Abstract
The gender dimensions of wildlife trafficking remain understudied even though the problem is of great socio-environmental significance. Data about the roles of women in wildlife trafficking offer critically needed indicators that can contribute to building evidence and setting targets for, and monitoring progress of, sustainable and equitable futures. We set three objectives for this research filling a major gap in conservation knowledge: (1) explore expert perceptions of primary roles that women may play in wildlife trafficking, (2) explore expert perceptions of secondary roles that women may play in wildlife trafficking, and (3) explore variability in roles for women in wildlife trafficking. We used an online survey to conduct expert elicitation in February 2020 to achieve objectives. Experts (N = 215) identified key assumptions associated with six primary and 32 secondary roles for women in wildlife trafficking. Results highlight the impacts of wildlife trafficking manifest in varied contexts across society, including persons harmed at local levels such as family members in general, widows and orphans. The perceived roles of women in the wildlife trafficking networks may be factored into transformative solutions to help combat wildlife trafficking and data from expert elicitation can inform future hypotheses and inferences on this topic of broad socio-environmental significance.
Highlights
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer an ambitious global blueprint for a sustainable future inclusive of all life on earth
There are three strategies that United Nations’ (UN) Women offers for achieving gender-related goals using data: invest in data, gather data, and use the data (United Nations Women, 2019)
Gaps in data impede progress assessment, for SDGs that attend to the gender-environment nexus, or the different vulnerabilities, impacts and adaptive capacities related to climate change, disasters and use to natural resources and between men and women (Serrao et al, 2019)
Summary
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer an ambitious global blueprint for a sustainable future inclusive of all life on earth. Of the USD 117 billion in official development assistance commitments received by developing countries, only 38% targeted gender equality and women’s equality as a significant/secondary or primary objective (SDG 17) (United Nations Women, 2019). These data provide evidence that development cannot progress without analyzing and addressing inequality, discrimination and. Gaps in data impede progress assessment, for SDGs that attend to the gender-environment nexus (e.g., wildlife trafficking, illegal fishing), or the different vulnerabilities, impacts and adaptive capacities related to climate change, disasters and use to natural resources and between men and women (Serrao et al, 2019). We offer results from a global survey of experts with gender-specific indicators that can help establish gender equality baselines, support trend data essential for assessing direction and pace of progress, inform gender mainstreaming efforts, and be integrated with other gender-environment nexus measures to track progress of societal dimensions of environmental change
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