Status of Wildlife Crime in Dang District Western Nepal

Abstract

Illegal wildlife crime and trade is one of the major challenges for conservation of wildlife globally. Many researches and reports revealed that an extent of illegal trade is expanding despite of various national and international laws, treaties and conventions to control wildlife crime. This study provides general overview of wildlife crime such as status and factors influencing illegal wildlife crime, trend of poaching and probable solutions to decrease wildlife crime. Semi-structured questionnaires survey, focus group discussions and informal interactions were employed for primary data and secondary data were collected from the concerned governmental organizations, published and unpublished reports. Total 15 cases were registered and 26 wildlife parts were seized from 2070 to 2075 B.S in District Forest Office, Dang and the temporal trend of wildlife crime cases found increasing from past two years. 211 respondents were asked questions related to wildlife crime using stratified and purposive sampling method. This study found that illegal wildlife crime exists in Dang district at least on the basis of seized wildlife parts and cases registered in District Forest Office. Human wildlife conflict, lack of awareness, poor monitoring of forest area, no benefits to local people from conservation etc. were key factors for the involvement of local people in wildlife crime. Effective programs with coexistence, strict implementation of laws and development of community forest as conservation area is needed in order to decrease wildlife crime and trade.