Browsing by Author "Bal, Payal"

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    Increase anti-poaching law-enforcement or reduce demand for wildlife products? A framework to guide strategic conservation investments
    (Wiley Open Access, 2018) Holden, Matthew H.; Biggs, Duan; Brink, Henry; Bal, Payal; Rhodes, Jonathan; McDonald-Madden, Eve; Fulton, Elizabeth
    Donors, NGOs, and governments increasingly invest in campaigns to reduce con-sumer demand for wildlife products in an attempt to prevent the decline of overex-ploited and poached species. We provide a novel framework to aid these investmentdecisions based on a demand reduction campaign's return on investment compared toantipoaching law enforcement. A resulting decision rule shows that the relative effec-tiveness of demand reduction compared to increased enforcement depends entirely onsocial and economic uncertainties rather than ecological ones. Illustrative case stud-ies on bushmeat and ivory reveal that campaigning to reduce demand may be morecost-effective than antipoaching enforcement if demand reduction campaigns drivemodest price reductions. The outputs from this framework can link targeted monitor-ing of wildlife product prices to management decisions that protect species threatenedby harvest and trade.