Abstract
This study uses a longitudinal cross-national carcass database to analyze the relative effectiveness of community-based and national governance approaches at conserving elephant populations. Controlling for variables previously identified as impacting poaching levels, an increase in land area under either community or national governance is found to be correlated with an increased likelihood of illegal elephant deaths, with community-based governance being associated with an increase roughly twice that of national governance. This finding suggests that community-based governance may be less effective than national governance at protecting commercially valuable wildlife such as elephants, but neither approach has been able to demonstrate sustained success. Consequently, rather than declaring either conservation approach as clearly preferable, policymakers should instead focus on ensuring that selected conservation approaches are tailored to site-specific natural, institutional, and socio-economic characteristics.
•This study compared the effectiveness of CBNRM and national governance approaches.•Both approaches were correlated with a higher likelihood of illegal elephant kills.•The increase was less for national governance than for CBNRM.•But, both approaches have a similar range of outcomes; neither is clearly superior.•Policymakers should use approaches tailored to site-specific characteristics.