Edited by A.M. Lemieux.

The Poaching Diaries is an edited collection of contributions on wildlife crime prevention and wilderness problems. It is an outlet for practitioners, policy makers, and academics to tell stories that facilitate problem-solving.

The aim of The Poaching Diaries is to present ideas that help governments and civil society diversify their approach to wildlife protection to achieve lasting impacts. The focus of this volume is crime scripting, a useful process for unpacking problems and designing clever solutions. Crime scripts are generated by developing detailed, step-by-step accounts of very specific crimes, in the specific contexts and environments where they take place. These scripts capture the full process of committing a crime, including steps taken before and after the criminal act itself. This is useful for identifying weak points in the chain of events to focus prevention strategies. For example, a subway pickpocketing event is part of a larger process, in which the offender has many decisions to make and actions to complete; one of these actions could be loitering on platforms to find victims. Looking at this stage in the crime script, a disruption strategy might focus on limiting access to subway stations for individuals without a valid ticket. This would make it harder, or at least more expensive, for pickpockets to work and therefore a less attractive environment for crime.

Phoenix, AZ: Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, Arizona State University, 2020. 126[p.

By Nick van Doormaal

Wildlife crime is not a single event, but rather a chain of crime events, as depicted in Figure 1.1 and adapted from Moreto and Lemieux (2015) and ‘t Sas-Rolfes et al. (2019). Poaching, the illegal taking of wild flora and fauna, is the first event in a series of crimes that supply the demand for illicit wildlife products. After a poaching event, wildlife will typically be processed, transported to markets, traded, and consumed by the end user. Depending on the context, a number of different people or groups of people can be involved at various stages of the wildlife crime chain. The first stage of the wildlife crime chain will almost always start with a motivated poacher trying to illegally obtain a wildlife product inside a protected area. To prevent this product from entering the market, robust security of protected areas is essential. The studies in this dissertation focus on the poaching stage

Amsterdam: Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), 2020. 168p.

By A.M. Lemieux & R.S.A. Pickles

As an officer for a national wildlife authority, you may experience déjà vu. You arrest poacher after poacher but the poaching threat in your park is not decreasing. You get called out to deal with crop raiding animals, but despite culling and translocation, each year there are more callouts. You are probably not alone in thinking ‘if we had more patrol teams…or faster response vehicles…or more money for operations, we could solve our problems’. Instead you have a restricted budget and the public expect you to deal with a broad range of wildlife problems, some of which use a lot of time and resources but do not seem to change. What’s more, you’re probably aware many wildlife protection problems are getting worse. Poaching and trafficking of wildlife for pets, food, ornaments or medicine is increasing across the world. There’s also more conflict between wildlife and people as they compete with one another for land and resources. Many of the problems you’ll be asked to solve are complex and you might find your organization’s traditional approaches need updating. It’s time to try something new. Problem-oriented policing was developed to help police officers find ways of reducing crime without substantial additional resources. A problem-oriented approach (a) supports ground-up initiatives addressing the context of a specific problem, (b) encourages innovative solutions beyond the criminal justice system, and (c) promotes collaboration within and beyond your agency. We think this approach has a lot to offer wildlife authorities and can be integrated with ongoing conservation strategies

Phoenix, AZ: Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, Arizona State University, 2020. 31p.