TY - JOUR

T1 - Building a global taxonomy of wildlife offences

AU - Pascual, Maria

AU - Wingard, James

AU - Bhatri, Naila

AU - Rydannykh, Alyona

AU - Phelps, Jacob

PY - 2021/6/24

Y1 - 2021/6/24

N2 - Environmental laws are ubiquitous, including to the field of conservation where they define how wildlife can be legally used, managed and protected. However, debates about environmental law regularly overlook the details within national legislation that define which specific acts are illegal, where laws apply, and how they are sanctioned. Based on a review of nearly 200 wildlife laws in 8 countries, we developed a taxonomy that describes all types of wildlife offences in those countries. The 511 offences are organized into a hierarchical taxonomy that scholars and practitioners can use to help conduct legal analyses globally, providing more nuance and facilitating like-for-like comparisons of laws across countries. This is significant amidst competing calls to strengthen, deregulate and reform wildlife legislation, particularly in response to fears over zoonotic threats and large-scale biodiversity loss. The taxonomy can be used to analyse legal reforms (e.g., new laws, deregulation, closing loopholes, harmonising legislation), or to establish international standards. For example, we apply the taxonomy to compare how 8 countries sanction the offence of “hunting a protected species”, to explore different scales and approaches to imposing fines and imprisonment. The taxonomy also illustrates how future legal taxonomies can be developed in the environment sector.

AB - Environmental laws are ubiquitous, including to the field of conservation where they define how wildlife can be legally used, managed and protected. However, debates about environmental law regularly overlook the details within national legislation that define which specific acts are illegal, where laws apply, and how they are sanctioned. Based on a review of nearly 200 wildlife laws in 8 countries, we developed a taxonomy that describes all types of wildlife offences in those countries. The 511 offences are organized into a hierarchical taxonomy that scholars and practitioners can use to help conduct legal analyses globally, providing more nuance and facilitating like-for-like comparisons of laws across countries. This is significant amidst competing calls to strengthen, deregulate and reform wildlife legislation, particularly in response to fears over zoonotic threats and large-scale biodiversity loss. The taxonomy can be used to analyse legal reforms (e.g., new laws, deregulation, closing loopholes, harmonising legislation), or to establish international standards. For example, we apply the taxonomy to compare how 8 countries sanction the offence of “hunting a protected species”, to explore different scales and approaches to imposing fines and imprisonment. The taxonomy also illustrates how future legal taxonomies can be developed in the environment sector.

KW - environmental law

KW - crime

KW - enforcement

KW - green criminology

KW - comparative law

KW - governance

KW - illegal wildlife trade

U2 - 10.1111/cobi.13761

DO - 10.1111/cobi.13761

M3 - Journal article

JO - Conservation Biology

JF - Conservation Biology

SN - 0888-8892

ER -