data were collected from a sample of 153 forest officers/staff using an interview schedule. Qualitative data were also collected through eight focus group discussions from the local community members with a frame of reference containing broader exploratory questions.
The study results demonstrated that the level of the proactive mechanism employed by the forest officers/staff to deter wildlife crime are found to be fair; whereas the level of an intelligence-led approach to prevent and detect wildlife crime in the MTR is found to be poor. However, the level of the ability and capacity of forest officers/staff to handle wildlife crime was found to be fair. It can also be concluded from the findings that the level of the steps taken by them to involve the local community to conserve wildlife is good. The outcome of the study has also established that there is a significant positive correlation between the various dependent variables, such as the level of proactive mechanism employed to deter wildlife crime, an intelligence-led approach to prevent and detect wildlife crime, the ability and capacity to handle wildlife crime, and the steps taken to involve the local community to conserve wildlife and the overall wildlife crime prevention measures. The present study has also established that the level of various wildlife crime prevention measures significantly varies among the respondents who have different levels of education, overall years of work experience, their current designation and the forest range to which they belong. However, the findings also show that no such significant difference was found in the level of various wildlife crime prevention measures among the respondents with different levels of work experience in their current designation and their forest territory.
The study has also established that the role of the local community, the other conservation stakeholder, was found to be significant. The local community has undertaken various wildlife conservation/crime prevention measures, such as the proactive mechanism to conserve wildlife, the sharing of information/intelligence with forest officers/staff, the using of traditional knowledge to conserve wildlife, and their active involvement in conserving wildlife.
... To do this, it is crucial to monitor and evaluate the design of tiger conservation projects. Many studies have undertaken such assessments [17][18][19][20]. However, this study explores how project proposals met the requirements of the ITHCP and aligned themselves to the NTAPs of their respective countries. ...
Tigers play a crucial role in maintaining healthy ecosystems. Unfortunately, tigers are threatened by poaching, human–wildlife conflict, habitat loss, and more. In response to these threats, the conservation community pledged to double the worldwide wild tiger population by 2022 (known as TX2) at the “Tiger Summit” in St. Petersburg in 2010, and to track the progress of Tiger Range Countries. Between 2010 and 2022, the Global Tiger Recovery Programme was implemented. To accomplish this TX2 goal, each Tiger Range Country developed a National Tiger Action Plan (NTAP). The Integrated Tiger Habitat Conservation Programme (ITHCP) is a grant-making mechanism that focusses on a subsection of the Global Tiger Recovery Programme. It had twelve projects in six Tiger Range Countries during Phase 1 of the program. Evaluating the proposals of these projects is crucial for resource allocation. In this study, we assessed project proposals by evaluating how the proposed activities of all twelve ITHCP projects addressed their corresponding NTAPs, by comparing the plans against the proposals. A further comparison was undertaken using the Conservation Assured|Tiger Standards Lite, a site-based tiger conservation accreditation system. Overall, this study shows the importance of both global and national action plans and how comparing project activities with NTAP requirements can help address resource allocation needs to fill gaps in management. We conclude that projects should be designed to closely align with national action plans, best practice standards, and the activities of other projects in their landscape to maximize conservation outputs and impact. However, projects on their own are not enough to satisfy whole NTAPs.
... 93,95 In developing countries, wildlife law enforcement is also particularly susceptible to corruption, 286,287 with enforcement authorities turning a blind eye to illegal hunting for bribes, or reselling the seized wild meat to private clients. 288 This is partly due to the low importance generally granted to wildlife crime compared to other forms of crime, 289 and the small and irregular salaries received by wildlife and law enforcement officials 290 (although there is encouraging evidence from other sectors that corruption can be reduced at the country and local project level). 287,291 Thirdly, consumer preferences for wild meat are shaped not only by its price and household wealth, but also by non-price determinants (e.g. ...
A debate has emerged over the potential socio-ecological drivers of wildlife-origin zoonotic disease outbreaks and emerging infectious disease (EID) events. This Review explores the extent to which the incidence of wildlife-origin infectious disease outbreaks, which are likely to include devastating pandemics like HIV/AIDS and COVID-19, may be linked to excessive and increasing rates of tropical deforestation for agricultural food production and wild meat hunting and trade, which are further related to contemporary ecological crises such as global warming and mass species extinction. Here we explore a set of precautionary responses to wildlife-origin zoonosis threat, including: (a) limiting human encroachment into tropical wildlands by promoting a global transition to diets low in livestock source foods; (b) containing tropical wild meat hunting and trade by curbing urban wild meat demand, while securing access for indigenous people and local communities in remote subsistence areas; and (c) improving biosecurity and other strategies to break zoonosis transmission pathways at the wildlife-human interface and along animal source food supply chains.
... Whereas, published examples of projects that have applied the full OS framework are lacking, there are multiple examples of projects that have applied it to different stages of the project cycle, including efforts to combat wildlife trafficking (Núñez-Regueiro et al., 2020). These include planning law enforcement and outreach strategies to recover tiger populations in Lao PDR (Johnson et al., 2016), reducing opportunities for wildlife trafficking in commercial transportation sectors (Spevack, 2021), and addressing poaching of elephants and other species in Central Africa (Muir et al., 2014). Theories of change for projects addressing IWT are available through the Conservation Action and Measures Library located on the Miradi Share website 1 Although there are still few examples that focus on IWT, we believe the OS framework provides the structure, flexibility, and tools for cross-disciplinary collaboration needed to effectively address the complex issue of IWT from problem definition to strategy implementation to evaluation and adaptation by providing the structure and tools to convene planning teams representing relevant sectors and disciplines. ...
Wildlife trafficking is a complex conservation issue that threatens thousands of species around the world and, in turn, negatively affects biodiversity and human well-being. It occurs in varied social-ecological contexts; includes numerous and diverse actors along the source-transit-destination trade chain, who are involved in illicit and often covert human behaviors driven by interacting social, economic, cultural, and political factors; and involves numerous stakeholders comprising multiple sectors and disciplines. Such wicked problems can be difficult to define and usually lack simple, clear solutions. Systems thinking is a way to understand and address complex issues such as wildlife trafficking and requires multisectoral, cross-disciplinary collaboration to comprehensively understand today's increasingly complex problems and develop holistic and novel solutions. We review methods utilized to date to combat wildlife trafficking and discuss their strengths and limitations. Next, we describe the continuum of cross-disciplinarity and present two frameworks for understanding complex environmental issues, including the illegal trade in wildlife, that can facilitate collaboration across sectors and disciplines. The Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation provides guidance and tools for defining complex social-ecological systems and identifying strategic points of intervention. One Health focuses on the nexus of human, wildlife, and environmental health, and can provide a framework to address concerns around human-wildlife interactions, including those associated with the illegal wildlife trade. Finally, we provide recommendations for expanding these and similar frameworks to better support communication, learning, and collaboration in cross-disciplinary efforts aimed at addressing international wildlife trafficking and its intersections with other complex, global conservation issues.
... Interventions thus tend to exacerbate the social-ecological dilemmas facing local residents as livelihood improvement and biodiversity goals come into conflict (Southworth et al., 2006). Law enforcement has historically had a strong foundation in conservation and is a primary means for enhancing PAs (Ferraro & Hanauer, 2015;Gray et al., 2018;Johnson et al., 2016). However, law enforcement alone is inadequate to ensure PA integrity and tends to be lax, especially in places where livelihoods rely on access to PA resources (McElwee, 2010;Phromma et al., 2019). ...
Despite the popularity of integrated conservation and development approaches to protected area management, adjacent communities increasingly face livelihood dilemmas. Yet understanding of how market processes and conservation enforcement interact to influence livelihood responses remains limited. Targeting eight villages in Nam Et-Phou Louey (NEPL) National Park in northern Lao PDR, we draw on survey data with 255 households, 93 semi-structured interviews, and meso-level data on village conditions to examine how residents navigate associated livelihood dilemmas. A cluster analysis reveals five livelihood types with divergent capacities to engage in market development and cope with enforcement pressures. We show how market linkages, historical conservation interventions, and local access conditions shape livelihoods and differences between villages. Our approach yields a nuanced picture of how global conservation efforts result in an uneven distribution of costs and benefits at local scales. Conservation measures must account for highly divergent capacities to cope with access loss and diversify livelihoods.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10745-021-00267-4.
... Nam Et-Phou Louey National Biodiversity Conservation Area in northern Laos, which was too small to classify as a stronghold, illustrates this point (Fig. 5a). Previously referred to as the "crown-jewel" of Laos' protected area network, Nam Et-Phou Louey received a disproportionate amount of conservation investment over the past two decades in an attempt to save the country's last remaining tigers (Panthera tigris; Johnson et al., 2016). These intensive conservation efforts, although insufficient to save the protected area's tigers, may explain why golden cats continue to persist in Nam Et-Phou Louey (Rasphone et al., 2019), but at the same time have disappeared from other protected areas in Laos (e.g., Nakai-Nam Theun National Biodiversity Conservation Area; Coudrat et al., 2014;Coudrat, 2019). ...
Identifying conservation priorities for an understudied species can be challenging, as the amount and type of data available to work with are often limited. Here, we demonstrate a flexible workflow for identifying priorities for such data-limited species, focusing on the little-studied Asian golden cat (Catopuma temminckii) in mainland Tropical Asia. Using recent occurrence records, we modeled the golden cat’s expected area of occurrence and identified remaining habitat strongholds (i.e., large intact areas with moderate-to-high expected occurrence). We then classified these strongholds by recent camera-trap survey status (from a literature review) and near-future threat status (based on publicly available forest loss projections and Bayesian Belief Network derived estimates of hunting-induced extirpation risk) to identify conservation priorities. Finally, we projected the species’ expected area of occurrence in the year 2000, approximately three generations prior to today, to define past declines and better evaluate the species’ current conservation status. Lower levels of hunting-induced extirpation risk and higher levels of closed-canopy forest cover were the strongest predictors of recent camera-trap records. Our projections suggest a 68% decline in area with moderate-to-high expected occurrence between 2000 and 2020, with a further 18% decline predicted over the next 20 years. Past and near-future declines were primarily driven by cumulatively increasing levels of hunting-induced extirpation risk, suggesting assessments of conservation status based solely on declines in habitat may underestimate actual population declines. Of the 40 remaining habitat strongholds, 77.5% were seriously threatened by forest loss and hunting. Only 52% of threatened strongholds had at least one site surveyed, compared to 100% of low-to-moderate threat strongholds, thus highlighting an important knowledge gap concerning the species’ current distribution and population status. Our results suggest the golden cat has experienced, and will likely continue to experience, considerable population declines and should be considered for up-listing to a threatened category (i.e., VU/EN) under criteria A2c of the IUCN Red List.
... Other areas of interest are the Annamite Mountains and the adjacent lowland in central Vietnam. Although more than 30% of the areas fall within the protected area systems of both Laos and Vietnam, doubts persist regarding the effectiveness of the protection (Johnson et al., 2016). Besides extensive snaring (Gray et al., 2018), which drastically impacts Galliformes (Grainger et al., 2018), forest loss, degradation and fragmentation have been recorded recently in about 50% of the area (Petersen et al., 2020). ...
Southeast Asia has arguably the highest biodiversity loss due to the high deforestation rate and hunting pressure. In the region, 55 species of the family Phasianidae can be found in all available land habitats from lowland plains up to high-elevation mountainous areas. As ground-dwelling birds, these species are sensitive to habitat disturbance and hunting pressure, making them ideal to evaluate the status of remaining Southeast Asian forest habitats. The aims of this work are, therefore, to define for each Phaesanidae species: 1) the extent of forest cover, suitable habitat and large forest patches currently available in the region and their decline over the years between 2000 and 2018 (six estimated generations) and 2) assess the threats using a Bayesian Belief Network approach combining data on forest loss hotspots and hunting pressure. Moreover, we defined the spatial distribution of Phasianidae diversity hotspots and relative threats in the region. The results show that over the 18-year study period, the forest cover, suitable habitat and Phasianidae diversity in Southeast Asia declined overall. The remaining forest habitats currently have low species diversity and face medium to high threat levels from habitat loss and hunting pressure. Population monitoring and higher protection levels both inside and outside protected areas are essential for the species’ long term survival. We recommend using Phasianinae as indicator species to monitor the overall habitat conservation status in Southeast Asia.
... This study demonstrated the value of having defined goals and specific indicators of success and noted clear increases in patrol effort and a partial reduction in threats to tigers at the select sites. Other studies have had success using similar LEM tools within PAs (e.g., Johnson et al., 2016;Moreto et al., 2014;Stokes, 2010). However, so little of Amur tiger range lies within PAs (3-4%), consequently, intervention measures beyond the boundaries of PAs is necessary. ...
Poaching is the most direct threat to the persistence of Amur tigers. However, little empirical evidence exists about the modus operandi of the offenders associated with this wildlife crime. Crime science can aid conservation efforts by identifying the patterns and opportunity structures that facilitate poaching. By employing semi-structured interviews and participants observation with those directly involved in the poaching and trafficking of Amur tigers in the Russian Far East (RFE), this article utilizes crime script analysis to break down this criminal event into a process of sequential acts. By using this framework, it is possible account for the decisions made and actions taken by offenders before, during and after a tiger poaching event, with the goal of identifying weak points in the chain of actions to develop targeted intervention strategies. Findings indicate poaching is facilitated by the ability to acquire a firearm, presence of roads that enable access to remote forest regions, availability of specific types of tools/equipment, including heat vision googles or a spotlight and a 4 × 4 car, and a culture that fosters corruption. This crime script analysis elucidates possible intervention points, which are discussed alongside each step in the poaching process.
... These interventions to reduce livestock grazing may rapidly benefit wild herbivores that have been competitively suppressed, as has been observed in India (Madhusudan 2004). The above actions would require better collaboration among different government departments to effectively implement the policy, the establishment of a corresponding monitoring and evaluation system, and a functional law enforcement regime to facilitate the protection of the landscapes that wild ungulate as well as their predators inhabit (Johnson et al. 2016). ...
ContextLivestock grazing is one of the most widespread types of anthropogenic land use, even occurs in many protected areas and has become a threat to wildlife worldwide. Understanding livestock-wildlife interactions is crucial for rare large carnivores conservation. In China, free-ranging cattle within forests degrade the habitat of the tigers (Panthera tigris) and leopards (Panthera pardus), but quantitative assessments of how livestock affect the spatial and temporal use by the major ungulate prey of the two endangered felids are very limited.Objectives
This study aimed to examine the interactions of several sympatric wildlife species with livestock at a fine spatiotemporal scale in a human-dominated forest landscape.Methods
Based on a large-scale camera-trapping data across the China-Russia border, we used N-mixture models, two-species occupancy models and activity pattern overlap to understand the effects of cattle grazing on three ungulate species (sika deer Cervus nippon, wild boars Sus scrofa and roe deer Capreolus pygargus).ResultsSpatially, with cattle activity increasing, wild boar and roe deer had different degrees of decline in the intensity of habitat use. Sika deer were displaced as more cattle encroached on forest habitat. Temporally, in the presence of cattle, wild boar and sika deer decreased their activities in the day. In addition, three wild ungulates trend to exhibit lower spatiotemporal overlap with cattle at shared camera sites.Conclusions
Our study shows that wildlife species may reduce the probability of habitat use by spatial avoidance and changing the daily activity patterns. We underscore that fine-scale (i.e. camera-site level) spatiotemporal avoidance is likely a key component of co-occurrence between livestock and the sympatry of competing ungulates inhabiting forest ecosystems. Given prey were depressed, efforts to minimize the livestock disturbance on these species need to be considered to ensure their sustained recoveries.
... determine and compare activity patterns between Asian golden cats and leopard cats, we used data from camera-trap surveys that were conducted annually during the dry season from 2003 to 2012 (see Johnson et al. 2006 for details). Camera traps were set along game trails (Johnson et al. 2016), and we assumed photographs of each felid species accurately represented their respective activity patterns. Each photograph was classified as a notionally independent event following O' Brien et al. (2003). ...
The Asian golden cat (Catopuma temminckii) occurs in small, declining, and highly fragmented populations throughout Southeast Asia, whereas the smaller leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) is common and widespread. In contrast to leopard cats, little is known about the ecology of Asian golden cats, and resource partitioning between these species has not been studied. We used DNA-confirmed scats, camera-trap data, and prey surveys, to determine the diet, prey selection, and activity, of Asian golden cats and leopard cats in a protected area in northern Laos. The two felids had different diets: Asian golden cats consumed mostly ungulates (35% biomass consumed), murid rodents (23%), and carnivores (15%), whereas leopard cats consumed mostly murid rodents (79%). Asian golden cats were not random in their consumption of ungulates, because muntjac (Muntiacus spp.) were selectively consumed over larger ungulates, indicating muntjac were preyed upon rather than scavenged. Dietary overlap between the two felid species was moderate (R 0 = 0.60), and the dietary niche breadth of Asian golden cats (B = 8.44) was nearly twice as high as that of leopard cats (4.54). The mean (± SD) scat diameter was greater for Asian golden cats (2.1 ± 0.3 cm) than leopard cats (1.8 ± 0.2 cm), although diameters of leopard cat scats were considerably larger than previously assumed for this species. The felid species differed in their activity patterns, because Asian golden cats were diurnal, whereas leopard cats were nocturnal, although they did not differ in their use of elevation, suggesting there was no habitat segregation. Overall, leopard cats appeared to coexist with Asian golden cats, a potential predator and competitor, by exhibiting dietary and temporal partitioning. Our results showed that muntjac were important prey of Asian golden cats, suggesting the management of muntjac might be important for conserving populations of Asian golden cats.
... A number of studies have evaluated the effectiveness of law enforcement patrols, and how these can be improved (e.g., Holmern, Muya, & Roskaft, 2007;Gandiwa et al., 2013;Johnson et al., 2016). ...
The spatial monitoring and reporting tool (SMART) is being implemented in Tanzania's protected areas to help improve the efficiency of ranger patrols. Unfortunately, there has been no attempt to understand users' perspectives regarding site‐specific factors likely to affect its use. In this study, we investigated the perspectives of staff in Ugalla Game Reserve, a protected area in western Tanzania, to understand the challenges that affect the use of SMART in the reserve. The main challenges included a lack of motivation to use SMART, limited knowledge of SMART among game scouts, insufficient ranger capacity, difficulty collecting data during night patrols, limited resources for patrolling, and difficulty accessing some remote sections of Ugalla. The presence of trophy hunting company patrol teams has led Ugalla rangers to concentrate their effort in less‐patrolled areas. We recommend introducing incentives to encourage game rangers to use SMART alongside improving patrol coverage in wet seasons. Advanced and regular refresher trainings in SMART should be conducted to enhance data collection. Furthermore, game scouts should be trained and equipped to participate effectively in the SMART process. Although SMART is now becoming increasingly popular in Tanzania, understanding local factors that influence its implementation will be important to improve uptake.
... South East Asia is at the heart of the global extinction crisis and is experiencing widespread biodiversity loss, including within Protected Areas (O'Kelly et al., 2012;Brook et al., 2014;Johnson et al., 2016). Across the region there are insufficient resources, both financial and technical, for the effective management of biodiversity and natural resources. ...
... There are likely few places in leopard range with comparable resources; most countries in Africa and Asia have protected area budgets of <USD100/ km 2 /year (Mansourian & Dudley, 2008) and conservation funding outside of protected areas (which includes the majority of leopard range; Jacobson et al., 2016) is even more limited. A high management budget on its own does not guarantee carnivore population persistence, but it is a critical enabling factor (Johnson et al., 2016;Lindsey et al., 2017;Packer et al., 2013). The apparent absence of harmful edge effects in the SSGR also likely contributes to the high leopard density. ...
Human impact is near pervasive across the planet and studies of wildlife populations free of anthropogenic mortality are increasingly scarce. This is particularly true for large carnivores that often compete with and, in turn, are killed by humans. Accordingly, the densities at which carnivore populations occur naturally, and their role in shaping and/or being shaped by natural processes, are frequently unknown. We undertook a camera‐trap survey in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve (SSGR), South Africa, to examine the density, structure and spatio‐temporal patterns of a leopard Panthera pardus population largely unaffected by anthropogenic mortality. Estimated population density based on spatial capture–recapture models was 11.8 ± 2.6 leopards/100 km². This is likely close to the upper density limit attainable by leopards, and can be attributed to high levels of protection (particularly, an absence of detrimental edge effects) and optimal habitat (in terms of prey availability and cover for hunting) within the SSGR. Although our spatio‐temporal analyses indicated that leopard space use was modulated primarily by “bottom‐up” forces, the population appeared to be self‐regulating and at a threshold that is unlikely to change, irrespective of increases in prey abundance. Our study provides unique insight into a naturally‐functioning carnivore population at its ecological carrying capacity. Such insight can potentially be used to assess the health of other leopard populations, inform conservation targets, and anticipate the outcomes of population recovery attempts.
... SMART and CA|TS; [71,72] see S6 Table for details). Ensuring effective protection and management of sites is often reliant on a multi-pronged approach including garnering community support to reduce critical threats [10], setting-up intelligence networks [73] and most importantly, establishing adaptive management systems [74,75]. Even at sites where the reintroduction/supplementation of tigers is required (e.g. ...
With less than 3200 wild tigers in 2010, the heads of 13 tiger-range countries committed to doubling the global population of wild tigers by 2022. This goal represents the highest level of ambition and commitment required to turn the tide for tigers in the wild. Yet, ensuring efficient and targeted implementation of conservation actions alongside systematic monitoring of progress towards this goal requires that we set site-specific recovery targets and timelines that are ecologically realistic. In this study, we assess the recovery potential of 18 sites identified under WWF’s Tigers Alive Initiative. We delineated recovery systems comprising a source, recovery site, and support region, which need to be managed synergistically to meet these targets. By using the best available data on tiger and prey numbers, and adapting existing species recovery frameworks, we show that these sites, which currently support 165 (118–277) tigers, have the potential to harbour 585 (454–739) individuals. This would constitute a 15% increase in the global population and represent over a three-fold increase within these specific sites, on an average. However, it may not be realistic to achieve this target by 2022, since tiger recovery in 15 of these 18 sites is contingent on the initial recovery of prey populations, which is a slow process. We conclude that while sustained conservation efforts can yield significant recoveries, it is critical that we commit our resources to achieving the biologically realistic targets for these sites even if the timelines are extended.
... These interventions to reduce livestock grazing may rapidly benefit wild herbivores that have been competitively suppressed, as has been observed in India (Madhusudan 2004). The above actions would require better collaboration among different government departments to effectively implement the policy, the establishment of a corresponding monitoring and evaluation system, and a functional law enforcement regime to facilitate the protection of the landscapes that tigers and leopards as well as the co-occurring species inhabit (Johnson et al. 2016). Figure S1. ...
Understanding wildlife-livestock interactions is crucial for the design and management of protected areas that aim to conserve large mammal communities undergoing conflicts with humans worldwide. An example of the need to quantify the strength and direction of species interactions is the conservation of big cats in newly established protected areas in China. Currently, free-ranging livestock degrade the food and habitat of the endangered Amur tiger and Amur leopard in the forest landscapes of Northeast China, but quantitative assessments of how livestock affect the use of habitat by the major ungulate prey of these predators are very limited. Here, we examined livestock-ungulate interactions using large-scale camera-trap data in the newly established Tiger and Leopard National Park in Northeast China, which borders Russia. We used N-mixture models, two-species occupancy models and activity pattern overlap to understand the effects of cattle grazing on three ungulate species (wild boar, roe deer and sika deer) at a fine spatiotemporal scale. Our results showed that incorporating the biotic interactions with cattle had significant negative effects on encounters with three ungulates; sika deer were particularly displaced as more cattle encroached on forest habitat, as they exhibited low levels of co-occurrence with cattle in terms of habitat use. These results, combined with spatiotemporal overlap, suggested fine-scale avoidance behaviours, and they can help to refine strategies for the conservation of tigers, leopards and their prey in human-dominated transboundary landscapes. Progressively controlling cattle and the impact of cattle on biodiversity while simultaneously addressing the economic needs of local communities should be key priority actions for the Chinese government.
... Recent reports (eg Survival International 2017) have documented abuses meted out to local people in the quest to protect valuable wildlife from poachers. Furthermore, while increased investment in patrolling protected areas makes detecting illegal activities more likely (Jachmann and Billiouw 1997) and can reduce illegal hunting (Hilborn et al. 2006;Johnson et al. 2016), it is still far from clear that enforcement alone is the most cost-effective approach (Travers 2016). For example, it can be ineffective when under-resourced and implemented in isolation (Lindsey et al. 2014). ...
Wildlife crime has come under increasing international scrutiny in recent years, with ever more money being spent on activities to combat it. However, little is known about what drives local people to become involved in wildlife crime, or about which interventions are likely to be most effective in tackling it. This report outlines the findings of research conducted within the villages bordering two of Uganda’s largest protected areas (Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls), and presents policy recommendations for addressing wildlife crime at the national and park level.
... This listing raises the lion's international legal profile whilst simultaneously providing bureaucratic capacity and a framework to support additional coordinated action by lion range states to address the most critical threats to the species. However, international agreement by itself will not be enough to combat prey depletion, and policing the killing of large carnivores is resource intensive and difficult (Critchlow et al. 2016;Johnson et al. 2016). Thus, a package of measures is needed that improves both the legal framework and local implementation and enforcement (see below). ...
Despite their iconic status, lion (Panthera leo) populations continue to decline across the majority of their range. In the light of the recent decision (in October 2017) to add lions to the Appendices of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), this paper identifies the new and existing legal protections afforded to lions through five global treaties, and maps these protections against the most critical contemporary threats facing the species. It thus offers a new analysis of the CMS listing, and draws on existing legal reviews, to highlight the ways in which global treaties offer differing forms of protection for lions. It then combines multiple concordant assessments of lion populations, to highlight nine categories of threat: human-lion conflict, bushmeat poaching, human encroachment, trophy hunting, trade in lion bones, unpredictable environmental events, socio-economic factors, policy failures, and governance/institutional weakness. The paper assesses how the various treaties each address these different categories of threat. The analysis identifies two pathways for improving legal protection: expanding the application of global treaties in respect of lions and their habitats (the paper considers the CMS listing in these terms), and improving the implementation of treaty commitments through local and national-scale actions. Furthermore, it identifies local implementation challenges that include the local knowledge of rules, compliance with rules and enforcement capacity, alongside the variety in local contexts and situations, and suggests where global treaties might provide support in meeting these challenges. We suggest that this analysis has wider implications for how treaty protection can and is utilised to protect various species of large-bodied, wide-ranging animals.
... These are defined based on available data, which are gathered to assess the current condition and the characteristics of the social-ecological system (Thrower 2006, Dwyer 2011, Holley and Sinclair 2011, Craig and Ruhl 2014, McDonald and Styles 2014. Additionally, detailed monitoring protocols must be produced, describing how the effectiveness of actions and the progress toward defined objectives and goals will be assessed , Borgström 2015, Johnson et al. 2016. Monitoring is considered essential and at the core of adaptive management (Jones 2007, Green and Garmestani 2012, Bjorkland 2013, Butler et al. 2015, Novellie et al. 2016). ...
Adaptive management has been considered a valuable approach for managing social-ecological systems involving high levels of complexity and uncertainty. However, many obstacles still hamper its implementation. Law is often seen as a barrier for moving adaptive management beyond theory, although there has been no synthesis on the challenges of legal constraints or how to overcome them. We contribute to filling this knowledge gap by providing a systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature on the relationship between adaptive management and law in relation to social-ecological systems. We analyze how the scholarship defines the concept of adaptive management, identifies the legal barriers to adaptive management, and the legal strategies suggested for enabling this approach. Research efforts in this domain are still highly geographically concentrated in the United States of America, unveiling gaps concerning the analysis of other legal jurisdictions. Overall, our results show that more flexible legal frameworks can allow for adaptive management without undermining the role of law in providing stability to social interactions. Achieving this balance will likely require the reform of existing laws, regulations, and other legal instruments. Legal reforms can facilitate the emergence of adaptive governance, with the potential to support not only adaptive management implementation but also to make law itself more adaptive.
Southeast Asia hosts more felid species than any other region and, although smaller (< 30kg) felids have important ecological roles, regional conservation has mainly focused on a few charismatic big cats. Information on the ecology and conservation status of small felids is often lacking or geographically limited. We used empirically derived scale-optimized models for seven species in three regions of Southeast Asia (mainland, Borneo and Sumatra) to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing protected areas network in preserving suitable habitats, and to map suitable areas lacking protection. Finally, we assessed whether small felids are good proxies of broader regional terrestrial biodiversity. On the mainland, the largest and most suitable habitats occurred in the Northern Forest Complex of Myanmar and in the region between East Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. In these areas we also highlighted the most important protected areas. In Borneo, the most suitable habitats occurred in the central highlands and in the protected areas of Sabah. In Sumatra, the strongholds of habitat suitability were the Barisan Mountains, in the western extent of the island, and, once again, existing protected areas. We also found that the aggregated habitat suitability for small felids was correlated more strongly to terrestrial vertebrate biodiversity than was any single felid species individually. Overall, our assessment of the distribution of small felids in Southeast Asia highlights the fundamental importance of protected areas for biodiversity conservation. Our results are a clarion call to expand the extent, and improve the conservation management, of protected areas in the remaining core habitat areas for multiple species in Southeast Asia, and to work to enhance and protect connectivity between them to ensure long-term demographic and genetic exchange among the region’s remaining wildlife populations.
This study investigates the legal provisions for dealing with street vendors in Banda Aceh and Yogyakarta, utilizing the Qanun no. 3/2007 and the Mayor Regulation no. 26/2002, respectively. It investigates the variables that constitute the basis for the creation of policies for dealing with street sellers and evaluates policy formulations for dealing with street vendors in the two provincial capitals in a more accommodating and comprehensive manner. This is a normative legal research that examines legal data in the form of the rule of law by evaluating statutes and Islamic law. The results indicated that the Qanun for the City of Banda Aceh and the Perwal Yogyakarta were legally designed to govern and control street vendors in compliance with the urban planning and aesthetics of the city. However, the Banda Aceh Qanun addressing street vendors must be tied to the Mayor's Regulation 44 of 2016 about the role and function of Wilayatul Hisbah (WH) and Satpol PP (Civil Police), which reflect Islamic shari'a standards. Although the Mayor of Yogyakarta Regulation No. 26/2002 on street vendors has been designated as a source and tourist attraction that must be managed responsibly, this has a positive impact on street vendors. The regulation has included cultural issues with such care that it has a favorable effect on their economic earnings. Although other aspects, such as the issuance of business licenses, impartial spatial layouts, and coercive measures against street vendors, still need to be developed. Nevertheless, the Banda Aceh government's comprehensive WH policy integrates Islamic law and the Yogyakarta Perwal, which accommodates local and cultural values in accordance with the rule of law that governs and disciplines the society.
Habitat loss and degradation are currently the main anthropogenic causes of species extinctions. The root cause is human overpopulation. This unique volume provides, for the very first time, a comprehensive overview of all threatened and recently extinct mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes within the context of their locations and habitats. The approach takes a systematic examination of each biogeographic realm and region of the world, both terrestrial and marine, but with a particular emphasis on geographic features such as mountains, islands, and coral reefs. It reveals patterns useful in biodiversity conservation, helps to put it all into perspective, and ultimately serves as both a baseline from which to compare subsequent developments as well as a standardization of the way threatened species are studied.
Wildlife conservation is a big challenge for a developing country like Bangladesh. The present study claims that Bangladesh still lacks administrative, legislative, and technological capacities to protect and conserve biodiversity. This study finds that a great variety of wild animals and species is now under threat in Bangladesh due to factors like forest land grabbing, habitat destruction, human activities near the forests, human-animal interactions, illegal poaching and trafficking, excluding local communities in conservation process, socio-economic and political issues, and external problems like the refugee crisis and trans-border animal migration. In this paper, it is found that environmental crimes, specifically illicit wildlife crimes, have been increasing in Bangladesh in recent years, despite several legislations, including the prominent Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, 2012 (hereafter Wildlife Act 2012) and many international treaties, agreements, conventions, and protocols. To fully bear its responsibility to protect wildlife and conserve biodiversity, the author analyzes the role of the government through policy-making and implementation and the function of international institutions. Realizing the challenges in protecting wildlife and conserving biodiversity in Bangladesh, the author briefly points out the mitigation policies of the neighboring countries. The study data are based on reviewing existing literature, law and policy and referring to various international treaties and conventions.
Clouded leopards are a bitypic genus (Neofelis) of medium-sized felid that share a common ancestor with the world’s pantherine “big cats.” They largely inhabit primary and secondary evergreen and mixed deciduous forests across tropical and subtropical Asia, from northeast India and the Nepalese Himalayan foothills, east through Indo-Burma to Vietnam, and south through the Indo-Malayan archipelago. Well-adapted for climbing and moving in trees, little is known about the ecology of clouded leopards relative to larger felids. They are believed to prey primarily on ungulates, primates, and smaller forest mammals, and occur at local population densities comparable to tigers and leopards, felids that are three to nine times their weight. Although predominantly nocturnal and crepuscular, clouded leopards are also active during daylight hours, and their movements may in part be influenced by both larger predators and potential prey. Populations of both the Indochinese clouded leopard (N. nebulosa) and Sunda clouded leopard (N. diardi) are declining and increasingly isolated due to large-scale habitat loss and deforestation for agricultural and infrastructural development, as well as indiscriminate hunting for their skins and parts, and a live pet trade. Broad-scale conservation policies and collaborative practices that safeguard and restore habitat, reduce fragmentation, enhance forest connectivity, engage communities on hunting, and increase the effectiveness of national and international law enforcement activities, are among the strategies needed to protect these IUCN Vulnerable cat species.
Many studies of wildlife poaching acknowledge the challenges of detecting poaching activities, but few address the issue. Data on poaching may be an inaccurate reflection of the true spatial distribution of events because of low detection rates. The deployment of conservation and law enforcement resources based on biased data could be ineffective or lead to unintended outcomes. Here, we present a rigorous method for estimating the probabilities of detecting poaching and for evaluating different patrol strategies. We illustrate the method with a case study in which imitation snares were set in a private nature reserve in South Africa. By using an experimental design with a known spatial distribution of imitation snares, we estimated the detection probability of the current patrol strategy used in the reserve and compared it to three alternative patrol strategies: spatially focused patrols, patrols with independent observers, and systematic search patterns. Although detection probabilities were generally low, the highest proportion of imitation snares was detected with systematic search strategies. Our study provides baseline data on the probability of detecting snares used for poaching, and presents a method that can be modified for use in other regions and for other types of wildlife poaching.
Dramatic population declines threaten the Endangered Indochinese tiger Panthera tigris corbetti with extinction. Thailand now plays a critical role in its conservation, as there are few known breeding populations in other range countries. Thailand's Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex is recognized as an important tiger recovery site, but it remains poorly studied. Here, we present results from the first camera-trap study focused on tigers and implemented across all protected areas in this landscape. Our goal was to assess tiger and prey populations across the five protected areas of this forest complex, reviewing discernible patterns in rates of detection. We conducted camera-trap surveys opportunistically during 2008–2017. We recorded 1,726 detections of tigers in 79,909 camera-trap nights. Among these were at least 16 adults and six cubs/juveniles from four breeding females. Detection rates of both tigers and potential prey species varied considerably between protected areas over the study period. Our findings suggest heterogeneity in tiger distribution across this relatively continuous landscape, potentially influenced by distribution of key prey species. This study indicates that the Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex is one of the few remaining breeding locations of the Indochinese tiger. Despite limitations posed by our study design, our findings have catalysed increased research and conservation interest in this globally important population at a critical time for tiger conservation in South-east Asia.
Asiatic black bear Ursus thibetanus and sun bear Helarctos malayanus populations are declining throughout South-east Asia as a result of habitat loss and human disturbance. Knowledge of the distribution and status of each species is limited and largely anecdotal. Range maps are coarse, compiled by expert opinion, and presence or absence is unknown over large portions of South-east Asia. These two species co-occur in Lao People's Democratic Republic and may be faring better there than in neighbouring countries. During 2010–2013 we searched for bear sign along 99 transects within eight study sites throughout Lao. To explore countrywide relative abundance and habitat suitability, we modelled bear sign as a log-linear function of biological and anthropogenic predictors that were associated with habitat assemblages and human disturbance. Bears favored higher elevations and rugged terrain in areas less accessible to humans, and were most abundant in the north and east of Lao. Suitable habitats were rare in the southern lowland plains where bear abundance was relatively low. Our model predicted that Nam Et–Phou Louey National Protected Area had the largest areas of suitable bear habitat, followed by the Nakai-Nam Teun and Nam Ha National Protected Areas. Using transects to survey for bear sign, we created a replicable geographical information system based assessment tool for bears in Lao that can be used to identify conservation opportunities and monitor changes in bear distribution over time.
The threat posed to protected areas by the illegal killing of wildlife is countered principally by ranger patrols that aim to detect and deter potential offenders. Deterring poaching is a fundamental conservation objective, but its achievement is difficult to identify, especially when the prime source of information comes in the form of the patrols’ own records, which inevitably contain biases. The most common metric of deterrence is a plot of illegal activities detected per unit of patrol effort (CPUE) against patrol effort (CPUE‐E). We devised a simple, mechanistic model of law breaking and law enforcement in which we simulated deterrence alongside exogenous changes in the frequency of offences under different temporal patterns of enforcement effort. The CPUE‐E plots were not reliable indicators of deterrence. However, plots of change in CPUE over change in effort (ΔCPUE‐ΔE) reliably identified deterrence, regardless of the temporal distribution of effort or any exogenous change in illegal activity levels as long as the time lag between patrol effort and subsequent behavioral change among offenders was approximately known. The ΔCPUE‐ΔE plots offered a robust, simple metric for monitoring patrol effectiveness; were no more conceptually complicated than the basic CPUE‐E plots; and required no specialist knowledge or software to produce. Our findings demonstrate the need to account for temporal autocorrelation in patrol data and to consider appropriate (and poaching‐activity‐specific) intervals for aggregation. They also reveal important gaps in understanding of deterrence in this context, especially the mechanisms by which it occurs. In practical applications, we recommend the use of ΔCPUE‐ΔE plots in preference to other basic metrics and advise that deterrence should be suspected only if there is a clear negative slope. Distinct types of illegal activity should not be grouped together for analysis, especially if the signs of their occurrence have different persistence times in the environment.
Supporting planning, decision-making, monitoring and evaluation in wildlife management with a spatial management information system (MIST)
Although considerable conservation resources have been committed to develop and use law enforcement monitoring and management tools such as SMART, measures of success are ill-defined and to date few reports detail results post-implementation. Here, we present four case studies from protected areas with Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica, Temminck1884) in Russia, in which indicators of success were defined and evaluated at each. The ultimate goal was an increase in tiger numbers to 1 individual/100 km2 at each site. We predicted that improvements in law enforcement effectiveness would be followed by increases in prey numbers and subsequently tiger numbers. We used short- and long-term indicators of success, including: i) patrol team effort and effectiveness; ii) catch per unit effort indicators (to measure reductions in threats); and iii) changes in target species numbers. In addition to implementing a monitoring system, we focused on improving law enforcement management using an adaptive management process. Over four years, we noted clear increases in patrol effort and a partial reduction in threats. Although we did not detect clear trends in ungulate numbers, tiger populations remained stable or increased; suggesting that poaching of tigers may be more limiting than prey depletion. Increased effectiveness is needed before a clear reduction in threats can be noted, and more time is needed before detecting responses in target populations. Nonetheless, delineation of concrete goals and indicators of success provide a means of evaluating progress and weaknesses. Such monitoring should be a central component of law enforcement strategies for protected areas. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
A Wildlife Conservation Society report commissioned by the Global Tiger Initiative Suggested citation: J. Walston, K.U. Karanth, and E.J. Stokes. 2010. Avoiding the Unthinkable: What Will it Cost to Prevent Tigers Becoming Extinct in the Wild? Wildlife Conservation Society, New York.
Declining biodiversity in protected areas in Laos is attributed to unsustainable exploitation of natural resources. At a basic level, an important need is to develop capacity in academic and professional training institutions to provide relevant training to conservation professionals. The paper (a) describes the capacity building approach undertaken to achieve this goal, (b) evaluates the effectiveness of the approach in building capacity for implementing conservation and (c) reviews implementation outcomes. Strong linkages between organizations implementing field conservation, professional training institutions, and relevant Government agencies are central to enhancing effectiveness of capacity building initiatives aimed at improving the practice of conservation. Protected area management technical capacity needs will need to directly influence curriculum design to insure both relevance and effectiveness of training in improving protected area management. Sustainability of capacity building initiatives is largely dependent on the level of interest and commitment by host-country institutions within a supportive Government policy framework in addition to engagement of organizations implementing conservation.
Today record levels of funding are being invested in enforcement and antipoaching measures to tackle the “war on poaching,” but many species are on the path to extinction. In our view, intensifying enforcement effort is crucial, but will ultimately prove an inadequate long-term strategy with which to conserve high-value species. This is because: regulatory approaches are being overwhelmed by the drivers of poaching and trade, financial incentives for poaching are increasing due to rising prices and growing relative poverty between areas of supply and centers of demand, and aggressive enforcement of trade controls, in particular bans, can increase profits and lead to the involvement of organized criminals with the capacity to operate even under increased enforcement effort. With prices for high-value wildlife rising, we argue that interventions need to go beyond regulation and that new and bold strategies are needed urgently. In the immediate future, we should incentivize and build capacity within local communities to conserve wildlife. In the medium term, we should drive prices down by reexamining sustainable off-take mechanisms such as regulated trade, ranching and wildlife farming, using economic levers such as taxation to fund conservation efforts, and in the long-term reduce demand through social marketing programs.
Cited By (since 1996):63, Export Date: 26 November 2013, Source: Scopus
There are obvious economic predictors of ability and willingness to invest in environmental sustainability. Yet, given that environmental decisions represent trade-offs between present sacrifices and uncertain future benefits, psychological factors may also play a role in country-level environmental behavior. Gott's principle suggests that citizens may use perceptions of their country's age to predict its future continuation, with longer pasts predicting longer futures. Using country- and individual-level analyses, we examined whether longer perceived pasts result in longer perceived futures, which in turn motivate concern for continued environmental quality. Study 1 found that older countries scored higher on an environmental performance index, even when the analysis controlled for country-level differences in gross domestic product and governance. Study 2 showed that when the United States was framed as an old country (vs. a young one), participants were willing to donate more money to an environmental organization. The findings suggest that framing a country as a long-standing entity may effectively prompt proenvironmental behavior.
Every day, the challenges to achieving conservation grow. Threats to species, habitats, and ecosystems multiply and intensify. The conservation community has invested decades of resources and hard work to reduce or eliminate these threats. However, it struggles to demonstrate that its efforts are having an impact. In recent years, conservation project managers, teams, and organizations have found themselves under increasing pressure to demonstrate measurable impacts that can be attributed to their actions. To do so, they need to answer three important questions: (1) Are we achieving our desired impact?; (2) Have we selected the best interventions to achieve our desired impact?; and (3) Are we executing our interventions in the best possible manner?
We describe results chains, an important tool for helping teams clearly specify their theory of change behind the actions they are implementing. Results chains help teams make their assumptions behind an action explicit and positions the team to develop relevant objectives and indicators to monitor and evaluate whether their actions are having the intended impact. We describe this tool and how it is designed to tackle the three main questions above. We also discuss the purposes for which results chains have been used and the implications of their use. By using results chains, the conservation community can learn, adapt, and improve at a faster pace and, consequently, better address the ongoing threats to species, habitats, and ecosystems.
Johnson, A. 2012. A Landscape Summary for the Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area, Lao PDR. Pages 73-90 in T. C. H. Sunderland, J. Sayer, and H. Minh-Ha, editors. Evidence-based conservation: lessons from the lower Mekong. Earthscan, London.
Vongkhamheng, C., A. Johnson, and M. Sunquist. 2013. A baseline survey of ungulate abundance and distribution in northern Laos: implications for conservation. Oryx 47:544-552.
Large ungulates across Southeast Asia have been experiencing a rapid decline in recent decades due to overexploitation by human. An absence of reliable data on the abundance and distribution of ungulates makes it extremely difficult to assess the effectiveness of conservation efforts to recover their populations. Naturally serving as the principle prey for endangered tigers Panthera tigris, depletion of wild ungulates is a major threat to the species’ persistence and recovery across its range. This study estimated abundance and distribution of five ungulate taxa using grid-based occupancy surveys across a 3,000 km2 core zone within the 5,950 km2 Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area in northern Laos. The results show an abundance index of 5.29 ± 0.30 ungulates per km2 with muntjac Munticus spp. and wild pig Sus spp. being most common, moderate levels of serow Capricornis milneedwardsii and sambar Cervus unicolor, but few gaur Bos gaurus. This low abundance of medium- and large-sized prey species at the site strongly suggests that strict control of hunting of these ungulates is important for securing their long-term survival as well as that of the tiger population that depends on them, which is currently the only known breeding population remaining in Indochina.
The Nam Et Phou Louey National Protected Areain the Lao People’s Democratic Republic contains the last confirmed breeding population of tigers (Panthera tigris) in Indochina. There are two main threats to tigers, direct killing of tigers and the illegal hunting of wild ungulates, the tigers’ principle prey. Villagers living around the National Protected Area rely on these same ungulates as an important source of protein in their daily diet. The illegal hunting of tigers and prey for commercial trade is unsustainable and is driven by a lack of ownership by local villagers who engage in illegal activities and by government agencies that do not enforce the laws. To reduce these threats the Nam Et Phou Louey National Protected Area is using a social marketing campaign in parallel with traditional enforcement to change the behavior of illegal hunters, village members, and government officials. To determine campaign effectiveness, a survey instrument was developed to measure knowledge, attitudes and behavior change, which included both a control and pre and post surveys of target audiences. The pre and post surveys indicate a significant shift along the theory of change from knowledge to behavior change. The assumption is that over time this shift will also lead to threat reduction to, and thus increase of, tiger and prey populations.
In Ghana, budgetary allocations for protected area management have been consistently low. To improve cost-effectiveness and performance of law enforcement, monitoring feedback was used to provide the foundation for informed management decisions. Between 2004 and 2006, a system to monitor staff performance, patrol effort, illegal wildlife use, and trends in large-mammal populations was established in seven protected areas. In two national parks, where GIS-based monitoring systems were in place, in the course of 2006, data were standardised and analysed in the same way. Encounters on patrol with illegal activities and large mammals were corrected for patrol effort and the size of the area to enable comparing encounter rates in different protected areas. In December 2005, law-enforcement performance was evaluated in six protected areas. Through dissemination of the evaluation report, the poor performance of patrol staff and high levels of illegal activity in five out of six sites entered the public domain, and created a spirit of competition between protected areas. The present evaluation showed that in the course of 2006, in the six sites evaluated, patrol performance improved by 59% on average, compared to only 11% in the two parks that were not evaluated. In the four savannah sites evaluated, poaching was reduced by 72%, but only by 17% in the two forest sites evaluated. This compares with a reduction in poaching of 33% in the two parks. Patrol data were open to several types of error. Although reliability of patrol data was checked at different hierarchical levels, the final check was at headquarters in Accra, comparing seasonal fluctuations in large-mammal encounters with those in two control areas.
Although considerable effort and resources have been dedicated to biodiversity conservation over the last three decades, the effectiveness of these conservation actions is still frequently unclear. Thus, practitioners are being called on to be ever more strategic in their use of often limited resources available for the scale of the work required. To address this problem, several frameworks have been developed to guide the practice of conservation and facilitate adaptive management. Although these frameworks now exist and monitoring is key to adaptive management, there are still relatively few detailed examples of projects that have successfully implemented monitoring plans and then analyzed the data to generate results that were in turn used to adapt management. Reasons cited for this include insufficient funding for monitoring and evaluation, inappropriate monitoring designs that are unable to generate results to answer management questions, ineffectively managed monitoring information, and institutional arrangements that do not facilitate the feedback of monitoring results (should they exist) to management. Given these challenges, there is a need for case studies that illustrate how monitoring and evaluation can be done in the context of the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation to support learning and provide evidence for the effectiveness of a conservation action. This paper provides a detailed case study of adaptive management in practice. In this case the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Landscape Species Approach was used over a seven-year period to plan, execute, evaluate and adapt a project to recover wild tigers Panthera tigris and their ungulate prey (Gaur Bos gaurus, Southwest China serow Capricornis milneedwardsii, Sambar deer Cervus unicolor, wild pig Sus spp., and muntjacs Muntiacus spp.) in Lao PDR. After several iterations of the project management cycle, we assess to what degree the framework supported rigorous monitoring and evaluation that was used to inform and adapt management and what conditions were present and/or needed to overcome the constraints that commonly impede the practice of adaptive management in conservation.
This study investigates four decades of socioeconomic
and environmental change in a shifting cultivation
landscape in the northern uplands of Laos. Historical
changes in land cover and land use were analyzed using a
chronological series of remote sensing data. Impacts of
landscape change on local livelihoods were investigated in
seven villages through interviews with various stakeholders.
The study reveals that the complex mosaics of agriculture
and forest patches observed in the study area have long
constituted key assets for the resilience of local livelihood
systems in the face of environmental and socio-economic
risks. However, over the past 20 years, a process of
segregating agricultural and forest spaces has increased the
vulnerability of local land users. This process is a direct
outcome of policies aimed at increasing national forest
cover, eradicating shifting cultivation and fostering the
emergence of more intensive and commercial agricultural
practices. We argue that agriculture-forest segregation
should be buffered in such a way that a diversity of
livelihood opportunities and economic development pathways
can be maintained.
Millions of dollars are spent annually on biodiversity conservation projects at natural areas around the world. Managers of natural areas must achieve a balance between taking conservation action, evaluating the effectiveness of actions taken, and monitoring the general status of biodiversity conservation targets and the threats they face. Conservation practitioners often struggle with decisions regarding the allocation of limited resources among these competing needs. Many conservation projects have only a limited monitoring component while other projects have an inexplicably high investment in a single type of monitoring. We offer a conceptual framework to help guide conservation practitioners towards a logical allocation of resources between taking action and different types of monitoring depending on the situation that they are facing. The framework consists of a decision tree that includes an explicit evaluation of three questions: (1) Are there substantial threats facing the conservation entities?; (2) Are there clear and feasible actions known to be effective at abating identified threats?; and (3) Does the project team have high confidence in their understanding of the overall conservation situation? Based on this tree, we present five scenarios that illustrate a range of logical allocations of resources between taking action and different categories of monitoring.
Conservation investment, particularly for charismatic and wide-ranging large mammal species, needs to be evidence-based. Despite the prevalence of this theme within the literature, examples of robust data being generated to guide conservation policy and funding decisions are rare. We present the first published case-study of tiger conservation in Indochina, from a site where an evidence-based approach has been implemented for this iconic predator and its prey. Despite the persistence of extensive areas of habitat, Indochina's tiger and ungulate prey populations are widely supposed to have precipitously declined in recent decades. The Seima Protection Forest (SPF), and broader Eastern Plains Landscape, was identified in 2000 as representing Cambodia's best hope for tiger recovery; reflected in its designation as a Global Priority Tiger Conservation Landscape. Since 2005 distance sampling, camera-trapping and detection-dog surveys have been employed to assess the recovery potential of ungulate and tiger populations in SPF. Our results show that while conservation efforts have ensured that small but regionally significant populations of larger ungulates persist, and density trends in smaller ungulates are stable, overall ungulate populations remain well below theoretical carrying capacity. Extensive field surveys failed to yield any evidence of tiger, and we contend that there is no longer a resident population within the SPF. This local extirpation is believed to be primarily attributable to two decades of intensive hunting; but importantly, prey densities are also currently below the level necessary to support a viable tiger population. Based on these results and similar findings from neighbouring sites, Eastern Cambodia does not currently constitute a Tiger Source Site nor meet the criteria of a Global Priority Tiger Landscape. However, SPF retains global importance for many other elements of biodiversity. It retains high regional importance for ungulate populations and potentially in the future for Indochinese tigers, given adequate prey and protection.
1. Simple indices based on the number of encounters with a study object are used throughout ecology, conservation and natural resource management (e.g. indices of abundance used in animal surveys or catch per unit effort (CPUE) data in fisheries management). All forms of encounter data arise through the interaction of two sets of behaviours: those of the data generators and those of the data collectors. Analyses of encounter data are prone to bias when these behaviours do not conform to the assumptions used to model them.
2. We review the use of CPUE indices derived from patrol data, which have been promoted for the study of rule-breaking in conservation, highlighting potential sources of bias and noting how similar problems have been tackled for other forms of encounter data.
3. We identify several issues that must be addressed for analyses of patrol data to provide useful information, including the definition of suitable measures of catch and effort, the choice of appropriate temporal and spatial scales, the provision of suitable incentives for ranger patrols and the recording of sufficient information to describe the spatial pattern of sampling. The same issues are also relevant to encounter data more generally.
4. Synthesis and applications. This review describes a common conceptual framework for understanding encounter data, based on the interactions that produce them. We anticipate that an appreciation of these commonalities will lead to improvements in the analysis of encounter data in several fields, by highlighting the existence of methodological approaches that could be more widely applied, and important characteristics of these data that have so far been neglected.
Theory dictates that conservation areas should be as large as possible. When money for their protection is inadequate, different considerations come into play.
Unique to South-east Asia, Lao People's Democratic Republic contains extensive habitat for tigers and their prey within a multiple-use protected area system covering 13% of the country. Although human population density is the lowest in the region, the impact of human occurrence in protected areas on tiger Panthera tigris and prey populations was unknown. We examined the effects of human– carnivore conflict on tiger and prey abundance and distribution in the Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area on the Lao–Vietnam border. We conducted intensive camera-trap sampling of large carnivores and prey at varying levels of human population and monitored carnivore depredation of livestock across the protected area. The relative abundance of large ungulates was low throughout whereas that of small prey was significantly higher where human density was lower. The estimated tiger density for the sample area ranged from 0.2 to 0.7 per 100 km 2 . Tiger abundance was significantly lower where human population and disturbance were greater. Three factors, commercial poaching associated with livestock grazing followed by prey depletion and competition between large carnivores, are likely responsible for tiger abundance and distribu-tion. Maintaining tigers in the country's protected areas will be dependent on the spatial separation of large carnivores and humans by modifying livestock husban-dry practices and enforcing zoning.
We examine the abundance and distribution of Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae) and nine prey species in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park on Sumatra, Indonesia. Our study is the first to demonstrate that the relative abundance of tigers and their prey, as measured by camera traps, is directly related to independently derived estimates of densities for these species. The tiger population in the park is estimated at 40–43 individuals. Results indicate that illegal hunting of prey and tigers, measured as a function of human density within 10 km of the park, is primarily responsible for observed patterns of abundance, and that habitat loss is an increasingly serious problem. Abundance of tigers, two mouse deer (Tragulus spp.), pigs (Sus scrofa) and Sambar deer (Cervus unicolor) was more than four times higher in areas with low human population density, while densities of red muntjac (Muntiacus muntjac) and pigtail macaques (Macaca nemestrina) were twice as high. Malay tapir (Tapirus indicus) and argus pheasant (Argusianus argus), species infrequently hunted, had higher indices of relative abundance in areas with high human density. Edge effects associated with park boundaries were not a significant factor in abundance of tigers or prey once human density was considered. Tigers in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, and probably other protected areas throughout Sumatra, are in imminent danger of extinction unless trends in hunting and deforestation are reversed.