• Center for Problem oriented policing

Resources

If you are interested in developing a resource, have suggestions for content development, or know of resources already available, please contact the editor-in-chief or a board member.

Taxonomy of Wilderness Problems

Wilderness problems are a set of issues that take place in remote areas where land and open water has specific protection levels and use rights. This taxonomy helps categorize wilderness problems into a set of more specific behaviors grouped by threat type.The taxonomy can be used during the scanning phase of SARA to make clear distinctions between similar or overlapping problems.

Click here for the web version of the taxonomy.

Click here for a systemic map protocol for finding and organizing evidence on the effectiveness of counter-wildlife crime interventions (Rytwinski et al., 2021). The map will focus on a specific set of problems from the taxonomy and provides a useful framework for categorizing interventions used to reduce these problems. 

Problem Analysis for Wildlife Protection in 55 Steps

This guide equips analysts to support decision-makers in preventing wildlife crime by applying a problem-oriented approach. It sets out how to make the analytic process work and offers methods to examine a problem from multiple angles to identify a suitable response. The guide provides analysts with techniques to assess whether or not the response worked and communicate findings with purpose. 

Bahasa Indonesia translation (Analisis Masalah Perlindungan Satwa Liar Dalam 55 Langkah)

Spanish translation (Análisis de Problemas para la Protección de la Vida Silvestre: En 55 Pasos)

Thai translation (การวิ ิเคราะห์ ์ปั ัญหาเพื่่อการ มครองสั ัตว์ ์ป่ ่าใน: 55 ขั้้นตอน)

2-page layout

1-page layout (best for printing)

The Poaching Diaries (Vol. 1)

The Poaching Diaries: Crime Scripting for Wilderness Problems is an edited collection of contributions on wildlife crime prevention and wilderness problems. It is an outlet for practitioners, policy makers, and academics to tell stories that facilitate problem-solving. The aim is to present ideas that help governments and civil society diversify their approach to wildlife protection to achieve lasting impacts. The focus of Volume 1 is crime scripting, a useful process for unpacking problems and designing clever solutions. 

For an additional example of crime scripting for wilderness problems, see "Using Crime Scripting Analysis to Understand Wildlife Poaching in Vietnam" (Viollaz et al. 2021). In this study, crime scripting was used to tease out the different roles played by professional and subsistence hunters and the different opportunities they leveraged to illegally snare wildlife in Vietnam. The results of the crime script helped design a local suite of community-based crime prevention activities to reduce snaring.

Problem-Oriented Wildlife Protection

This guide explains how the ideas and principles of problem-oriented policing can be adapted to wildlife protection problems and explains how your organization could start a problem-oriented project of its own.

Bahasa Indonesia translation (Perlindungan Satwa Liar Berorientasi Pemecahan Masalah)

Bahasa Malaysia translation (Perlindungan Hidupan Liar Berorientasikan Masalah)

French translation (Protection de la Faune par Résolution de Problèmes)

Thai translation (การคุ้มครองสัตว์ป่า ด้วยการแก้ไขท8ตี ้นเหตุของปัญหา)

Lao translation (ການອະນຸລັກສັດປ່າ ດ້ວຍການແກ້ໄຂທ ີ່ຕ ົ້ນເຫດຂອງ ບັນຫາ ເອ ເອັມ ເລີມິເອີ ແລະ ອາ ເອສ ເອ ພິກເກ)

Spanish translation (Protección de la vida silvestre orientada a la resolución de problemas)

Wilderness Problem Specific Guides

These guides are designed to help law enforcement agencies structure their thinking and analysis about specific wilderness problems by synthesizing the academic literature available on the topic and providing a framework for problem solving at the local level.

Wildlife Poaching on U.S. Federal Lands (Guide No. 1)

Illegal and Unsustainable Hunting of Wildlife for Bushmeat in Sub-Saharan Africa (Guide No. 2)

Bahasa Indonesia translation (Perburuan Satwa Liar untuk Diambil Dagingnya Secara Ilegal dan Tak Berkelanjutan di Afrika Sub-Sahara)  

Illegal Commercial Fishing within the Exclusive Economic Zones of Coastal Countries (Guide No. 3)

Case Studies

Tackling Illegal Wildlife Hunting and Trade in India: Problem-Oriented Wildlife Protection Case Studies

This resource highlights four case studies from India that demonstrate the effective use of a problem-oriented approach to solve wildlife crime problems. The aim of this document is to demystify the problem-oriented approach for practitioners and share lessons learned in these case studies with a larger conservation community.

Saving Spots: Tackling Ceremonial Leopard Skin Trade in Western Zambia (Goldstein Award Winner, 2023, Panthera)

This project addresses the problem of poaching leopard (and other wild cat) skins for ceremonial attire in Western Zambia. The unsustainable demand for leopard skins is primarily met through illegal hunting and trafficking. Through the influence of the Lozi King, authentic leopard skins were largely replaced by synthetic leopard skins specially designed and produced for the Lozi people. The consequent decline in acquiring authentic leopard skins led to a decrease in the trafficking and poaching of leopards. Leopard populations in the source landscape increased.

Situational Crime Prevention Toolkit

Using Situational Crime Prevention to Address the Illegal Wildlife Trade (English)

This toolkit has been developed by Fauna & Flora in collaboration with criminologists and conservation practitioners. It provides guidance to conservation practitioners on the steps needed to design, implement, monitor and evaluate situational crime prevention interventions in the context of illegal wildlife trade. The website also features videos discussing with experts how learning from criminology and crime science can be applied in conservation.

Spanish translation (Uso de prevención situacional del crimen para abordar el comercio ilegal de especies silvestres)

French translation (Utilisation de la prévention situationnelle de la criminalité pour agir contre le commerce illégal d’espèces sauvages)

Vietnamese translation (Bộ công cụ áp dụng phương pháp phòng ngừa tình huống phạm tội để giải quyết buôn bán động vật hoang dã bất hợp pháp)

Russian translation (Использование ситуационного предотвращения преступности в борьбе с незаконной торговлей объектами дикой природы)

Webinars and Podcasts

Reducing Crime Podcast, Episode 60

The Reducing Crime podcast features prominent leaders from police agencies around the world, as well as leading scholars working with police departments to help make cities safer. It is an excellent resource to help understand the realities of leading law enforcement organizations that implement innovative solutions to crime problems. In its 60th episode, Professor Jerry Ratcliffe speaks with Dr. Andrew Lemieux about how problem-oriented policing can be adapted for wildlife crime prevention. This was Jerry’s first episode discussing crimes against nature, and during the conversation we learn this topic is near and dear to his heart. 

The Rhino Man Podcast, Episode 47

The Rhino Man podcast is hosted by filmmaker John Jurko II in support of the Global Conservation Corps’ feature-length documentary RHINO MAN. The conservation focused podcast explores issues related to rangers, the wildlife they protect, and the conservation community supporting these efforts. In episode 47, John sits down with Dr. Andrew Lemieux to explore how he became a wildlife crime researcher, why he left academia for the non-profit sector, and how a problem-oriented approach can help find holistic solutions to wildlife protection problems. 

Research Articles

Using a Crime Prevention Framework to Evaluate Tiger Counter-Poaching in a Southeast Asian Rain Forest, Wai Lee Yam et al., 2023 

Tiger populations in Malysia are threatened by poaching to supply body parts to traditional medicine markets in Vietnam and China. This study applies the EMMIE evaluation framework in one site over eight years to assess the impact of rangers in reducing tiger poaching. It shows that rangers improved in disruption of poaching incursions and subsequently reduced potential harm to tigers, while one poaching type appears to have reduced incursion attempts in response to the intervention. This study offers protected area managers working with challenging poaching problems a template for evaluating patrol-based interventions.