Elsevier

Biological Conservation

Volume 142, Issue 7, July 2009, Pages 1442-1449
Biological Conservation

The role of saiga poaching in rural communities: Linkages between attitudes, socio-economic circumstances and behaviour

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2009.02.009Get rights and content

Abstract

Effective conservation of exploited species requires an understanding of the motivations experienced by resource users. When use is illegal, it can be particularly difficult to distinguish users from non-users. The attitudes of local people are critical to conservation success, because they interact with social circumstances to determine behaviour. In this study we explore the factors influencing inferred poaching behaviour of the Critically Endangered saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) in six communities in three countries of the former Soviet Union. We show that local people have a good understanding of the species’ status and positive attitudes towards its conservation, regardless of their household’s inferred poaching status. Poaching is a low prestige occupation, and our analyses suggest that it is carried out by poor, unemployed households who have the means to hunt. These results are consistent for all villages. However we find important regional differences in hunting behaviour, linked to saiga population density and migration patterns, which have implications for the likely effectiveness of different conservation strategies. Community-based interventions are more likely to be appropriate in Russia, where saigas are present year-round and hunting is more subsistence based, than in the strongly seasonal Kazakhstan populations where economies of scale require organised poaching by fewer households. This case study illustrates the complex linkages between attitudes, social circumstances and behaviour in resource user behaviour, and highlights both the consistencies and differences in drivers of poaching between locations at a range of spatial scales.

Introduction

Worldwide one in four mammal species are considered threatened with extinction, and hunting is second only to habitat loss in driving this situation (IUCN, 2008). In order to reduce the threat of hunting it is important to understand the factors driving exploitation (Baillie et al., 2004, IUCN, 2008). Multiple socio-economic factors, including poverty, ownership conditions and access to alternative livelihood options, impact people’s decision-making about natural resource use (Holmes, 2003, Adams et al., 2004). Several studies suggest that in order to successfully implement community-based projects, local communities have to value the resource highly in order to be willing to actively manage it (Inamdar et al., 1999, Salafsky et al., 2001). But while positive attitudes towards conservation are argued to be essential for conservation success (Kiss, 2004), positive attitudes do not necessarily imply positive action in terms of changes in resource use behaviour (Ite, 1996, Alexander, 2000).

The Soviet Union was widely considered to have “one of the most effective biodiversity conservation programs in the world” owing to the vast area of protected areas and wilderness, coupled with strict law enforcement (Dinerstein et al., 1994). However, its centrally planned economy provided little incentive for sustainable resource use, since the majority of conservation schemes relied heavily on enforcement rather than on voluntary action of society. The political and economic transition that followed the collapse of the USSR in 1991 led to the breakdown of rural economies throughout the region. The resultant exploitation pressure on wild populations valuable for food and income was further exacerbated by the breakdown of central authority and the cessation of protection efforts, inside and outside of protected areas. For species valuable outside of the Soviet Union’s territory the opening of international borders created access to global markets, facilitated trade and led to a further increase in harvesting pressure (Dinerstein et al., 1994). One species whose fate has been inextricably linked to these socio-political changes is the saiga antelope, Saiga tatarica. From the mid-1990s onwards saiga populations started to decline rapidly – the more accessible ones first, the more remote populations later. The decline, of more than 95% over 10 years, was so precipitate that the saiga jumped from Lower Risk (conservation dependent) in 1999 to Critically Endangered in 2001 on the IUCN Red List (www.redlist.org; Milner-Gulland et al., 2001). Hunting is unequivocally accepted to be the primary reason for this population collapse (e.g. Milner-Gulland et al., 2001). It is generally believed that limited access to alternative livelihood options, lack of environmental education and poverty are the driving forces of saiga poaching (Milner-Gulland et al., 2001, Robinson and Milner-Gulland, 2003, CMS, 2006). However, this inference is based on anecdotal information, and there has been no research on the specific factors affecting saiga poaching, and how they vary between different saiga populations and range states.

In this paper we examine attitudes towards saigas, the role of poaching as a livelihood option in rural communities, the use of saiga products and factors predicting poaching behaviour. The study covers six locations in three countries (Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan), representing three saiga populations and a wide range of social and economic situations. The study is unusual in attempting to link attitudes directly to behaviour, a step which is rarely taken but is key in understanding the likely impact of conservation interventions on resource users (Holmes, 2003), and in comparing reported behaviour from two different sources – household interviews and key informants.

Section snippets

Study site

The study was conducted in 2003–2006 in six communities within the range of three saiga antelope populations; the north-western pre-Caspian region (Russian Federation), Ustiurt (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan) and Betpak-dala (Kazakhstan) saiga populations (Milner-Gulland et al., 2001; Table 1). Study sites were chosen on the basis of their location within the saiga antelope range, reported saiga antelope poaching activity and size of the community (sufficiently small to permit representative

Awareness of and attitudes towards saiga population declines

Across all study sites, the vast majority of individuals interviewed were aware of the decline in saiga numbers (95%, n = 456; Table 2). Respondents had encountered saigas and calving aggregations significantly less often within the twelve months leading up to the survey compared to 1991. In the pre-Caspian region 45% (n = 131) people stated that the number of males within the saiga population had declined. In the remaining regions, by contrast, only 8% (n = 325) reported this change. The size of the

Discussion

This study suggests that the exploitation of saiga antelopes is directly linked to poverty and unemployment, but that there is no association between attitudes and poaching involvement. In fact, poaching activity takes place despite local people expressing considerable concern for the species and the vast majority being prepared to actively contribute towards its conservation. These findings support an increasing number of studies suggesting that positive attitudes towards a resource are not

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the financial support of the Darwin Initiative (Project 12-028) and INTAS (Project 03-51-3579), as well as a NERC/ESRC studentship and Wildlife Conservation Society Research Fellowship to AK. We thank the PTES and FFI for grants to cover our work in Uzbekistan. The large number of interviews held were only possible through the help of numerous research assistants: Marina Frolova, Natalia Kusnezova, Niudlya Araeva, Bekzhan Makashev, Victor Fomin, Saberzhan Narmuratov,

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