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opencc-zeroMay 2020View details →

Data from: Shark movement strategies influence poaching risk and can guide enforcement decisions in a large, remote Marine Protected Area

<ol> <li>Large, remote marine protected areas (MPAs) containing both reef and pelagic habitats, have been shown to offer considerable refuge to populations of reef-associated sharks. Many large MPAs are, however, impacted by illegal fishing activity conducted by unlicensed vessels. While enforcement of these reserves is often expensive, it would likely benefit from the integration of ecological data on the mobile animals they are designed to protect. Consequently, shark populations in some protected areas continue to decline, as they remain a prime target for illegal fishers.</li> <li>To understand shark movements and their vulnerability to illegal fishing, three years of acoustic tracking data, from 101 reef-associated sharks, were analysed as movement networks to explore the predictability of movement patterns and identify key movement corridors within the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) MPA. We examined how space use and connectivity overlap with spatially-explicit risk of illegal fishing, through data obtained from the management consultancy enforcing the MPA.</li> <li>Using individual-based models, the movement networks of two sympatric shark species were efficiently predicted with distance-decay functions (>95% movements accurately predicted). Model outliers were used to highlight the locations with unexpectedly high movement rates where MPA enforcement patrols might most efficiently mitigate predator removal.</li> <li>Activity space estimates and network metrics illustrate that silvertip sharks were more dynamic, less resident and link larger components of the MPA than grey reef sharks. However, we show that this behaviour potentially enhances their exposure to illegal fishing activity.</li> <li> Synthesis and applications. Marine protected area (MPA) enforcement strategies are often limited by resources. The British Indian Ocean Territory MPA, one of the world's largest 'no take' MPAs, has a single patrol vessel to enforce 640,000 km2 of open ocean, atoll and reef ecosystems. We argue that to optimise the patrol vessel search strategy and thus enhance their protective capacity, ecological data on the space use and movements of desirable species, such as large-bodied reef predators, must be incorporated into management plans. Here, we use electronic tracking data to evaluate how shark movement dynamics influence species mortality trajectories in exploited reef ecosystems. In doing so we discuss how network analyses of such data might be applied for protected area enforcement.</li> </ol>

opencc-zeroDec 2023View details →

Genomic analyses reveal poaching hotspots and illegal trade in pangolins from Africa to Asia

Reducing the illegal wildlife trade requires an understanding of its origins. Here we present a genomic approach for tracing confiscated scales from the world's most trafficked mammal, the white-bellied pangolin (Phataginus tricuspis), to their geographic origins. Analyzing scales seized in Hong Kong SAR, China from 2012–2018 revealed intense poaching along Cameroon's southern border. Poaching pressures shifted over time from West to Central Africa. Using data from seizures representing nearly one million African pangolins, we identified Nigeria as a significant hub for trafficking, where scales are amassed and shipped to Vietnam and Hong Kong SAR, China, with final transit to markets in Guangdong and Guangxi, China. This origin-to-destination approach offers new opportunities to disrupt the illegal wildlife trade and to guide anti-trafficking measures.

Figure 2 in Impact of poaching on the population structure and insect associates of the Endangered Encephalartos eugene-maraisii from South Africa

Figure 2. Insects associated with Encephalartos eugene-maraisii in Entabeni: A, B, Amorphocerus cf. setosus; C, D, Apinotropis verdoornae; E, F, Zerenopsis lepida. Photographs: P.D. Janse van Rensburg.

Figure 4 in Impact of poaching on the population structure and insect associates of the Endangered Encephalartos eugene-maraisii from South Africa

Figure 4. Large Encephalartos eugene-maraisii stem that was pushed over by poachers. Photographer: P.D. Janse van Rensburg.

Figure 1 in Impact of poaching on the population structure and insect associates of the Endangered Encephalartos eugene-maraisii from South Africa

Figure 1. Typical architecture of an Encephalartos eugene-maraisii plant. Photographer: P.D. Janse van Rensburg.

Figure 3 in Impact of poaching on the population structure and insect associates of the Endangered Encephalartos eugene-maraisii from South Africa

Figure 3. Distribution of Encephalartos eugene-maraisii in the Entabeni Safari Conservancy between 2021 and 2022, compared to 2008. A, heatmap of E. eugene-maraisii plants re-recorded between 2021 and 2022; B, heatmap of E. eugene-maraisii plants that were not relocated. Lines indicate the fence line. The map is given without a geographical reference because E. eugene-maraisii is vulnerable to poaching.

publicMay 2020View details →

Data from: Shark movement strategies influence poaching risk and can guide enforcement decisions in a large, remote Marine Protected Area

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publicDec 2023View details →

Genomic analyses reveal poaching hotspots and illegal trade in pangolins from Africa to Asia

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zenodo36/100

New Evidence on Employee Noncompete, No Poach, and No Hire Agreements in the Franchise Sector

This repository holds data, replication files, and a machine learning classifier to detect no poach clauses for "New Evidence on Employee Noncompete, No Poach, and No Hire Agreements in the Franchise Sector," forthcoming at Research in Labor Economics.  Abstract. This paper presents new evidence on anti-competitive practices in the franchise sector. Drawing from a corpus of Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDDs) filed by 3,716 franchise brands in years 2011- 2023 (partial), I report new information on franchise brands’ use of inter-firm non-solicitation (“no poach”) clauses barring recruitment between firms, no hire clauses barring employment, and franchisor requirements that franchisees use employee non-compete clauses barring workers from joining competitors. Regulatory actions that restricted the enforceability of anti-competitive clauses began to appear in FDDs in 2018. While non-solicitation and no hire clauses have declined in use, the use of non-competes remained stable over time. While prior evidence on anti-competitive practices largely draws from individual complaints, survey data, and limited hand-coded samples, this paper spotlights new methods for finding barriers to worker mobility in large, unstructured text corpora. The process to create the machine learning classifier from unstructured text is described in "<a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.08549">Creating Data from Unstructured Text with Context Rule Assisted Machine Learning (CRAML)</a>" with Stephen Meisenbacher. Replication materials are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.  CRAML software is at <a href="https://github.com/sjmeis/CRAML_Beta/">https://github.com/sjmeis/CRAML_Beta/</a>. To acccess the text files used, I request you complete a <a href="https://forms.gle/KBJec1S6qNzt9KeU6">short form</a>. You may also use this form to notify the author of any issues/ questions.   PDFs uploaded to DocumentCloud are available by searching documentcloud.org: +user:peter-norlander-103369 +access:public . I am grateful for support from the Economic Security Project Anti-Monopoly Fund; Loyola Rule of Law Institute; Loyola Quinlan School of Business; and Loyola University Chicago. I thank: Stephen Meisenbacher for development of the CRAML software, document collection, and computational assistance; Patricia Tabarani, Chloe Clark, Kayleigh Currier, Zach Nelson, and Damian Orozco for research assistance; Kate Bahn, Michael Lipsitz, Ioana Marinescu, Eric Posner, Todd Sorensen, Evan Starr, Spencer Weber Waller, David Weil, and two anonymous reviewers and the editors for feedback on earlier versions of the manuscript; participants at the 86th Midwest Economic Association Annual Meeting, the 74th Annual Labor and Employment Relations Association, 42nd Annual Strategic Management Society, the 82nd Academy of Management, and at Michigan State University School of Human Resources and Labor Relations. Errors are mine.

openother-ncDec 2022View details →

dryad36/100

Evaluating how lethal management affects poaching of Mexican wolves

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publicMar 2021View details →

dryad36/100

Data from: Simulated poaching affects global connectivity and efficiency in social networks of African savanna elephants—An exemplar of how human disturbance impacts group-living species

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publicAug 2025View details →

opencc-zeroDec 2020View details →

Optimal allocation of law enforcement patrol effort to mitigate poaching activities

Poaching is a global problem causing the decline of species worldwide. Optimizing the efficiency of ranger patrols to deter poaching activity at the lowest possible cost is crucial for protecting species with limited resources. We applied decision analysis and spatial optimization algorithms to allocate efforts of ranger patrols throughout a national park. Our objective was to mitigate poaching activity at or below management risk targets for the lowest monetary cost. We examined this tradeoff by constructing a Pareto efficiency frontier using integer linear programing. We used data from a ranger-based monitoring program in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda. Our measure of poaching risk is based on dynamic occupancy models which account for imperfect detection of poaching activities. We found that in order to achieve a 5% reduction in poaching risk, 622 ranger patrol events (each corresponding to patrolling 1 km2 sites) were needed within a year at a cost of $49,760 USD. In order to attain a 60% reduction in poaching risk, 15,560 patrol events were needed at a cost of $1,244,800 USD. We evaluated the tradeoff between patrol cost and poaching risk based on our model by constructing a Pareto efficiency frontier and park managers found the solution for a 50% risk reduction to be a practical tradeoff based on funding constraints (comparable to recent years) and the diminishing returns between risk mitigation and cost. This expected reduction in risk required 8,558 patrol events per year at a cost of $684,640 USD. Our results suggest that optimal solutions could increase efficiency compared to the actual effort allocations from 2006 – 2016 in Nyungwe National Park (e.g., risk reductions of ~30% under recent budgets compared to ~50% reduction in risk under the optimal strategy). The modeling framework in this study took into account imperfect detection of poaching risk as well as the directional and conditional nature of ranger patrol events given the spatial adjacency relationships of neighboring sites and access points. Our analyses can help to improve the efficiency of ranger patrols, and the modeling framework can be broadly applied to other spatial conservation planning problems with conditional, multi-level, site selection.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

Data from: Genetic assignment of large seizures of elephant ivory reveals Africa's major poaching hotspots

Poaching of elephants is now occurring at rates that threaten African populations with extinction. Identifying the number and location of Africa's major poaching hotspots may assist efforts to end poaching and facilitate recovery of elephant populations. We genetically assign origin to 28 large ivory seizures (≥0.5 tons) made between 1996-2014, also testing assignment accuracy. Results suggest that the major poaching hotspots in Africa may be currently concentrated in as few as two areas. Increasing law enforcement in these two hotspots could help curtail future elephant losses across Africa and disrupt this organized transnational crime.

opencc-zeroJun 2019View details →

Data from: Using drones and sirens to elicit avoidance behaviour in white rhinoceros as an anti-poaching tactic

Poaching fuelled by international trade in horn caused the deaths of over 1000 African rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum and Diceros bicornis) per year between 2013 and 2017. Deterrents, which act to establish avoidance behaviours in animals, have the potential to aid anti-poaching efforts by moving at-risk rhinos away from areas of danger (e.g. near perimeter fences). To evaluate the efficacy of deterrents, we exposed a population of southern white rhinos (C. simum simum) to acoustic- (honeybee, siren, turtledove), olfactory- (chilli, sunflower) and drone-based stimuli on a game reserve in South Africa. We exposed rhinos to each stimulus up to four times. Stimuli were considered effective deterrents if they repeatedly elicited avoidance behaviour (locomotion away from the deterrent). Rhinos travelled significantly further in response to the siren than to the honeybee or turtledove stimulus, and to low altitude drone flights than to higher altitude flights. We found the drone to be superior at manipulating rhino movement than the siren due to its longer transmission range and capability of pursuit. In contrast, the scent stimuli were ineffective at inciting avoidance behaviour. Our findings indicate that deterrents are a prospective low-cost and in situ method to manage rhino movement in game reserves.

publicMay 2016View details →

Data from: Genetic assignment of large seizures of elephant ivory reveals Africa’s major poaching hotspots

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publicDec 2020View details →

Optimal allocation of law enforcement patrol effort to mitigate poaching activities

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