Demographic Characteristics Of Wildlife Crime In China

Ecological security is a global issue,and it is also a national security issue closely related to national interests,sovereignty and security.In order to protect the national ecological security,China proposed and constantly promoted the construction of ecological civilization.Strengthening biodiversity and environmental protection is the core of China’s policy of developing ecological civilization.Wildlife crime is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity.Combating wildlife crime is an inevitable requirement for building an ecological and civilized country.People have realized that it is necessary to invest protection resources in order to effectively intervene in wildlife crimes;However,little is known about how to optimize the intervention measures according to the socio-demographic characteristics of wildlife criminals.China’s increasingly transparent judicial system makes it possible to fully and systematically understand wildlife crimes.Using data from China Judgements Online(2014–2018),we documented 4,735 cases,involving 7,244 offenders who smuggled,hunted,transported,sold and/or purchased protected species in contravention of China’s Criminal Law.Offenders were predominantly men,aged 30-44,agricultural workers,with less schooling.In terms of crime types,there is a sharp contrast between highly educated smugglers and less educated hunters.Compared to overall offence patterns,offenders involved in Elephantidae,Manidae and Rhinocerotidae were most often to be involved in smuggling,those involved in Bovidae,Phasianidae and Strigidae were most often to be involved in hunting,and those involved in Cercopithecidae,Felidae and Ursidae were most often to be involved in trafficking.Our report also found that consumers mainly bought wild animals as pets(45.8%),food(25.4%)and traditional Chinese medicine(16.4%),but also for gifts,decorations,collectibles or religious ceremonies.Hunters kill wildlife mostly for food(70.4%),relatively little for pets or traditional Chinese medicine,and partly to protect livestock/crops.This study also collected 8,270 hunting cases(including hunting of national key protected animals and three-owned animals)published since 2014-2020,among which5,095 criminals hunted 104 species of mammals,accounting for 14% of mammals in China;10,036 criminals hunted 426 species of birds,accounting for 29% of the birds in China.We divide criminals into 20 groups according to their demographic characteristics,build hunting networks in 31 provinces of Chinese mainland based on the hunting frequency of different groups of people for different species,and use bivariate spatial autocorrelation to detect the influence of ecological factors and economic factors on hunting networks.The results show that ecological factors,economic factors and network have hunting.The areas with large-scale spatial correlation hunting network,low network specialization and high species stability are concentrated in the high-economic and low-ecological provinces in eastern China,while the areas with small-scale hunting network and low species stability are concentrated in the low-economic and high-ecological provinces in western China.Based on our data,we found the key groups of wildlife crime and their motivations in different crime situations,which is very important for targeted investment in protecting resources and effective crime prevention.At the same time,we find that criminals’ illegal use of biodiversity has regional differences and is influenced by economic and ecological factors.Based on this,the protection suggestions for different populations and different regions are put forward.