About the project
CRIMEANTHROP explored the regulation, rationale behind and enforcement of wildlife conservation, the normative and socio-legal messages of this enforcement, and their implications for wildlife conservation and individual animal welfare.
It used interdisciplinary grounded theoretical and methodological angles and further contribute towards developing international green criminology.
CRIMEANTHROP presented a comprehensive analysis of contemporary wildlife management, human-animal relations and animal rights. Policies and regulations of CITES and the Bern Convention and their impact concerning wildlife trade and human management of endangered predator species were examined in four countries with different, local, and socio-legal conditions: Norway, as primary site of investigation, with UK, Germany, and Spain as supporting case studies. Qualitative methodologies; interviews with politicians and bureaucrats, law enforcement agencies and NGOs (e.g. WWF,NOAH) was employed in each case country. CITES and the Bern Convention, national preparatory works, legislation and case law was subjected to discourse analysis. CRIMEANTHROP empirically and theoretically explored the implementation of CITES and the Bern Convention in the four locations, building on and expanding green criminology scholarship through interdisciplinary approaches from law, political science, criminology, and philosophy.
Objectives
- To empirically and theoretically examined if the messages of international conventions (CITES and Bern), and consequently their regulation/legislation and implementation, were ambiguous concerning wildlife protection and animal welfare in Norway, UK, Germany, and Spain.
- Broadened and developed green criminology as a field through interdisciplinary, international cooperation.
- Examine whether unclear normative messages conveyed by CITES and the Bern Convention hindered implementation and compliance as well as the achievement of further goals such as awareness raising, wildlife conservation, and ecosystem protection.
- Theoretically and empirically explored possible differences in influences and outcomes of political decision making concerning wildlife management and assessed whether this affects states' success in complying with CITES and the Bern Convention and their practices concerning individual and species protection.
Outcomes
CRIMEANTHROP found that the messages conveyed by the conventions are ambiguous; failed to educate about and protect endangered species; and that individual and species protection is insufficiently integrated into member states' conservation approaches resulting in continued exploitation and abuse, endangering wildlife and species survival, thus prolonging and strengthening species extinction.
Policy briefs
- Wildlife trafficking and law enforcement in Norway
- Back to square one? Wolf dis-protection in Europe
- UK policy brief: Legislative complexity leads to limited direct knowledge
- Germany’s uneven and wanting enforcement of wildlife protection treaties
- CITES in Spain
- Wolves, lynx and brown bears in Spain: exceptions to the rule for conservation?
- Chain of effectiveness: from global to national
Sub-projects
- Wildlife trafficking. Control, enforcement and species justice
- Legal and moral foundations of CITES and Bern conventions: Priorities, conflicts and ambiguities
- Large predator management versus the intrinsic value of animals
- The implementation and enforcement of CITES and the Bern Convention in the UK
- The implementation and enforcement of CITES and the Bern Convention in Germany
- The implementation and enforcement of CITES and the Bern Convention in Spain
Financing
CRIMEANTHROP was funded by the Research Council of Norway's Independent projects (FRIPRO) programme.
Cooperation
This was a cooperation between project partners University of Northumbria, University of Colorado Denver and University of Granada.