Wildlife Crime in China: A Study of Spatial Heterogeneity in Yunnan Province

Abstract

Wildlife crime has presented a trend of diversity, globality, and severity, which has posed severe threats to biology, ecology, economy, and society. Although researchers in these fields have never stopped fighting against it by proposing prevention and control countermeasures from their disciplinary perspectives, spatial heterogeneity have been largely overlooked in most studies. Here, we use 873 wildlife crime cases in Yunnan, a province with the highest wildlife crime rate in China, to highlight the spatial differences in wildlife crime rate within a province and the reasons behind them. Our results show that the provincial capital, border counties, and tourist cities serve as hotspots for wildlife crime, each characterized by distinct formation mechanisms. Distribution channels, climate and social order, and national culture significantly influence the emergence of these hotspots. Furthermore, the spatial elements of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) complement the Situational Crime Prevention (SCP) framework and are applied across various scales in the study of wildlife crime management in Yunnan Province. These findings can help us suggest new ideas for preventing wildlife crime from a criminological geography perspective taking into account spatial considerations.