Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 6.2
Effective law enforcement in the Luangwa Valley, Zambia.
Jachmann and Billiouw (1997) investigated the effect of law enforcement
budgets, and their allocation, on the number of elephants found killed illegally in
the period 1988-1995. They found that illegal elephant kills were very well
predicted by a model including the number of bonuses paid to scouts and the
number of effective patrol days. The more patrol days and the more bonuses were
paid, the fewer elephants were found killed. They had good reason to believe that
all animals killed were found, so there was no effect of patrol effort on detection
of poaching, suggesting that the relationship between law enforcement and deter-
rence of poaching was genuinely being measured by carcass counts. They also
argued that the number of bonuses paid was related to the size of the bonus on
offer, such that scouts tried harder when bonus rates were higher. The key messages
are that rewarding individuals for information and arrests is highly effective; that
investigations outside the park following up leads are about four times more
cost-effective than foot patrols within the park (Figure 6.4); and that the overall
law enforcement budget is an important determinant of illegal activity.
Fig. 6.4
Information-gathering with hunters, Congo. Photo
©
Pat Aust
Issues
with this approach to management include how we define 'society', and
hence who has the right to impose potentially highly restrictive rules on resource
users. For example, does society include the interests of those in rich nations
who wish to see their moral standards applied throughout the world? The issue of
