• Center for Problem oriented policing

Wilderness Problems

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)

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 Crime Script Analysis

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.  

Below are links or references to other reports and journal articles describing the use of crime scripting to address species- or product-level wildlife crime problems: 

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.

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.

Reforming Hunters to Reduce Snaring in Sumatra, Indonesia (Goldstein Award Co-Winner, 2024, Indonesia Ministry of Forestry & Environment) 

This project in Way Kambas National Park, Sumatra, aimed to reduce illegal snaring by local hunters for bushmeat. Led by the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry and Environment and the Wildlife Conservation Society, the initiative combined focused patrolling, alternative livelihoods (duck farming), and community awareness to reduce the motivation for snaring. Snaring decreased by more than 80% over the three-year assessment period compared to the baseline, with former hunters transitioning to legal income sources. The success of this model has influenced national conservation strategies in Indonesia, showcasing how socio-economic interventions and enforcement can effectively reduce wildlife crime and protect endangered species.

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.

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. 

Fauna & Flora Webinars

In 2022-2023 Fauna & Flora ran a four-part webinar series discussing how learning from criminology and crime science can be applied in wildlife conservation, funded by the UK Government through the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund. You can watch the series hosted by Sarah Gluszek, Dr Andrew Lemieux and Dr Laure Joanny below: 

Part 1.Innovative partnerships: How criminologists and conservationists are testing new approaches to wildlife crime

Learn more about how Restorative Justice has been trialled in response to wildlife crime in South Africa from Dr Annette Hübschle (University of Cape Town) and Ashleigh Dore (Endangered Wildlife Trust). 

Part 2.How can we deter people from wildlife crime? Thinking beyond prisons.

Rachel Boratto (Monitor Conservation Research Society) and Michelle Newberry (University of Southampton) explored whether wildlife crime offenders are deterred by tough punishments and gain insights from prisoner interviews in Malawi. 

Part 3. Situational crime prevention: What is it and how does it work for wildlife crime? 

Aditya Malgaonkar (Panthera) discusses the use of situational crime prevention for wildlife crime and presents how they addressed the use of leopard skins at ceremonial gatherings in southern Africa. 

Part 4. Beyond seizures and prosecution: What does success look like in preventing wildlife crime? 

How can we measure the effectiveness of our wildlife crime interventions? We delve into a case study from Southern Sumatra, presented by Dr Willy Marthy (WCS Indonesia) focusing on how the team addressed the problem of illegal snaring in Way Kambas National Park, which was harming critically endangered Sumatran tigers and targeted ungulate species, such as deer and pigs.

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.