IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Galster, S.; Schaedla, W.; Redford, T. | |
| Partnering to stop poaching: developing cross-sector strategic responses to wildlife poaching | |
| 2010 Book Chapter | |
Historically, wildlife conservation has been dominated by wildlife specialists-biologists, ecologists, and professional environmentalists. Such experts are logical choices to implement and lead conservation activities. Their singular skills and knowledge are necessary components of good natural resource management. However, the increasingly multifaceted and global nature of wildlife crime has left even the most proactive of specialist strategies insufficient in the task of species protection. Wild tigers are a case in point. The dire situation they now face relates to an array of factors that extend well beyond their immediate surroundings. Many of these factors are essentially 'foreign habitats' for wildlife specialists. As the broad themes of this book suggest, they have socio-economic, cultural, and political aspects. It therefore behooves the 'wild kingdom' to acknowledge that meeting conservation goals requires broad engagement with other fields. We are certainly neither the first nor only authors to advocate a more diversified approach to these matters. Volumes have been written on adaptive management, integrating conservation and development, fostering public awareness, and wildlife-specific law enforcement. Nonetheless, we feel compelled to share from our own practical experience creating conservation strategies. Since 1994, our organization (and several other organizations it has spawned) has allied with professional investigators, former military and police officers, rural development experts, and professional commercial advertisers to address the illegal wildlife trade. While we are still fighting the battle on many fronts, we have learned a number of lessons along the way, some positive and some negative. We feel these are worth sharing, both from a general conservation perspective and specifically as they relate to tigers. |
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