Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-2017
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-016-0852-z
Abstract
The growing complexity and global nature of wildlife poaching threaten the survival of many species worldwide and are outpacing conservation efforts. Here, we reviewed proximal and distal factors, both social and ecological, driving illegal killing or poaching of large carnivores at sites where it can potentially occur. Through this review, we developed a conceptual social–ecological system framework that ties together many of the factors influencing large carnivore poaching. Unlike most conservation action models, an important attribute of our framework is the integration of multiple factors related to both human motivations and animal vulnerability into feedbacks. We apply our framework to two case studies, tigers in Laos and wolverines in northern Sweden, to demonstrate its utility in disentangling some of the complex features of carnivore poaching that may have hindered effective responses to the current poaching crisis. Our framework offers a common platform to help guide future research on wildlife poaching feedbacks, which has hitherto been lacking, in order to effectively inform policy making and enforcement.
Copyright Statement
This document was originally published in Ambio by Springer. This work is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Details regarding the use of this work can be found at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. doi:
Publication Information
Carter, Neil H.. (2017). "A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Illegal Killing of Large Carnivores". Ambio, 46(3), 251-264.
Comments
For complete list of authors, please see article.