Engaging communities in combating illegal wildlife trade - risks rewards and research needs

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Author nameDate

Dilys Roe, IIED

Engaging communities in combatting illegal wildlife trade – risks, rewards and research needs

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Current responses to illegal wildlife trade

Law enforcement

Reducing demand

for illegal products

Engaging communities

living with wildlife

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Global Tiger Recovery Plan (2010)

Engage with indigenous and local communities to gain their participation in biodiversity conservation by providing sustainable and alternative livelihood options through financial support, technical guidance, and other measures.

African Elephant Summit (2013)

Engage communities living with elephants as active partners in their conservation

London Declaration (2014)

Increase capacity of local communities to pursue sustainable livelihood opportunities and eradicate poverty Work with, and include local communities in, establishing monitoring and law enforcement networks in areas surrounding wildlife

Kasane Declaration (2015)

Promote the retention of benefits from wildlife resources by local people where they have traditional and/or legal rights over these resources. We will strengthen policy and legislative frameworks needed to achieve this, reinforce the voice of local people as key stakeholders and implement measures which balance the need to tackle the illegal wildlife trade with the needs of communities, including the sustainable use of wildlife.

Brazzaville Declaration (2015)

Recognize the rights and increase the participation of indigenous peoples and local communities in the planning, management and use of wildlife through sustainable use and alternative livelihoods and strengthen their ability to combat wildlife crime.

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Case study evidence of successful engagement

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Ruvuma Elephant Project, Tanzania

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At a glancePoaching context High levels of elephant poaching and

declining population

How are communities involved in tackling IWT?

As village game scoutsAs informantsBy stopping their own illegal killing of elephants

What incentives do they receive?

Financial and non-financial rewards for activities as scouts and informantsEffective human-elephant conflict programmeIncome generating opportunities

What has been the IWT impact?

Poaching declined to the extent that elephant population now stableElephants killed as a result of HWC declined from av 11 p.a to 4 p.a.

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Mali Elephant Project

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At a glancePoaching context Historically limited elephant poaching

but an increasing threat


As “Brigades de Surveillance” (community game guards and informants)


Social status as a brigade memberPayments in kind (food)Strengthened NR governance Better grazing land and other natural resources (healthy elephants = healthy environment)


No poaching until coup in Jan 2012. Since then, with limited rule of law, local people considered critical to minimising poaching

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“if elephants disappear it means the environment is no longer good for

us”

“Anyone who kills elephants steals from the local people”

“I do not watch the elephants for the money but because they were here long before us humans. Looking after them gives my life meaning. I also know that the god-crazies are liars, but not everyone understands that, especially when they have a family to feed.”

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Olderkesi Wildlife Conservancy, Kenya

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At a glancePoaching context Background but continuous threat of

poaching of all species for meat and other commodities


As game guards and informants


Performance-based lease payments for land under conservation (payments reduced for poaching incidences or livestock incursions)Additional rewards for information leading to capture of poachers or location of guns and ivory


A bit early to tell but an apparent rise in overall wildlife numbers on the conservancy land.

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Rhino Rangers Incentives Programme, Namibia

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At a glancePoaching context Currently low but significantly

increasing threat of rhino poaching


As game guards


Skills development (as rhino monitors and trackers)Professional uniforms and equipmentPerformance based cash bonusesPotential for tourism development


Poaching incidents are lower on Communal Rhino Custodian land than elsewhere

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Yet challenges for community engagement remain

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Tentative lessons so far

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Community engagement

• When communities have rights of ownership and benefit from conservation and sustainable use, they have a strong incentive to detect and inform on poachers.

• When communities perceive poaching to be stealing from them, they will even inform on their community members, and take considerable risks to inform on, and even confront, outsiders.

• Communities will be more likely to engage in detecting and informing on poachers when the law enforcement process works (i.e., arrested poachers are charge, put on trial, and punished when convicted), their own rights are clear, and the benefits they receive are seen as consistent with the value of the wildlife in question.

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Risk management

• Communities usually do not, and, almost always, should not, have arresting authority. Nor should they typically be armed. Normally their roles should be as scouts, informants and guides, not as law enforcers.

• Risks to communities are lower when poachers are community members and wildlife is of low value.

• Timely and competent support from the national arresting authority is essential to minimize physical risk to community members engaging in anti-poaching and anti-trafficking activities.

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So where next?

What factors motivate communities?

What factors place communities in peril?

• Resource ownership• Who the poachers are• Value of wildlife product• Human population density• Rule of law• Roles and responsibilities

Community Engagement in Combatting IWT

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http://pubs.iied.org/G03903.html

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THANK YOU

Government & Nonprofit

Engaging communities in combating illegal wildlife trade - risks rewards and research needs