Abstract
Illegal hunting is a persistent problem in many protected areas, but an overview of the extent of this problem and its impact on wildlife is lacking. We reviewed 40 years (1980-2020) of global research to examine the spatial distribution of research and socio-ecological factors influencing population decline within protected areas under illegal hunting pressure. From 81 papers reporting 988 species/site combinations, 294 mammal species were reported to have been illegally hunted from 155 protected areas across 48 countries. Research in illegal hunting has increased substantially during the review period and showed biases towards strictly protected areas and the African continent. Population declines were most frequent in countries with a low human development index, particularly in strict protected areas and for species with a body mass over 100 kg. Our results provide evidence that illegal hunting is most likely to cause declines of large-bodied species in protected areas of resource-poor countries regardless of protected area conservation status. Given the growing pressures of illegal hunting, increased investments in people's development and additional conservation efforts such as improving anti-poaching strategies and conservation resources in terms of improving funding and personnel directed at this problem are a growing priority.
Highlights
Protected areas (PAs) are the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation and have increased in number globally
Accounting for the influence of studies on illegal elephant hunting, results limited to Africa and excluding elephants (n = 302) showed that mammals with larger body mass were at greater risk of population decline in PAs (Table 2; model 3)
We found that illegally hunted mammals in strict PAs (IUCN categories I-II) had a lower probability of population decline compared to less strict PAs (IUCN categories III-IV)
Summary
Protected areas (PAs) are the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation and have increased in number globally Many PAs continue to experience wildlife declines [2, 9], suggesting that enlarging the PA network alone does not necessarily lead to conservation success when other efforts such as improved law enforcement, funding and regulation of land use change pressure outside are not considered [2] Despite these challenges to protecting biodiversity, broad scale patterns on illegal hunting in PAs and the consequences. Loss of mammals due to illegal hunting pressure has been related to substantial loss of important functional characteristics such as seed dispersal and regeneration and ecological interactions, endangering many ecological services that they support [2, 24, 25] and threatening humanity [26] Due to their functional importance and growing threats, mammals are an excellent taxon to document hunting pressures and identify improved conservation strategies in PAs. the distribution changes of mammals brought about by hunting are broadly known [14, 27]–but current research rarely focuses on PAs [8]. Identify current limitations in existing literature and propose recommendations for improving PAs effectiveness in relation to illegal hunting of mammals
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