Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
(a)
Mean household size
1.5-3.137
3.137-4.774
4.774-6.411
6.411-8.047
8.047-9.684
Human activities 2001
(b)
Percentage of households using firewood
25-40
40-55
55-70
70-85
85-100
Gorilla Group
Home Ranges 2001
Fig. 7.2
Data collected by the Virunga National Park ranger monitoring
programme. a) Dots show the location of human incursions into the Park,
compared to mean household size in the vicinity. b) Location of gorilla group
home ranges, compared to the percentage of households using firewood.
The next issue is whether a decline in poaching rate is due to effective deterrence
through monitoring, other conservation activities (perhaps provision of alternative
livelihoods or public education campaigns), or external forces (such as a reduction
in demand for the poached good). This is not easy to ascertain, but is crucial for
planning cost-effective conservation activities. Methods for disentangling these
confounding effects include social research to discover individuals' views on the
subject, or regression analyses attempting to correlate changes in poaching signs
with changes in potentially causative factors (see Chapter 4). For example, a number
of authors have used regression models to assess whether international legislation
to limit the ivory trade under CITES has reduced elephant poaching (Dublin
et al
.
1994; Stiles 2004). CITES itself has set up an international programme, MIKE
(Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants; CITES, n.d.) to look into this.
