Patterns, Trends, and Issues of Illicit Wildlife Hunting and Trade: Analysis Based on African Environmental Ethics

The creation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1973 has significantly altered the dynamics of trade in fauna and flora. Despite this effort, curbing of criminal trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora has remained a key challenge for some countries. The objective of this study was to identify and establish the trafficking routes of illegal wildlife and forest products, analyzing the patterns and trends of wildlife and forest crime including their drivers, actors and modus operandi, and assessing the criminal justice response including the legislative, enforcement, prosecutorial and judicial systems. The analysis was based on the methodologies and principles embedded in African environmental ethics. It was concluded that African ethics allows for ‘sustainable poaching’ under the framework of Eco-Afrocentricism; but condemns poaching done for trafficking purposes. Five canons of sustainability were developed to guide ‘sustainable poaching’. African capitalism thesis was used to support the analysis from political and economic perspectives

The ecomics of ecosystems and biodiversity: scoping the scale

The G8 decided in March 2007 to initiate a “Review on the economics of biodiversity loss”, in the so called Potsdam Initiative: 'In a global study we will initiate the process of analysing the global economic benefit of biological diversity, the costs of the loss of biodiversity and the failure to take protective measures versus the costs of effective conservation. The study is being supported by the European Commission (together with the European Environmental Agency and in cooperation with the German Government. “The objective of the current study is to provide a coherent overview of existing scientific knowledge upon which to base the economics of the Review, and to propose a coherent global programme of scientific work, both for Phase 2 (consolidation) and to enable more robust future iterations of the Review beyond 2010.

Wildlife viewing preferences of visitors to protected areas in Sabah, Malaysia: implications for the role of wildlife tourism in conservation

This study uses quantitative and qualitative approaches to investigate the preferences of tourists who visit protected areas in Sabah, Malaysia. It considers the implication that such visits have against the conservation of wildlife tourism destinations. Several theoretical frameworks are employed in this investigation - including critical theory, grounded theory, experience theory, animal encounter theory, biodiversity hotspots theory, and scheme theory. Other theories of importance are involvement theory, theory of planned behaviour, and user-and-gratification theory. This study's wildlife tourism behaviour path model shows that tourist experiences and activities can drive memories, loyalty and satisfaction with the destination's offerings. The study shows that wildlife tourist's expectations are framed around Sabah's endemic wildlife, rainforest, diversity of animals and abundance of animals, as well as around traditional culture. A good portion of respondent tourists (42%) indicate that their tourist expectations are substantively met, with a further 39% seeing their experience as less than very-highly-met. As such, there is room for improving Sabah's wildlife tourism industry. The orang utans, followed by the rhinoceros, and then the elephants, are the most popular animal species. Approximately sixty seven per cent (66.9%) of study respondents are in the 25 – 44 age group, with a majority being professional's females, and often from the UK. A majority (63%) of respondents were first time visitors. Regarding environmental conservation, 33.90% (majority of tourists) learned of threats facing the wildlife species in these tours, and indicated that wildlife threats needed attention. The real world contributions of this study include encouraging wildlife destination sites to seek solutions for the improvement of the appeal of wildlife tourism, and raising both the loyalty and satisfaction levels of outbound wildlife tourists. This study was limited in terms of the tourist respondent convenience sampling employed over as a short period-of-time in Sabah, and conducted at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport

Recreation, tourism and nature in a changing world : proceedings of the fifth international conference on monitoring and management of visitor flows in recreational and protected areas : Wageningen, the Netherlands, May 30-June 3, 2010

Proceedings of the fifth international conference on monitoring and management of visitor flows in recreational and protected areas : Wageningen, the Netherlands, May 30-June 3, 201

Understanding hunter-wild pig (Sus scrofa) interactions in the United States: a mixed-methods research approach to inform invasive species management

2020 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.To view the abstract, please see the full text of the document

MEASURING FOREST RESOURCE VALUES: AN ASSESSMENT OF CHOICE EXPERIMENTS AND PREFERENCE CONSTRUCTION METHODS AS PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT TOOLS

Human values arising from forests include market and non-market values. Timber values and values of non-timber forest products traded in markets (berries, wild rice, etc.) are considered market values. Among non-market values are recreation values and values associated with wildlife harvesting by Aboriginal People. These are considered non-market because participation in these activities does not require the purchase of market based permits; prices do not function as rationing devices in these activities. In addition to non-market values arising from activities, individuals may also have values associated with forest conditions (biodiversity, etc.). These are referred to as passive use values since the value is not associated with any specific use of the resource or activity related to the forest. Since forests in Canada are largely on public land, these passive use values are particularly relevant to Canadian forest management. These values reveal the preferences of the public for components of forest management. Eliciting these values is a form of public involvement in that the public is engaged in assessing forest management options and providing opinions and sentiments regarding these options. Ideally, values arising from forests would be collected from a broad range of the public and examined to provide guidance to forest managers. However, values over forest outputs and conditions may be very poorly formed when people have little experience with the range and complexity of forest ecology and management. In addition, eliciting values without framing them in a trade-off setting can result in misleading estimates. In this project we attempt to elicit passive use values in a manner that allows for poorly defined initial notions of value through an approach known as preference construction. Preference construction essentially provides for education and information processing in the development of passive use values. These estimates are also developed using a trade-off approach (choice experiments). The project focuses on the values of the local public within the NorSask forest. More formally, the objectives of this research are to: 1) ascertain the passive use values held by local people associated with forests in the NorSask Forest Management License Area; 2) explore differences in preferences based on the degree and frequency of formal preference construction exercises; and 3) evaluate this approach as a method of public involvement. A total of 43 individuals from the local community were involved in the valuation exercise. They participated in 3 groups or treatments, each with a different level of involvement in the valuation assessment. The first group was involved in three separate sessions, allowing for significant preference construction and information acquisition. The second group was involved in only one session and the third group was involved only minimally through a telephone contact and the completion of a survey delivered through the mail. The hypothesis being examined was that the degree of involvement in the exercise would affect the responses either in terms of the variances of the responses or the actual preferences. Not all forest values can be examined in a single valuation task. In this case values associated with key game species (moose), wildlife species reflecting biodiversity or threatened species (caribou), old age classes of forest, protected areas and local employment were assessed. These were selected based on the preference construction sessions with the first group. A general trend was found in the ranking of forest values. The values were highest for increases in older forest age classes and protected areas and lower for caribou and moose levels (expressed in percentage changes relative to current levels). The lowest value arose from the local jobs generated by forestry activity. Monetary measures of these values were also developed. The scenario choices made by the individuals revealed that a 5% increase in moose and caribou populations would be worth approximately $10 and$12 per year. A 5% increases in old age classes or protected areas was worth approximately 4 to 5 times as much. They were willing to pay approximately $7 per year in increased taxes for increases in local employment. The hypothesis that the group preferences would differ was not accepted. The preferences of the first and third groups, while expected to be very different, were in fact quite similar. The second group did appear to be different from these other two but it is possible that significant variation in demographic characteristics was driving that difference, rather than the level of preference construction effort. The sample in the third group did however exhibit more resistance to completing the exercise and registered more protests to the value assessment. In conclusion, the approach employed was successful in eliciting passive use values for components of forest management. These values alone provide interesting information for managers to consider in the development of management plans. Evidence supporting the hypothesis that preference construction approaches improve these valuation exercises was not found in this study although this result must be tempered by the limitations arising from sample size and demographic composition of the study groups.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

A PACT for the Future: Improving Animal Protection Legislation for Captive Orcas

Using SeaWorld as a case study, this Note will argue that existing federal and state legislation fails to protect captive orcas from cruel and harmful treatment while in captivity. Part I of this Note will address the gaps in federal and state animal welfare and cruelty legislation relevant to captive orcas. Part II will discuss the enactment of the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act of 2019 (“PACT Act”), the first federal animal cruelty statute. Part III will use SeaWorld as a case study to test the effectiveness of the PACT Act in criminalizing animal cruelty at the federal level. Finally, Part IV will discuss ways in which Congress could amend the PACT Act or use it as a model for a more comprehensive federal animal cruelty statute and include protections for animals suffering cruel and inhumane treatment in captivity

FACTORING CULTURE AND DISCOURSE INTO AN APPRAISAL OF THE NEOLIBERAL SYNTHESIS OF WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

This thesis is a holistic appraisal of community-based wildlife management (CWM) in sub-Saharan Africa. CWM, which aims to integrate large-landscape conservation and rural development, is a programme full of neoliberal aspirations, particularly in its call to decentralize decision-making and encourage African communities to engage in a market for wildlife. Its general failure to live up to these aspirations, however, is due to the wide scale retention of owner and user rights over wildlife at state level and the dominance of the private sector. Beyond these policy issues, it is stipulated that there lies at the very core of CWM a more profound stumbling block: the conflict between indigenous African beliefs and rituals towards wildlife and the cold market rationality of CWM in its current form. As well as exploring these cultural dimensions, CWM is also analyzed as a discourse in which new representations of the savannah lands and its peoples legitimize intervention by an international environmental elite

Community Management of Natural Resources in Africa: Impacts, Experiences and Future Directions

More than twenty years have passed since community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) rose to prominence in different parts of Africa as a strategy for rural development, local empowerment, and conservation. Led by new ideas about the merits of decentralized, collective resource governance regimes, and creative field experiments such as Zimbabwe's CAMPFIRE, these community-based approaches evolved in a wide range of ecological, political, and social contexts across Africa. This review provides an unprecedented pan-African synthesis of CBNRM, drawing on multiple authors and a wide range of documented experiences from Southern, Eastern, Western and Central Africa. The review discusses the degree to which CBNRM has met poverty alleviation, economic development and nature conservation objectives. In its concluding chapter, the report suggests a way forward for strengthening CBNRM and addressing key challenges in the years ahead