Editing Poaching (section)

== Motives ==
[[Sociology|Sociological]] and [[Criminology|criminological]] research on poaching indicates that in [[North America]] people poach for commercial gain, home consumption, [[Trophy hunting|trophies]], pleasure, and thrill in killing wildlife or because they disagree with certain hunting regulations, claim a traditional right to hunt, or have negative dispositions toward legal authority.<ref name=Muth1998 /> In rural areas of the United States, the key motives for poaching are poverty.<ref name="Rural Policing 1994">{{cite book |last1=Weisheit |first1=R. A. |last2=Falcone |first2=D. N. |last3=Wells |first3=L. E. |year=1994 |title=Rural Crime and Policing |publisher=U.S. Department of Justice: Office of Justice Programs:National Institute of Justice |url=https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/rcrp.pdf |access-date=9 August 2013}}</ref> Interviews conducted with 41 poachers in the [[Atchafalaya River]] basin in [[Louisiana]] revealed that 37 of them hunt to provide food for themselves and their families; 11 stated that poaching is part of their personal or cultural history; nine earn money from the sale of poached game to support their families; and eight feel exhilarated and thrilled by outsmarting [[game warden]]s.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Forsyth |first1=C. J. |last2=Gramling |first2=R. |last3=Wooddell |first3=G. |year=1998 |title=The game of poaching: Folk crimes in southwest Louisiana |journal=Society & Natural Resources |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=25–38 |doi=10.1080/08941929809381059|bibcode=1998SNatR..11...25F }}</ref>

In rural areas in [[Africa]], the key motives for poaching are the lack of employment opportunities and a limited potential for [[agriculture]] and [[Livestock husbandry|livestock production]]. Poor people rely on [[natural resource]]s for their survival and generate cash income through the sale of [[bushmeat]], which attracts high prices in urban centres. Body parts of wildlife are also in demand for [[traditional medicine]] and ceremonies.<ref name=Lindsey2012 />
The existence of an [[wildlife trade#illegal wildlife trade|international market]] for poached wildlife implies that well-organised [[gang]]s of professional poachers enter vulnerable areas to hunt, and [[crime syndicates]] organise the trafficking of wildlife body parts through a complex interlinking network to markets outside the respective countries of origin.<ref name=Banks2006>{{cite report |author1=Banks, D. |name-list-style=amp |author2=Lawson, S. |author3=Wright, B. |year=2006 |title=Skinning the Cat: Crime and Politics of the Big Cat Skin Trade |location=London, New Delhi |publisher=Environmental Investigation Agency, Wildlife Protection Society of India |url=http://www.wpsi-india.org/images/EIA-WPSI_Skinning_The_Cat.pdf}}</ref><ref name=Miliken2012>{{cite report |author1=Milliken, T. |name-list-style=amp |author2=Shaw, J. |year=2012 |url=http://www.traffic.org/species-reports/traffic_species_mammals66.pdf |title=The South Africa – Viet Nam Rhino Horn Trade Nexus: A deadly combination of institutional lapses, corrupt wildlife industry professionals and Asian crime syndicates |publisher=TRAFFIC |location=Johannesburg, South Africa}}</ref> Armed conflict in Africa has been linked to intensified poaching and wildlife declines within protected areas,<ref name=DaskinPringle>{{cite journal |last1=Daskin|first1=J. H.|last2=Pringle |first2=R. M. |name-list-style=amp |title=Warfare and wildlife declines in Africa's protected areas |journal=Nature |volume=553 |issue=7688 |pages=328–332 |year=2018 |pmid=29320475 |doi=10.1038/nature25194|bibcode=2018Natur.553..328D|s2cid=4464877}}</ref> likely reflecting the disruption of traditional livelihoods, which causes people to seek alternative food sources.

Results of an interview survey conducted in several villages in [[Tanzania]] indicate that one of the major reasons of poaching is for consumption and sale of [[bushmeat]]. Usually, bushmeat is considered a subset of poaching because of the hunting of animals regardless of the laws that conserve certain species of animals. Many families consume more bushmeat if there are no alternative sources of protein available such as fish. The further the families were from the reserve, the less likely they were to illegally hunt wildlife for bushmeat. They were more likely to hunt for bushmeat right before the harvest season and during heavy rains, as before the harvest season, there is not much agricultural work, and heavy rainfall obscures human tracks and makes it easier for poachers to get away with their crimes.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last1=MacColl |first1=A. |last2=Wilfred |first2=P. |name-list-style=amp |date=2015 |title=Local Perspectives on Factors Influencing the Extent of Wildlife Poaching for Bushmeat in a Game Reserve, Western Tanzania |journal=International Journal of Conservation Science |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=99–110}}</ref>

Poverty seems to be a large impetus to cause people to poach, something that affects both residents in Africa and Asia. For example, in [[Thailand]], there are anecdotal accounts of the desire for a better life for children, which drive rural poachers to take the risk of poaching even though they dislike exploiting the wildlife.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |title=Tigers of the World |edition=Second |last=Nyhus |first=P. J. |publisher=Academic Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8155-1570-8 |pages=118 }}</ref>

Another major cause of poaching is the cultural high demand of wildlife products, such as ivory, which are seen as symbols of status and wealth in China. According to Joseph Vandegrift, China saw an unusual spike in demand for ivory in the 21st century because the economic boom allowed more middle-class Chinese to have a higher purchasing power, which incentivized them to show off their newfound wealth by using ivory, which has been a rare commodity since the [[Han dynasty]].<ref>{{Cite journal |author1=Vandergrift, J. |year=2013 |title=Elephant Poaching: CITES Failure to Combat the Growth in Chinese Demand for Ivory |journal=Virginia Environmental Law Journal |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=102–135 |jstor=44679553}}</ref>

In China, there are problems with wildlife conservation, specifically relating to tigers. Several authors collaborated on the piece "Public attitude toward tiger farming and tiger conservation in Beijing, China", and explored the option of whether it would be a better policy to raise tigers on a farm or put them in a wildlife conservation habitat to preserve the species. Conducting a survey on 1,058 residents of Beijing, China, with 381 being university students and the other 677 being regular citizens, they tried to gauge public opinion about tigers and conservation efforts for them. They were asked questions regarding the value of tigers in relations to ecology, science, education, aestheticism, and culture. However, one reason emerged as to why tigers are still highly demanded in illegal trading: culturally, they are still status symbols of wealth for the upper class, and they are still thought to have mysterious medicinal and healthcare effects.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |title=Public attitude toward tiger farming and tiger conservation in Beijing, China |journal=Animal Conservation |volume=18 |issue=4 |doi=10.1111/acv.12181 |year=2015 |pages=367–376 |author1=Liu, Z. |author2=Jiang, Z. |author3=Li, C. |author4=Fang, H. |author5=Ping, X. |author6=Luo, Z. |author7=Tang, S. |author8=Li, L. |author9=Meng, Z. |author10=Zeng, Y. |bibcode=2015AnCon..18..367L |s2cid=54699266 |name-list-style=amp }}</ref>