ChapterPDF Available

Product-based crime script of targeted leopard poaching for skin use in ceremonial attire by the Lozi People of Western Zambia

Authors:

Abstract and Figures

Following Lemieux & Bruschi (2019) a product-based approach was adopted to develop a wildlife crime script using a combination of participant observations and structured or semi-structured interviews conducted as part of the Saving Spots Project in western Zambia. After the project’s inception, Panthera staff were invited to attend the 2018 Kuomboka to gather information on the scale of the event, details regarding the use of skins and the traditional values underpinning the ceremony. Data were collected through direct observation and ad hoc interactions with participants or spectators. Information relating to the hunting and trafficking of cat skins, particularly leopard, was obtained through a semi-structured interview conducted in 2019 with an interviewee who has a well-established knowledge of the relevant customs and traditions of the Lozi. Structured interviews were then conducted with Lozi paddlers to understand the use and process of acquiring skins prior to the Kuomboka ceremony. Data included skin cost (if purchased), the number of skins owned by paddlers, the longevity of skins, methods for storing skins when not in use, the geographic origin of the skins, the participants knowledge of conservation laws in Zambia, their perception of the population status of leopard, lion, serval and cheetah in Zambia and their opinion of the Saving Spots demand reduction project and its effectiveness in curbing demand for authentic skins.
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Article
Full-text available
Retaliatory killings caused by human-wildlife conflict have a significant impact on the survival of leopards. This study explores the reasons for retaliatory killings of leopards by interviewing community members in a small village in South Africa that experienced high incidences of human–leopard conflict. The semi-structured interviews focused on the reasons why retaliatory leopard killings occurred and how to best mitigate the situational factors that triggered these killings. Respondents cited four main problems that fueled these killings: the government’s response to human–leopard conflict was slow and unwilling; this response involved inefficient methods; there were inadequate resources to respond to these killings; and there was a clear lack of laws or their application. Local stakeholders provided a range of innovative strategies to reduce human-leopard conflict and retaliatory killings. While all parties expressed different reasons why these solutions were or were not effective, their conclusions were often similar. The distrust that existed between the parties prevented them from recognizing or accepting their common ground. Based on existing human–wildlife conflict mitigation techniques and solutions identified by local stakeholders, this article explores how criminological techniques, including situational crime prevention, can help identify and frame effective interventions to reduce the number of illegal leopard killings driven by human-wildlife conflict.
Article
Full-text available
Imported to adorn tanks of marine aquarium hobbyists, the trade in live corals poses a significant risk to species that concurrently face threats from rising global temperatures, pollution, and destructive fishing practices. To better understand the live coral trade, we employed a crime script framework to analyze the process by which corals are harvested in two of the world's major exporting countries-Indonesia and Fiji. We demonstrate that coral harvesting and export are complex activities that require a specific set of skills and tools. As such, various intervention strategies are proposed to address illegal coral harvesting at different stages of the crime script.
Article
Full-text available
The African lion, Panthera leo, has, like many of the world’s megafauna, become threatened with extinction over the past century. Loss of habitat and prey, persecution in retaliation of livestock depredation, by-catch by bushmeat poachers and unsustainable trophy hunting are all documented anthropogenic caused threats to lion conservation. Here we present data that indicate the emergence of a further threat to lion conservation: the targeted poaching of lions for body parts. We present lion abundance and mortality data from field surveys in southern Africa between 2011 and 2018 of a resident lion population. The targeted poaching of lions for body parts accounted for 35% of known human caused mortalities across the landscape and 61% of mortalities within Limpopo National Park with a clear increase in this pressure in 2014. Retaliatory killing for livestock conflict accounted for 51% of total mortalities, however in 48% of conflict cases body parts were also removed, suggesting that a demand for body parts may incentivize conflict related killing of lions. The use of poison was the most common means of killing lions and was recorded in 61% of mortalities. Teeth and claws were the body parts harvested most often from illegally killed animals in the study area, with an increase from 2014 onwards. This pressure threatens the viability of the species in our study area and the success of current conservation initiatives. We suggest that the results of this study be viewed as a warning to the global conservation community to be vigilant of the impact that illegal wildlife trade can have on the conservation of lions, just as a similar pressure has already had on other big cat populations.
Article
Full-text available
Apex predators are crucial for maintaining ecological patterns and processes, yet humans hinder their ability to fulfil this role by displacing them from the landscape. Many apex predator species such as African lions (Panthera leo) are experiencing catastrophic declines as a result of competition with growing human populations. Increasing our understanding of the competitive interactions between lions and humans, as well as identifying thresholds of lion tolerance to human activities are important both for lion conservation and our understanding of apex predator ecology in the Anthropocene. We investigated the relative and cumulative influences of anthropogenic pressures on lion occurrence across a 73 000 km2 multi-use landscape in southern Africa. We developed occupancy models from replicated detection/non-detection spoor surveys across gradients of anthropogenic and biotic features. We tested the two hypotheses that African lions were most limited by 1) interference competition with humans or 2) exploitative competition with humans and evaluated the relative contribution of individual anthropogenic and biotic variables to lion occurrence. Our models predicted that lions occupied 49% of the landscape. The strongest determinants of lion occupancy were negative associations with pastoralism and bushmeat poaching, and a positive association with preferred prey. Thus, lions in this landscape are limited by a combination of interference and exploitative competition with poachers and pastoralists. However, interference competition with pastoralism was the biggest driver limiting lion occupancy, with a clear disturbance threshold for lions cumulating in a near complete loss of lions from the landscape when cattle surpass 21% occurrence. This study provides a predictive understanding of the top-down impacts of humans on the world's vulnerable apex carnivores.
Article
Full-text available
In response to growing reports of otters in the pet trade, and suggestions that the popularity of pet otters on social media may be driving demand, we collated YouTube videos of pet otters to test for trends in the number of videos published, their exposure (number of views) and popularity. We used English-language search terms to provide a global overview, as well as local language search terms for four South East Asian countries identified as being of potential importance in the pet otter trade (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam), and Japan. We found that not only had the number of videos depicting pet otters increased in the last two to three years (2016–2018), but that their popularity and/or engagement had also increased. Notwithstanding some country-level differences in the details of effects observed, the greatest increases in both the number of videos produced and their popularity occurred in Indonesia and Japan. At a global-level, commercial “viral” video sites appeared to be influential in terms of posting highly popular pet otter videos. At a national level, potentially influential videos tended to be produced by four or five individual otter owners. The appearance of phrases such as “I want one” in the comments section of the English-language videos, although not necessarily a statement of actual intent, suggests that these videos may be driving demand amongst their viewers and followers; similar analyses of video comments in each local language are warranted. Our results show an increase in social media activity that may not only be driving the apparent increase in popularity, but also amplifying awareness of the availability of these animals as pets, as well as creating and perpetuating the (erroneous) perception of otters as a suitable companion animal. At a global level, there are welfare concerns associated with otters in the pet trade, and, in South East Asia specifically, there are serious conservation concerns. We recommend increased regulation of these activities on social media, increased public awareness of the negative impacts of the pet trade on otters, and increased international protection. Specifically, we suggest the need to uplist both small-clawed and smooth-coated otters ( Aonyxcinereus and Lutrogaleperspicillata , respectively) to CITES Appendix 1.
Article
Full-text available
Terrestrial wildlife is being hunted for consumption by humans in the tropics at an unprecedented rate, and the often unsustainable nature of this harvest has profound implications not only for biodiversity and ecosystem function, but also for human livelihoods. Whilst the nature and impacts of this practice have been studied in numerous contexts and localities, a comprehensive treatment of the social, economic, and environmental determinants of both hunter decision-making and hunting outcomes has been lacking. In this review we discuss influences of hunting methods and effort on the types of animals caught, the efficiency of harvest, and the implications of these factors for sustainability. We highlight gaps in current understanding, and identify the most important data requirements. Our approach provides a framework for the design of future studies into wild meat hunting and its impacts, promoting the efficient targeting of priority areas of research.
Article
Full-text available
Poaching is contributing to rapid declines in elephant populations across Africa. Following high-profile changes in the political environment, the overall number of illegally killed elephants in Africa seems to be falling, but to evaluate potential conservation interventions we must understand the processes driving poaching rates at local and global scales. Here we show that annual poaching rates in 53 sites strongly correlate with proxies of ivory demand in the main Chinese markets, whereas between-country and between-site variation is strongly associated with indicators of corruption and poverty. Our analysis reveals a recent decline in annual poaching mortality rate from an estimated peak of over 10% in 2011 to <4% in 2017. Based on these findings, we suggest that continued investment in law enforcement could further reduce poaching, but is unlikely to succeed without action that simultaneously reduces ivory demand and tackles corruption and poverty.
Article
Full-text available
More than two decades after the publication of Cornish’s seminal work about the script-theoretic approach to crime analysis, this article examines how the concept has been applied in our community. The study provides evidence confirming that the approach is increasingly popular; and takes stock of crime scripting practices through a systematic review of over 100 scripts published between 1994 and 2018. The results offer the first comprehensive picture of this approach and highlight new directions for those interested in using data from cyber-systems and the Internet of Things to develop effective situational crime prevention measures.
Article
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are effective resource management and conservation measures, but their success is often hindered by non-compliant activities such as poaching. Understanding the risk factors and spatial patterns of poaching is therefore crucial for efficient law enforcement. Here, we conducted explanatory and pre-dictive modelling of poaching from recreational fishers within no-take zones of Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) using Boosted Regression Trees (BRT). Combining patrol effort data, observed distribution of reported incidents, and spatially-explicit environmental and human risk factors, we modeled the occurrence probability of poaching incidents and mapped poaching risk at fine-scale. Our results: (i) show that fishing attractiveness, accessibility and fishing capacity play a major role in shaping the spatial patterns of poaching; (ii) revealed key interactions among these factors as well as tipping points beyond which poaching risk increased or decreased markedly; and (iii) highlight gaps in patrol effort that could be filled for improved resource allocation. The approach developed through this study provide a novel way to quantify the relative influence of multiple interacting factors in shaping poaching risk, and hold promises for replication across a broad range of marine or terrestrial settings.
Article
The emergence of conservation criminology over the past decade provides a unique insight into patterns of wildlife crime. Wildlife crime has a dramatic impact on many vulnerable species and represents a significant challenge to the management of protected areas around the world. This paper contributes to the field of conservation criminology by examining the travel patterns of fishing poachers in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia. The results demonstrate that distance is a key feature of offender target selection, reflecting the established environmental criminology concept of distance decay. The analysis also reveals a significant relationship between individual no-take zones and regional population areas. The applicability of a nodal-oriented approach to wildlife crime prevention is discussed.
Article
Tricks of the trade—legal trade used to conceal Endangered African grey parrots on commercial flights - Volume 53 Issue 2 - Rowan O. Martin, Cristiana Senni, Neil D'cruze, Nick Bruschi