The DOI matches its Crossref record; 31 of the 31 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Why Poaching Pays: A Summary of Risks and Benefits Illegal Hunters Face in Western Serengeti, Tanzania
Open accessAbstract
Illegal hunting poses a considerable threat to the wildlife of Serengeti National Park and its affiliated protected areas. Techniques for successful mitigation of this threat are heavily debated. Bottom-up community-based initiatives aim to curb poaching by linking local communities with wildlife conservation. Top-down anti-poaching enforcement of protected areas seeks to maintain wildlife populations through fines and prison sentences given to arrested poachers. Poverty stands as the major driver of illegal hunting as households vie for income and sustenance. Livelihoods of illegal hunters have been augmented considerably through revenue generated from bushmeat sales. Illegal hunters use bushmeat both for supplementing household protein and for economic gain. Obtaining bushmeat carries risks in the form of personal injury, fines, and/or prison sentences, if arrested. This paper compares these costs and benefits through a summary of the monetary benefits, bodily injuries, fines, and prison sentences that individuals endured over their poaching careers. Data were collected from 104 individuals, all of whom voluntarily admitted active or recent involvement in illegal hunting activities.
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“The extremely high levels of poaching in SVC were the result of a large human population being settled on private land with large wildlife populations, and were exacerbated by Zimbabwe’s economic crisis and food shortages arising from the FTLRP (Knapp, 2012; Lindsey et al., 2011a; Moss, 2007)”
From The impact of land reform on the status of large carnivores in Zimbabwe (2016) · cites this paper as Knapp, 2012
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“Bushmeat hunting thus serves as both a source of food and income (Barnett, 2000; Bennett et al., 2002; Kaltenborn et al., 2005; Knapp, 2012; Knapp et al., 2010).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Knapp, E. J.
- Affiliations
- Houghton University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Knapp, Eli J.
- Venue
- Tropical Conservation Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2012-12
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 434-445
- ISSN
- 1940-0829 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2308692502
- Cited by
- 111
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 6
- FWCI
- 5.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Tropical Conservation Science (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Keywords
- poaching, bushmeat trade, wildlife conservation, community-based conservation, Serengeti National Park, imprisonment and fines
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