Strengthening the Weakest Links: An Innovative Approach to Enforcement Conservation International Center for Conservation and Government Enforcement Initiative Anita Sundari Akella December 2004
Mar 27, 2015
Strengthening the Weakest Links:
An Innovative Approach to Enforcement
Conservation International
Center for Conservation and Government
Enforcement Initiative
Anita Sundari Akella
December 2004
Why Enforcement?• Enforcement of PA boundaries, natural resource use rules
and regulations is weak• Illegal timber trade $150 billion per year• Illegal fishing 30% of total catches• Illegal wildlife trade $6 – 7 billion per year
• Innovative conservation strategies are stronger with good enforcement• Ecosystem Services Payments• Tradable Development Rights• PA Creation
Why Enforcement?
What Are Conservationists Doing About It?
• Solutions are ad-hoc and often limited to individual sites
• No methodical analysis of why enforcement is weak
• No comparison across sites to draw global lessons learned
• Hire and equip more detection agents
• Raise fines
Conventional Wisdom on Enforcement
These strategies, in isolation, are not working!
Enforcement: An Economic Perspective
• Illegal activity is fundamentally an economic issue
• To deter it, disincentives must be bigger than incentives driving illegal activity
• Enforcement is also an economic issue
ED = Pd * Pa|d * Pp|a * Pc|p * Penalty * e-rt
Innovation: The Enforcement Economics Approach
Where:
ED Enforcement Disincentive
Pd Probability of detection
Pa|d Probability of arrest given detection
Pp|a Probability of prosecution given arrest
Pc|p Probability of conviction given prosecutione-rt discount factort Time between detection and penalty
Transit of Cases Through Enforcement System
020406080
100120
Step in the Enforcement Chain
Nu
mb
er o
f Cas
es Only 1% of crimes result in a conviction
Risky Business?
Applying the theory in practice
• Bahia, Brazil: Illegal logging, illegal deforestation
• Selva Maya, Mexico: Illegal wildlife trade
• Palawan, Philippines: Cyanide/Dynamite fishing
• Papua, Indonesia: Illegal logging, illegal wildlife trade
Incentives to illegally log or deforest: $75.00
Enforcement Disincentive: $6.44
Atlantic Forest
BAHIA, BRASIL
Selva Maya
CHIAPAS, MEXICO
Incentives to Illegally Hunt/Trade Wildlife: $191.57
Enforcement Disincentive: $5.66
Papua Province
INDONESIA
Incentives to Illegally Ship Timber: $91,967.36
Enforcement Disincentive: $6.47
Calamianes Islands
PALAWAN, PHILIPPINES
Incentives to Dynamite/Cyanide Fish: $70.57
Enforcement Disincentive: $0.09
Calamianes Islands
PALAWAN, PHILIPPINES
What does this mean for conservation?
• For complex reasons, enforcement is abysmal in many of the countries where we work.
• Less than 1% of environmental crimes result in any penalty whatsoever.
• When it comes to the environment, CRIME PAYS!
Transit of Crimes Through Enforcement System
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Bahia Selva Maya Papua Palawan
Site
Num
ber o
f cas
es
Key Challenges
• Interagency cooperation across enforcement chain
• Adequate budgetary resources
• Consistent performance monitoring and adaptive management system for all agencies
• Regular, ongoing capacity-building programs, jointly developed
• Strong, clear and adequate laws and policies
Priority: Reform Enforcement Policy
• Increase budget allocation to environmental enforcement agencies across the chain
• Strengthen, clarify, and consolidate legislation
• Establish guidelines for inter-agency cooperation and annual performance reporting
• Create the legal framework for alternative enforcement systems to operate
Priority: Implement Adaptive Management
• Develop standardized data management systems for use across agencies
• Reach agreement on enforcement statistics (indicators) to be produced annually
• Train key staff in use of enforcement economics methodology to analyze statistics and develop strategic enforcement strengthening plans
• Require annual publication (public disclosure) of enforcement performance report
Priority: Build Enforcement Capacity
• Improve performance of detection agents, prosecutors and judges through periodic training
• Involve all agencies in the process of designing curricula for each audience
• Take advantage of existing technical assistance partnerships with donor government agencies
• Incorporate specialized local NGOs, think tanks and institutes