An integrated approach to tackling wildlife crime: Impact and lessons learned from the world's largest targeted manta ray fishery

Booth, Hollie; Mardhiah, Ulfah; Siregar, Hanifah; Hunter, Jonathan; Giyanto, _; Putra, Mochamad Iqbal Herwata; Marlow, Jo; Cahyana, Andi Nugraha; Boysandi,; Demoor, Apolinardus Yosef Lia; Lewis, Sarah A.; Adhiasto, Dwi N.; Adrianto, Luky; Yulianto, Irfan

doi:10.1111/csp2.314

Cited by 16 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Similarly, average economic losses of US$ 325 per trip from a bottlenose wedgefish ban could cause even greater displacement effects on other taxa. This raises concerns regarding unintended consequences of wildlife policies, which can induce shifts toward other damaging activities, or on to other vulnerable species and ecosystems, with potentially perverse outcomes (Booth, Mardhiah, et al, 2020; Booth, Clark, et al, 2021; Suuronen, Jounela, & Tschernij, 2010). As such, any restrictions on shark fishing should come with clear adaptation and transition plans that can move fishers toward sustainable practices.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating economic losses to small‐scale fishers from shark conservation: A hedonic price analysis

Booth

Squires

Yulianto

et al. 2021

Conservat Sci and Prac

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Understanding wildlife markets is central to effective conservation: it can help managers and policy-makers to predict how interventions might influence supply and demand of wildlife products, and economic welfare of wildlife users; and thus, design interventions which have better outcomes for wildlife and people. Here we apply a revealed preference method of economic valuationhedonic price analysis (HPA)-to understand shark markets and explore the economic costs of shark conservation for small-scale fishers. We focus on a targeted semi-commercial shark fishery in Indonesia-which poses a threat to some shark species, but provides important economic and subsistence value for a coastal community in an impoverished region of Indonesia-and use HPA to estimate market prices and welfare measures for threatened and CITES-listed sharks. This represents a pertinent case study with practical implications because Indonesia is the world's largest shark fishing nation, where management interventions to reduce shark fishing mortality are needed. However, such interventions will create short-term socio-economic trade-offs for fishing communities, which may hamper cooperation and compliance, and raise concerns regarding the fairness and equity of conservation.Our results give significant marginal price estimates for five species of conservation and commercial importance. Dusky sharks (Carcharhinus obscurus) and bottlenose wedgefish (Rhynchobatus australiae) have the highest implicit marginal prices, at US$ 157 and US$ 144, respectively. Our estimates suggest that conservation measures, such as catch limits for endangered and CITESlisted species, could have significant economic opportunity costs (i.e., 3.4-17.6% revenue foregone) for low-income fishers. Innovative policy instruments are required to transform shark markets and fisheries-to effectively reduce threats to endangered species and implement CITES, whilst doing no harm to vulnerable coastal communities. Methods from econometrics can help conservation scientists to better understand wildlife markets, and make management decisions which create better outcomes for wildlife and people.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating economic losses to small‐scale fishers from shark conservation: A hedonic price analysis

Booth

Squires

Yulianto

et al. 2021

Conservat Sci and Prac

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“…Economic theory and empirical studies of fisher behaviour indicate that conditional monetary rewards and exogenously-imposed rules and sanctions can influence marine resource extraction (Arias et al, 2015;Booth et al, 2020;Gutiérrez et al, 2011;Wosnick et al, 2020). However, theories of collective action show that trust, norms and institutional arrangements can also shape individual behaviour in ways that differ from those predicted by rational self-interest (Ostrom, 1990(Ostrom, , 2000.…”

Section: Scenario Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All other variables were included as control or exploratory variables (Table 2). (+) PES and fine scenarios expected to have higher likelihood of behaviour change relative to BAU, according to basic economic theory and since fishers are motivated by exogenous incentives (Booth et al, 2020;Gutiérrez et al, 2011;Wosnick et al, 2020). WTA PES expected to be higher than WTP fine, due to loss aversion (Cinner, 2018;Kahneman & Tversky, 1979).…”

Section: Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Designing locally-appropriate conservation incentives for small-scale fishers

Booth¹,

Ramdlan²,

Hafizh³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Large, long-lived marine animals (‘marine megafauna’) play critical roles in ocean ecosystems, however, they are threatened by overfishing. Technologies and practices that reduce fisheries’ impacts on marine megafauna are well documented, yet less is known about how to encourage their adoption. This is particularly challenging in small-scale fisheries (SSFs), where endangered species can have important consumptive use values. We used a novel combination of methods – scenario interviews with contingent valuation (CV) – to investigate how incentive-based interventions might influence fisher behaviour and reduce mortality of Critically Endangered taxa (hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna spp.) and wedgefish (Rhynchobatus spp.)) in two case study SSFs in Indonesia. Scenario interviews revealed that positive performance-based incentives were almost unanimously supported (98% and 96% of fishers would stop landing hammerheads and wedgefish, respectively). This is in contrast to 1% and 6% under a business as usual control scenario, and 52% and 46% in response to a regulation with a fine. Using CV, we estimated that an incentive-based scheme for catch mitigation of all hammerheads and wedgefish across both sites could cost US$71,620-298,820 annually, and save up to 18,500 hammerheads and 2,140 wedgefish relative to current catch baselines. This study provides empirical evidence that performance-based payments could offer a cost-effective, legitimate and socially-just approach for marine conservation in SSFs, and support “a sustainable and equitable blue economy” and “living in harmony with nature”. This is particularly important with the growing adoption of net-outcome goals for biodiversity, with studies such as this providing the basis for locally-appropriate investment ready schemes for bycatch-neutral seafood supply chains.

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“…food, income) can crowd in or crowd out those which are intrinsically rewarding (Cinner et al, 2021;Grillos et al, 2019). Similarly, different scales of influence can interact, such as conflicts and synergies between individual beliefs and social norms, or between formal laws and local customs (Bicchieri, 2017;Booth et al, 2020;Oyanedel et al, 2020). Therefore, a socio-psychological approach to bycatch could help to disentangle its underlying drivers, diagnose its typology along the bycatch spectrum, and support the design of management interventions.…”

Section: A Socio-psychological Approach To Bycatchmentioning

confidence: 99%

A socio-psychological approach for understanding and managing bycatch in small-scale fisheries

Booth¹,

Ichsan²,

Hermansyah³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Fisheries bycatch is the greatest threat to migratory, long-lived marine animals. Managing bycatch can be particularly problematic in small-scale mixed-species fisheries, where perceptions of target and non-target vary widely, and all catches have economic or subsistence value. Such fisheries are ubiquitous throughout the world’s oceans, and represent a cross-disciplinary challenge for biodiversity, food security and livelihoods. We offer a novel approach for addressing this challenge, drawing on well-established theories from behavioural and social sciences. We first typify bycatch as a spectrum rather than a clearly delineated component of catch, where the position of a species on this spectrum depends on fishers’ beliefs regarding the outcomes of bycatch-relevant behaviour. We then outline an approach to diagnose the underlying socio-psychological drivers of bycatch, based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Finally, we illustrate the approach using an empirical case study, exploring fishers’ beliefs regarding bycatch-relevant behaviour for three endangered species in a small-scale gill net fishery in Indonesia. We show how a socio-psychological approach can help to identify conflicts and synergies between bycatch mitigation and fishers’ beliefs, thus informing more effective and socially-just interventions for marine megafauna conservation. We emphasize the need to understand human dimensions of bycatch, especially in SSFs, where technical fixes alone will be insufficient to change behaviour. Rather, interdisciplinary approaches are needed to align fishers’ needs with conservation objectives. Our spectrum and approach could be widely applied for disentangling drivers of bycatch in other SSFs, and designing interventions which support effective and equitable marine conservation.

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An integrated approach to tackling wildlife crime: Impact and lessons learned from the world's largest targeted manta ray fishery

Cited by 16 publications

References 61 publications

Estimating economic losses to small‐scale fishers from shark conservation: A hedonic price analysis

Estimating economic losses to small‐scale fishers from shark conservation: A hedonic price analysis

Designing locally-appropriate conservation incentives for small-scale fishers

A socio-psychological approach for understanding and managing bycatch in small-scale fisheries

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