Governance through community policing: What makes citizens report poaching of wildlife to state officials?

Abstract

Rulers of weak states face a predicament. They lack capacity to monitor crime and need citizens to partake in intelligence-sharing. Yet, agents of such authorities are seldom trusted, raising doubts about whether locals will provide information. The case of wildlife poaching in African countries illustrates this tension, where rangers are few and offenders on good terms with locals. Why do some locals choose to assist rangers and report on poachers, while others refrain from doing so? We surveyed 2300 residents in and near the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park in Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. We find that people that are afraid of rangers and perceive them as corruptible are less willing to assist in information-sharing. Seeing poaching as condemnable also matters. In contrast, individuals’ stakes in conservation and perceptions of wildlife as threatened do not predict our outcome. For effective community policing, policy needs to change how officials are seen.