Although subsistence poaching is a large threat to wildlife conservation in Southern Africa, this behavior is seldom researched. Our understanding of individual and community level factors that drive such behavior is limited because of both lack of data and the literature’s predominant focus on commercial poaching. The main objective of this study is to contribute to this scanty literature by examining the factors that are correlated to subsistence poaching in the Great Limpopo, a transfrontier reserve spanning across Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. We use collected primary data from a sample of 2282 respondents and 85 villages that are part of the transfrontier conservation area. We focus on two features, reported subsistence poaching incidences in the community and the previous hunting of individuals, a behavior that is now forbidden in this area. We find through multivariate regression analysis that the likelihood for reported poaching incidences was higher in communities with a larger proportion of young men, plenty of wildlife, and experiencing wildlife conflict. In addition, our survey results illustrate that there is less poaching in communities where local people trust each other, respect institutions, perceive that the management of the park is good, and view wildlife as an asset. Some of these variables can be influenced by appropriate interventions; our findings suggest that capacity building in local institutions, use of community-based crime prevention approaches, training related to wildlife management, and public awareness campaigns could be used by policy makers to affect individuals’ perceptions and behaviors in this context.

中文翻译：

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了解大林波波边境保护区的偷猎生计驱动因素：什么对社区野生动植物保护很重要？

尽管偷猎对南部非洲的野生动植物保护构成了巨大威胁，但这种行为很少得到研究。由于缺乏数据，而且文献主要关注商业偷猎，因此我们对导致这种行为的个人和社区层面因素的理解受到限制。这项研究的主要目的是通过研究与大林波波河上的生存偷猎有关的因素，为这一稀少的文献做出贡献。大林波波河是跨越莫桑比克，南非和津巴布韦的跨境保护区。我们使用了来自跨界保护区的2282名受访者和85个村庄的样本收集的原始数据。我们关注两个特征，即报告的社区中的生存偷猎事件和先前的个人狩猎事件，该区域现在禁止的行为。通过多变量回归分析，我们发现，在年轻人比例较高，野生动植物数量众多且经历野生动植物冲突的社区中，发生偷猎事件的可能性更高。此外，我们的调查结果表明，在当地人互相信任，尊重机构，认为公园的管理良好并将野生动物视为一种资产的社区中，偷猎现象较少。其中一些变量可能会受到适当干预的影响；我们的研究结果表明，决策者可以利用当地机构的能力建设，采用基于社区的犯罪预防方法，与野生动植物管理相关的培训以及提高公众意识的运动来影响个人在此情况下的看法和行为。