Wildlife lost in translation: Understanding low compliance with outdated wildlife hunting legislation in Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone, antiquated wildlife conservation laws from the 1970s have failed to curb unsustainable hunting and trading of bushmeat. Our research examined why compliance remains low five decades after adoption. It explores hunter and trader awareness and perceptions of existing wildlife laws, intelligibility of the legal framework's categorization of protected species, and perspectives on law enforcement effectiveness via 6 months of ethnographic research, a photo naming/animal identification exercise conducted with hunters, bushmeat traders, and conservation workers (N = 14), and in-depth interviews conducted with 10 key government and civil society stakeholders. Findings reveal gaps between formal laws and local understandings of animal taxonomy. People possess little knowledge of current laws and use naming practices incongruent with legal categories. Reviews of conservation laws should emphasize integration of community knowledge systems aimed at improving intelligibility. Locally resonant legal frameworks that are perceived to be more legitimate and acceptable by target populations are essential for voluntary compliance. Without participatory reforms to make the law comprehensible and practicable, compliance will remain elusive. Our case study also suggests that progress requires concurrent efforts to strengthen enforcement capacities and raise public awareness of wildlife legislation.