Rhino Poaching Research Articles

Introduction: Wildlife Crime

The poaching and the subsequent illegal trafficking of wildlife has become a booming local and global business (Alacs and Georges 2008) and is directly related to significant population losses for many species (Schneider 2012). In the last decade, countless media stories have been shared about the rise in poaching incidents particularly as they relate to the more photogenic animals, such as elephants, rhinos, and tigers. Many of these animals are critically endangered or have already gone extinct in the wild. For example, both the Western Black Rhino (Save the Rhino International 2015) and the Northern White Rhino are believed to be extinct in the wild (WWF 2015) as a direct consequence of rhino poaching for their horns. The poaching and illegal trafficking of animals and/or their by-products is not limited to only photogenic species. Pangolins, an insect-eating mammal that is similar to an armadillo, are not particularly attractive (Gill 2012) and do not receive much media attention, but are among the most poached mammals in the world for their meat and scales (Sutter 2014). The illegal wildlife trade is driven by a number of factors including the pet trade, accessories or luxury items, bush meat, and alternative medicines. As a result of the increased attention to ‘wildlife crime’, researchers from a variety of disciplines have begun to give this problem more attention. One of those disciplines is criminology. In fact, many criminology-related publications on the topic have been published within the last couple of years. For instance, a quick search of Criminal Justice Abstracts using Bwildlife conservation^ produced 236 articles or books published from 1937 to 2005, and 247 articles and books in the ten years spanning 2006 to 2015. Clearly, criminologists have become more interested in the sub-discipline of wildlife crime, also known as ‘conservation criminology’, and have made great progress in explaining why it happens, how the trade operates and offer solutions to reduce its frequency. The purpose of this special issue on BWildlife Crime^ is to create awareness of this global issue, increase dialogue with conservationists, and promote partnership research with park rangers and others on the ground. This special issue on wildlife crime covers a broad range of topics and includes conceptual and empirical papers. Eur J Crim Policy Res (2015) 21:299–302 DOI 10.1007/s10610-015-9290-x

Conservation Meets Militarisation in Kruger National Park: Historical Encounters and Complex Legacies

Drawing on environmental history and political ecology, this paper contributes to growing debates concerning military-environment encounters and conservation militarisation/securitisation by investigating the complex histories and legacies of these relations. Grounding my insights in South Africa's iconic Kruger National Park, I chart how encounters between environment and military/security activity over the last century offer a repeatedly contradictory picture: military activity, skills, and weapons have harmed wildlife and hence reinforced the need for its protection, and they have simultaneously been deployed in the name of such protection. Furthermore, some of these historical engagements failed to materialise as planned and, as such, provide insight into military-environment frictions as well as nature's ability to thwart militarised interventions. Yet other engagements thrived and resulted in the multi-layered militarisation of Kruger, as both protected area and strategic borderland. Several of these encounters have lived on to shape Kruger's current intensive militarisation tied to rhino poaching, both the state response and poaching itself. Past military activity, in fact, provides an arsenal of enabling factors for current poaching- and conservation-related militarised violence that ultimately proves harmful to conservation efforts.

Addressing large national problems in South Africa

AbstractThis paper seeks to create a methodology to address large national problems based on the author's experiences on border security and rhino poaching in South Africa. Five problem aspects of large national problems are identified: one or more States, multiple organisations and the general public are involved; problems evolve; the simultaneity of intervention; the issue of complexity and dualism as an example of a frame or worldview. A transdisciplinary approach is proposed as an integrating framework that could deal with complexity. Based on this, a number of areas of systems engineering as problem solving have been extended to deal with border security and rhino poaching: foresight (future problem), operating concept, stakeholder engagement and legal analysis. Finally, the implications for tailoring of a process or methodology are outlined and changes to INCOSE's definition of systems engineering are proposed.

Engineering Design of an Environmental Management System: A Transdisciplinary Response to the Rhino Poaching Problem

AbstractThe big issues we face today, that require properly engineered solutions, contain society, nature and man‐made components. It is difficult to consider these systems within the traditional systems contexts, where we can set well‐defined boundaries during the design (analytical decomposition) process. Still, the analysis/synthesis process must be thorough enough to ensure that the functional, physical and allocated architectures that are discovered and defined during the analytical phase, can deliver a reasonable, traceable outcome on synthesis of the solution.The authors firstly accept that the feedback loop and recursive causal nature inherent to eco‐socio‐technical systems cast them in the domain of wicked problems. Systems engineering relies heavily on being able to understand the questions and the needs of stakeholders to be addressed through the accurate conceptualising of a problem and associated solution space. Thus, in this paper we turn to the concept of complexity for guiding principles to address the wicked problems through appropriate research (analytical) methods that transcends disciplinary focussed solution finding. To highlight the proposed approach the development of an environmental management system as a response to the rhino‐poaching problem is briefly discussed. The approach, when refined, should be able to address other resource management efforts.

Green Militarization: Anti-Poaching Efforts and the Spatial Contours of Kruger National Park

Building from scholarship charting the complex, often ambivalent, relationship between military activity and the environment, and the more recent critical geographical work on militarization, this article sheds light on a particular meshing of militarization and conservation: green militarization. An intensifying yet surprisingly understudied trend around the world, this is the use of military and paramilitary personnel, training, technologies, and partnerships in the pursuit of conservation efforts. I introduce this concept, first, as a call for more sustained scholarly investigation into the militarization of conservation practice. More modestly, the article offers its own contribution to this end by turning to South Africa's Kruger National Park, the world's most concentrated site of commercial rhino poaching. Focusing on the state's multilayered and increasingly lethal militarized response to what is itself a highly militarized practice, I illustrate how the spatial qualities of protected areas matter immensely for the convergence of conservation and militarization and the concrete forms this convergence takes. For Kruger, these include its status as a national park framed by a semiporous international border and its expansive, often dense terrain. Steering clear of spatial determinism, I equally show how spatial contours authorize militarization only once they articulate with particular assumptions and values; for Kruger these amount to political–ecological values regarding the nation-state, its sovereignty, and its natural heritage. The result is an intensifying interlocking of conservation and militarization that frequently produces unforeseen consequences.

Civil unrest and the poaching of rhinos in the Kaziranga National Park, India

Civil unrest and political instability have been associated with endangered species poaching. This paper accounts for a period of civil unrest in Assam, India, which saw a marked increase in rhino poaching. Census data on the greater one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) in the Kaziranga National Park in Assam are used to estimate a population growth function. In calibrating the growth function's parameters the census data are used in conjunction with rhino poaching data. The rhino population and poaching data are used to econometrically estimate a harvest function. The relationship between civil unrest and rhino poaching is identified as positive and significant. The analysis factors in the probable relationships between poaching and several additional variables — including black market rhino horn prices, potential size of black markets, and anti-poaching efforts. These variables are seen to have the predicted associations with poaching, and help isolate the latter's relationship with civil unrest in the regression models. The goodness of fit between the data on rhino population and poaching and the estimates from regression models are studied.

Restoration of a megaherbivore: landscape‐level impacts of white rhinoceros in Kruger National Park, South Africa

Summary Megaherbivores have been lost from most ecosystems world‐wide, and current increases in poaching of rhino and elephant spp. threaten their status in the systems where they still occur. Although megaherbivores are said to be key drivers of ecosystem structure and functioning, empirical evidence is strongly biased to studies on African elephant. We urgently need a better understanding of the impact of other megaherbivore species to predict the consequences of megaherbivore loss. We used a unique ‘recolonization experiment’ to test how a megagrazer, white rhinoceros, is affecting the structure of savanna grasslands in Kruger National Park (KNP). With a 30‐year record of rhinoceros distribution, we quantified how they recolonized KNP following their re‐introduction. This allowed us to identify landscapes with high rhino densities and long time since recolonization versus landscapes with low rhino densities that were recolonized more recently but were otherwise biophysically similar. We recorded grassland heterogeneity on 40 transects covering a total of 30 km distributed across both landscapes. We used two proxies of grassland heterogeneity: % short grass cover and number of grazing lawn patches. Grazing lawns are patches with specific communities of prostrate‐growing stoloniferous short grass species. Short grass cover was clearly higher in the high rhino impact (17.5%) than low rhino impact landscape (10.7%). Moreover, we encountered ~20 times more grazing lawns in the high rhino impact landscape. The effect of rhino on number of lawns and on short grass cover was similar to the two dominant geologies in KNP, basalt‐derived versus granite‐derived soils. Synthesis. We provide empirical evidence that white rhinoceros may have started to change the structure and composition of KNP's savanna grasslands. It remains to be tested if these changes lead to other ecological cascading effects. However, our results highlight that the current rhino poaching crisis may not only affect the species, but also threaten the potential key role of this megaherbivore as a driver of savanna functioning.

Reporting on Rhinos: Analysis of the Newspaper Coverage of Rhino Paoching

The media is instrumental in providing the public with environmental knowledge and increasing environmental awareness, and is a useful indicator of established public perceptions. Analysis of media representations of environmental issues can thus contribute to our understanding of public attitudes, behaviours and perceptions and the role of the media in environmental education more generally. It can also enhance support for effective environmental management. This research, based on a qualitative design, provides an analysis of a specific environmental issue- rhino poaching – as represented in The Mail & Guardian, a prominent weekly English newspaper known for its environmental content. Fifty issues of The Mail & Guardian, published between January and December 2012 were reviewed to establish the types of articles, their size, placement and use of graphics; the actors in the articles; and the thematic framing. The majority of the articles categorised were solution-orientated, with mitigation being the most frequently coded theme. The study also indicated some limitations in the reporting of rhino poaching, both in terms of coverage of relevant issues and integrity of the content.

Management strategies to curb rhino poaching: Alternative options using a cost–benefit approach

The combination of increasing demand and high black market prices for rhino horn in Asian markets has fueled an escalation in rhino poaching since 2007, particularly in South Africa. This situation has in turn resulted in greatly increased rhino protection costs, loss in confidence by the private sector in rhinos, loss of revenue to conservation authorities and reduced rhino population growth rates. Within current CITES processes, management responses to threats posed by poaching to rhino persistence fall within a mixture of reactive responses of increased protection and law enforcement and some pro-active responses such as demand reduction tactics, along with a parallel call for opening a legal trade in horn. These rhino management strategies carry different risks and benefits in meeting several conservation objectives. An expert-based risk–benefit analysis of five different rhino management strategies was undertaken to assess their potential for delivering upon agreed rhino conservation objectives. The outcomes indicated that benefits may exceed risks for those strategies that in some or other format legally provided horn for meeting demand. Expert risk–benefit approaches are suggested to offer a rational, inclusive and consensus generating means of addressing complex issues such as rhino poaching and augmenting the information used within the CITES decision-making processes.

IMPROVING FARMERS’ ACCESS TO IRRIGATION IN THE BUFFER ZONE: AN EFFECTIVE WAY TO CONSERVE BIODIVERISTY IN THE CHITWAN NATIONAL PARK

ABSTRACTDrawing results from multi‐scale studies, this paper addresses the important coexistence between the Chitwan National Park and buffer‐zone farmers’ communities in the East Rapti River basin of Nepal. The relationship between the two is discussed using results of land use change (1978–2010) and water availability analysis (1976–2010). At basin level, though there are indications of losses of the government forest, the utilizable outflow of water in the river is still abundant because the process of depletion of water is very low. Scaling down to local level, irrigation systems originating in the river were evaluated and farmers interviewed across locations. There were statistical differences in irrigation system performance affecting water availability for crop production in the buffer zone. Because irrigation plays a disproportionately greater role in farm income and economic water scarcity could be removed, improvement in access to irrigation could effectively help improve food sufficiency and reduce income disparity in this basin. In the forest of the national park, encroachment seems to be low but frequencies of rhino poaching and timber pilferage have remained relatively high. As the buffer zone is the gateway to the park, and subsistence farm families live on the fringes of the park, helping irrigation development would strengthen farmers’ cooperation in enhancing resource conservation of the park. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Rhino Poaching: Supply and Demand Uncertain

In their Policy Forum Legal trade of Africa's rhino (1 March, p. [1038][1]), D. Biggs et al. point out that trade ban on rhino horn has not been successful in reducing rhino poaching, which reached a record high of 668 in 2012. They argue that trade bans support illegal organizations, whereas a regulated legal market could reduce poaching effort and provide much-needed income for conservation. In making their case, Biggs et al. overlook a few important points. Biggs et al. write that legal trade can only work if, among other things, the demand does not escalate to dangerous levels as stigma associated with illegality of product is removed. It is unclear whether any stigma is associated with rhino horn usage in eastern countries, but phenomenally high price for horn, along with rising real income and population growth in major consumer markets, is likely to indicate rising demand. Biggs et al. point out that technology to profile rhino DNA is now affordable. In past, illegal buyers have been unable to determine easily whether they are using real or fake products. With affordable DNA profiling, however, supply of fake rhino horns [which is, by some accounts, extensive ([ 1 ][2])] will diminish, thus further increasing demand pressure for genuine horn. ![Figure][3] CREDIT: THINKSTOCK On supply side, there is currently insufficient evidence as to whether farmed rhinos would breed at same rate as in wild. An additional concern is that South Africa's white rhino population is based on a very small gene pool. After nearly being hunted to extinction in 19th century, with only a small number of white rhinos surviving in one South African park (Hluhluwe-Umfolozi), population grew to 840 in 1960 ([ 2 ][4]). These white rhinos were used to populate national and private game reserves. Intensive breeding programs would thus have to consider this potential genetic weakness. According to Africa Guide ([ 3 ][5]), gestation period of a rhino is 15 to 16 months and calf stays with cow for 2 to 3 years in case of white rhino and 2.5 to 4 years for black rhino. It thus would take up to 5 years for an adult rhino population to produce a generation sufficiently mature for regular harvesting of horn. Biggs et al. acknowledge that there are well-resourced criminal currently engaged in illegal horn trade. However, they fail to take into account reaction of illegal traders to establishment of legal suppliers. extent to which illegal organizations will retaliate is contingent on effectiveness of auction releases in reducing horn price. If prices remain high, illegal suppliers will remain in business and vigorous turf wars are likely to emerge ([ 4 ][6]). It is unlikely that such criminal will respond passively; rather, they would seek to interrupt regulated supply chain though acts of sabotage and even stronger poaching effort. The characterization of supply chain as a single body—the Central Selling Organization (CSO)—is oversimplified. In practice, supply side consists of a disparate mix of public and private providers with different objectives and motives. Regulation and management are unlikely to be simple, as a CSO represents only one stage of supply chain. More research is needed in terms of what such a CSO would do. For example, would it be able to provide adequate enforcement and incentives to prevent private suppliers from selling outside legal market? 1. [↵][7]1. T. Milliken, 2. J. Shaw , The South Africa–Viet Nam rhino horn trade nexus: A deadly combination of institutional lapses, corrupt wildlife industry professionals and Asian crime syndicates (TRAFFIC, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2012). 2. [↵][8]1. M. 't Sas-Rolfes , Saving African rhinos: A market success story (PERC Case Studies, Bozeman, MT, 2010); . 3. [↵][9]The Africa Guide, Rhinoceros ([www.africaguide.com/wildlife/rhino.htm][10]). 4. [↵][11]1. A. C. Carpenter , Conflict Resolution Quart. 27, 401 (2010). [OpenUrl][12][CrossRef][13] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1229998 [2]: #ref-1 [3]: pending:yes [4]: #ref-2 [5]: #ref-3 [6]: #ref-4 [7]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text [8]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2 in text [9]: #xref-ref-3-1 View reference 3 in text [10]: http://www.africaguide.com/wildlife/rhino.htm [11]: #xref-ref-4-1 View reference 4 in text [12]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DConflict%2BResolution%2BQuart.%26rft.volume%253D27%26rft.spage%253D401%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1002%252Fcrq.20004%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [13]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.1002/crq.20004&link_type=DOI

Rhino Poaching: Supply and Demand Uncertain—Response

Rhino Poaching: Supply and Demand Uncertain—Response

Rhino Poaching: Unique Challenges

In their Policy Forum Legal trade of Africa's rhino (1 March, p. [1038][1]), D. Biggs et al. advocate legalizing trade in rhino horn through harvesting horns of 5000 white rhinos in South Africa as the panacea to the current rhino poaching crisis. Their arguments were based on the law of

Dispatches

Dispatches

The sustainable use approach could save South Africa’s rhinos

South Africa is facing a surge in rhino poaching driven by the high and rising price of rhino horn, which benefits criminals but not landholders or conservation agencies. It is estimated that illegal traders earned $5000/kg of rhino horn in 2009, rising to $10 000/kg in 2010 and $20 000/kg by the end of 2011, or $60 000 - $80 000 for each animal poached. Rhino conservation in South Africa has historically been hugely successful. From fewer than 100 rhinos in 1910, there are now 19 000 white rhinos and 2000 black rhinos, of which 4500 occur on private land. The income from live rhino sales has provided significant income to South African National Parks and provided 74.9% of KwaZulu-Natal's parks budget between 2008 and 2011. But rhinos now face the strange paradox that they are so valuable that the private sector is questioning whether it still wants them. At issue are the economic consequences of traditional conservation policy, and the extraordinary ways that these policies twist economic signals.

Economic Incentives and Poaching of the One-Horned Indian Rhinoceros in Nepal: Poaching of the One-Horned Indian Rhinoceros in the Chitwan Valley, Nepal - A Retrospective Econometric Analysis

Despite a relatively successful conservation programme for the endangered one-horned rhinoceros in the National Parks of the Terai region, poaching remains one of the major threats to its survival in Nepal. In recent years, there has been an alarming rise in the number of rhinos poached; over 100 rhinos were taken in and around the Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP) between 1998 and 2003. Although rhino poaching levels are influenced by the price of rhino horn on the international black market (amongst a host of other socio-economic factors), there have not been any attempts to study the reasons behind poaching in Nepal using econometric models developed and applied elsewhere. This study uses econometric models to explain changes in the level of poaching in the RCNP over a 30-year period. Factors that are thought to influence the number of rhinos poached in the RCNP include: (i) rhino population; (ii) effectiveness of antipoaching measures; (iii) penalties for poaching; (iv) availability of alternative economic opportunities (i.e., opportunity costs of poaching); and (v) the price of rhino horn. The results indicate that anti-poaching units (APUs), in their original organisational and operational form were highly successful in controlling the level of poaching in the RCNP. Furthermore, the availability of local economic opportunities seemed to reduce the level of poaching significantly. However, the penalties imposed on the convicted poachers were found to have little or no effect on the level of rhino poaching in the RCNP. The results also indicate a sharp rise in the number of rhinos poached during the years of the Maoist insurgency in the country, compared to the years before. Although the analysis is still very simplistic, it provides valuable insights into the factors that have affected the level of poaching in the RCNP over the years. It is hoped that these insights will be helpful in formulating effective policies to tackle rhino poaching, especially in and around the RCNP where Nepal’s largest population of one-horned rhinoceros is found.

Zimbabwe's wildlife conservation regime: Rural farmers and the state

This article examines the rhino and elephant conservation policies of Zimbabwe, focusing on the historical experiences of rural farmers with colonial and post-colonial wildlife policies. It begins by defining the social and political ramifications of the current environmental conservation debate in Africa, and how these are crucially affected by rural people's perceptions of environmental goods. Next, the paper explores the exploitative colonial legacy of wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe, and how that legacy has or has not been transformed since independence. The paper pays close attention to the development of linkages between rural farmers, local conservation NGOs, and local and national governmental bodies. Finally, the paper finds that, while many positive linkages have been made between conservation authorities and rural farmers and ranchers in elephant conservation programs, few such linkages have been made in the various rhino conservation schemes. Since Zimbabwe has been relatively successful in conserving its elephant population, but relatively unsuccessful in stopping rhino poaching, the paper concludes that the development of positive linkages between rural farmers and the state, which include heavy doses of popular participation at the grassroots level, is crucial for any successful natural resource policy.

The judge : by James F. Simon. David McKay, Inc. (750 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017), 1976, 207 pp., hardcover — $8.95

The poaching of rhino for their horns has reached unprecedented levels, and the world can expect to witness their extinction in the wild by 2035 if a breakthrough is not made. The links between poaching, global instability and possibly terrorism have led to substantial investment from the developed world into conservation security development in Africa. Such an investment requires a quantitative monitoring approach that allows for the effectiveness of the expenditure to be determined. By combining criminological deterrence theory and spatially explicit field-ranger patrol monitoring, we develop a framework to measure the presence of field-rangers in the landscape. We test this framework empirically by comparing the presence of field-rangers in the landscape against the presence around 40 rhino poaching incidents. We empirically demonstrate that the analysed field ranger human resources and their deployment in a well-staffed protected area in Africa did not deter rhino poachers.

Tin mining in Malaya in 1924 : Eng. and Mining Jour. Press, Aug. 22, 1925, p. 308

Over the past decade, South Africa’s Kruger National Park has become embroiled in a rhino poaching crisis. In response, state authorities are applying military logics, personnel, training, and equipment to protect endangered black and threatened white rhinos. Many suspected poachers are Mozambicans, including those who are resident in Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park (LNP). Based on a sequence of fieldwork conducted in the LNP between 2003 and 2016, we examine the relationship between this extremely tense and armed clash and the thousands of already socially and economically marginalized LNP residents targeted for resettlement as part of conserving rhino habitat. As they await relocation, the basic human security of residents has become deeply undermined by decreased access to services and environmental resources and the criminalization of their livelihoods. While much of the critical scholarship on anti-poaching focuses on the spectacular forms of violence that characterize rhino poaching, beneath this a more structural and “slower” form of violence persists. Seeking to develop an understanding of violence that extends beyond the spectacular, we argue that the cumulative losses and instability that have followed conservation created the conditions under which rhino poaching unfolded in the LNP. Communities found guilty of rhino poaching by mere association bear tremendous costs while the reduction of resettlement to an urgent need to control aberrant human behavior masks tremendous opportunity costs forgone. Better understandings of these costs and their links to violence need be taken seriously in any discussion of poaching response and poaching motivation.