High-value natural resources: Linking wildlife conservation to international conflict, insecurity, and development concerns

 We advocate that documenting and deconstructing the relationship between the wildlife trade and international crime, armed conflict, security, and development concerns within the context of our knowledge of other high-value natural resources has policy and management implications of great important in conservation practice....

The Final Round: Combating Armed Actors, Organized Crime and Wildlife Trafficking

 According to Nikhil Acharya and Arthur Mühlen-Schulte, the conflict between paramilitary poachers who traffic in “high value wildlife” and those trying to protect and conserve the environment is escalating. Worse yet, the violent collision between the two groups is now sustaining and fuelling regional instability....

European Commission - Fact Sheet. Questions and answers on the EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking

 Wildlife trafficking is one of the most profitable criminal activities worldwide generating between EUR 8 and EUR 20 billion annually. Organized criminal groups are poaching and smuggling millions of specimens of often highly endangered animals and plants to their customers, using professional equipment and sophisticated networks. ...

Wildlife Poaching and Insecurity in Africa

 This June in New York City’s Times Square, officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were joined by law enforcement and celebrities for the second annual “ivory crush.” The event, in which several tons of illegal ivory seized by customs officials were publicly destroyed, was intended to send the message that the U.S. market is closed to the illicit ivory trade.  Yet these initiatives, while welcome, have limited impact on the global trade. ..

Wildlife Poaching: Africa's Surging Trafficking Threat - Africa Center for ..

A worldwide surge in poaching and wildlife trafficking is threatening to decimate endangered species. This crisis also threatens the security of human beings in ways ignored until recently by decision-makers slow to treat what has typically been viewed as a ‘conservation issue’ as serious crime.

Poaching, Wildlife Trafficking and Security in Africa: Myths and ... - RUSI

An immediate bolstering of Africa’s wildlife ranger network is needed to slow the pace of elephant and rhino killings and buy time. Addressing this threat over the longer term will require dramatically reducing the demand for these animal parts, especially within Asian markets.

Wild Laws: China and Its Role in Wildlife Trafficking newsecuritybeat 

According to wildlife experts who spoke at the Wilson Center in June, Chinese demand for wildlife products is driving a global trade in endangered species. “Today’s tiger farms are basically feedlots where tigers are bred like cattle to make luxury products, including tiger bone wine and tiger skin rugs,” said Judith Mills, author of the book, Blood of the Tiger: A Story of Conspiracy, Greed, and the Battle to Save a Magnificent Species. Some of these operations are run as entertainment centers, where a few well cared for animals perform for tourists. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, cats are crammed into small concrete cells, bred for slaughter.

FACT SHEET: Trade, Illegal Wildlife Trafficking, and National Security 

TRADE PROTECTS AMERICAN JOBS AND AMERICAN FAMILIES. The United States has negotiated trade agreements that protect American innovation and demand high standards for goods. The Obama Administration has made clear that we will go to the mat for our businesses and families.

English - Bonn International Center for Conversion

Wildlife and wildlife products constitute a high-value  ‘conflict resource: When trafficked together with small arms and light weapons (SALW), this resource proliferation reinforces a cycle of armed violence impeding development, eroding state institutions and  threatening community security.

Research Handbook on International Law and Natural Resources

Natural Resources, Conflict, and Conflict Resolution - United States ...

The international system has witnessed dramatic changes in the recent past. Developments around the globe and at home challenge us to rethink the role of the United States in the international community. What is our nation's place in this increasingly complex global picture? What can we do to nurture and preserve international security and world peace?

illicit wildlife trafficking: an environmental, economic and ... - UNEP

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: “The environmental, economic and social consequences of wildlife crime are profound. Of particular concern are the implications of illicit trafficking for peace and security in a number of countries where organized crime, insurgency and terrorism are often closely linked.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, World Wildlife Day, March 2014

Environment, Conflict and Peacebuilding at IISD - International ...

Ivory poaching has evolved from a local and regional nuisance to a vexing global threat in need of immediate action. The ivory trade is one of the world’s largest illicit activities, funneling money to terrorist groups, creating instability, and bringing the world’s largest land mammal to near extinction. The African elephant population has plummeted and poaching rates have reached an all-time high driven by an insatiable Asian demand.

THE BLIND MAN'S ELEPHANT: BROADENING PERSPECTIVES TO ...

Toward a new understanding of the links between poverty and illegal .

Conservation organizations have increasingly raised concerns about escalating rates of illegal hunting and trade in wildlife. Previous studies have concluded that people hunt illegally because they are financially poor or lack alternative livelihood strategies. However, there has been little attempt to develop a richer understanding of the motivations behind contemporary illegal wildlife hunting. As a first step, we reviewed the academic and policy literatures on poaching and illegal wildlife use and considered the meanings of poverty and the relative importance of structure and individual agency.

Conservation and Human Rights: Key Issues and Contexts - IUCN

Actions to conserve nature and natural resources are closely related to the rights of people to secure their livelihoods, enjoy healthy and productive environments and live with dignity. The pursuit of conservation goals can contribute positively to the realization of many fundamental human rights.

Conflicts over Natural Resources in the Global South - Conceptual .

As in the case of all academic enterprises of this nature, we have incurred many debts while composing this volume. We are grateful first of all to The Nether-lands Organisation for Scientific Research, Science for Global Development division(NWO/WOTRO), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands and the CoCooN programme, which initiated seven projects in the field of conflict and cooperation over natural resources. The teams that are in charge of these research-cum-development projects have been our main source of inspiration and provided most of the contents of this volume.

The Illegal Trade In Wildlife Resources And The Implication For .

This study reflects a support system made up of several individuals who have supported me throughout this journey. I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Kizito Sabala, for his consistent guidance, commitment and support. He was patient with me and pushed me to do better.

Transboundary Conservation in Southern Africa: Exploring conflict ...

Environmental conflicts: Key issues and .

From conflict to peacebuilding: The role of natural resources

This report discusses the key linkages between environment, conflict and peacebuilding, and provides recommendations on how these can be addressed more effectively by the international community. It has been developed in the context of UNEP’s mandate to “keep under review the world environmental situation in order to ensure that emerging environmental problems of wide international significance receive appropriate and adequate consideration by governments.”

Economic Incentives and Wildlife Conservation - Cites

Wildlife exploitation and conservation involves various costs and benefits, which should all be taken into account to achieve an optimal outcome. For this to occur, it will be necessary to develop appropriate economic instruments and incentives. Examining the scope for his is the topic of the current study.

A human security perspective

Conflicts in relation to natural resources occur through-out the world in a range of contexts, from rural to urban, and across a spectrum ranging from non-violent conflicts of interest to outright violence. These conflicts may be between specific user groups such as agriculturalists and pastoralists or humans and wildlife, or they may be in relation to the management or policy of a particular resource which is perceived as illegitimate and inequitable.

An ecosystem services framework to support both practical ...

Here, we provide a framework for anticipating win–win, lose–lose, and win–lose outcomes as a result of how people manage their ecosystem services. This framework emerges from detailed explorations of several case studies in which biodiversity conservation and economic development coincide and cases in which there is joint failure. We emphasize that scientific advances around ecosystem service production functions, tradeoffs among multiple ecosystem services, and the design of appropriate monitoring programs are necessary for the implementation of conservation and development projects that will successfully advance both environmental and social goals.

An Illusion of Complicity: Terrorism and the Illegal Ivory Trade ... - RUSI

THE ILLEGAL WILDLIFE trade is estimated to be worth between $7 billion and $23 billion annually. In East Africa, the poaching of iconic species such as elephants, and the sale of their ivory represent a significant part of this illicit trade. Tens of thousands of animals are slaughtered and trafficked out of the region for sale in East Asian markets every year. This provides a major source of income for organised crime networks across East Africa and beyond.

CITES and CBNRM - European Commission

Proceedings of an international symposium on “The relevance of CBNRM to the conservation and sustainable use of CITES-listed species in exporting countries”

Human-wildlife Conflict, Conservation Attitudes, and a Potential Role .

Protection of tropical biodiversity is often difficult due to persistent gaps in ecological data and complex conflicts between wildlife conservation and human livelihoods. To better understand the nature and extent of these conflicts, we conducted intercept surveys (n = 522) with local villagers around the Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary in Sierra Leone (August - December, 2010). Results revealed high levels of crop depredation, retaliatory killing, and bushmeat harvesting in villages surrounding the protected area. We also found that pro-conservation attitudes were less prevalent among younger adults and immigrants to the region.

New perspectives in ecosystem services science as instruments to .

This article attempts to pinpoint the minimum level of detail that ES science needs to achieve in order to usefully inform the debate on environmental securities, and discusses both the state of the art and recent methodological developments in ES in this light. We briefly review the field of ES accounting methods and list some desiderata that we deem necessary, reachable and relevant to address environmental securities through an improved science of ES.

Conflict, Development and Security at the Agro–Pastoral–Wildlife Nexus

This article analyses the connections between conflict and development at the agriculture–pastoralism–wildlife interface from the perspective of human security. The article draws on empirical data (qualitative and quantitative) generated in Laikipia County, Kenya, and literature to illustrate that (1) the major issues which cut across each of these conflicts are related to natural resource management, cultural practices and governance, and (2) these cross-cutting issues impinge on people’s freedoms, extending these conflicts into cases of human insecurity. Specifically, each conflict type compounds the impacts of the others on farmer and pastoral economic, food, environmental, personal, community, health and political security.

Fighting illicit wildlife trafficking - Dalberg

The current global approach to fighting illicit wildlife trafficking is failing, contributing to the instability of society and threatening the existence of some illegally traded species. The governments and international organizations consulted on this issue agree that the current approach is not sufficient.

Hunters at the world's largest wildlife trade summit | FACE:

Should sustainable lion and elephant hunting be restricted or banned? Or should the world community better build on the success stories of legal hunting as a tool for wildlife conservation and poverty reduction? These and many other issues are up for discussion when the world’s largest wildlife trade summit is to be held from 24 September to 5 October in Johannesburg, South Africa.