Poaching is contributing to rapid declines in elephant populations across Africa. Following high-profile changes in the political environment, the overall number of illegally killed elephants in Africa seems to be falling, but to evaluate potential conservation interventions we must understand the processes driving poaching rates at local and global scales. Here we show that annual poaching rates in 53 sites strongly correlate with proxies of ivory demand in the main Chinese markets, whereas between-country and between-site variation is strongly associated with indicators of corruption and poverty. Our analysis reveals a recent decline in annual poaching mortality rate from an estimated peak of over 10% in 2011 to <4% in 2017. Based on these findings, we suggest that continued investment in law enforcement could further reduce poaching, but is unlikely to succeed without action that simultaneously reduces ivory demand and tackles corruption and poverty.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6538616PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09993-2DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

poaching rates
12
annual poaching
8
poaching
5
african elephant
4
elephant poaching
4
rates correlate
4
correlate local
4
local poverty
4
poverty national
4
national corruption
4

Similar Publications

In this paper, we examine whether mayors' partisan affiliations lead to differences in crime and policing. We use a large new dataset on mayoral elections and three different modern causal inference research designs (a regression discontinuity design centered around close elections and two robust difference-in-differences methods) to determine the causal effect of mayoral partisanship on crime, arrests, and racial differences in arrest patterns in medium and large US cities. We find no evidence that mayoral partisanship affects police employment or expenditures, police force or leadership demographics, overall crime rates, or numbers of arrests.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Scotland currently has amongst the highest rates of drug-related deaths in Europe, leading to increased advocacy for safer drug consumption facilities (SDCFs) to be piloted in the country. In response to concerns about drug-related harms in Edinburgh, elected officials have considered introducing SDCFs in the city. This paper presents key findings from a feasibility study commissioned by City of Edinburgh Council to support these deliberations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A scoping review of the Trauma Recovery Center model for underserved victims of violent crime.

AIMS Public Health

December 2024

Department of Emergency Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Victimization in the United States is common and has long lasting negative impacts for individuals, often disproportionately impacting those of color and from low socioeconomic communities. The Trauma Recovery Center (TRC) model aims to provide comprehensive mental health and wrap-around case management services for underserved victims of crime. Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, we sought to further our knowledge about the impact of the TRC model.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To assess the diagnostic rates of forensic case patients who sought gynecological and obstetrics care, as well as the differences in forensic report production based on the event.

Study Design: The following factors were looked into: age of the patients, time between the incident and consultation, reason for consultation (pregnancy determination during the post-divorce waiting period, sexual assault, hymen examination, physical violence, other), time of the consultation (in-hours or out-of-hours), place of referral (prosecutor's office/court, police station, own request), and type of report (final or preliminary). The data were obtained retrospectively.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Latina women in the United States experience intimate partner violence (IPV) at high rates, but evidence suggests Latinas seek help for IPV at lower rates than other communities. Safety planning is an approach that provides those experiencing IPV with concrete actions to increase their safety and referrals to formal services. While safety planning is shown to reduce future incidences of violence, little is known about the safety planning priorities of Latinas.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!