Quantifying illegal hunting: A novel application of the quantitative randomised response technique

Conservation is constrained by the limited budgets available to counter the many threats to biodiversity. Non-compliance with regulations is a major threat to conservation in nearly every ecosystem on the planet. Accurate data on who is involved with illegal activities, where they occur, what resources are illegally exploited, and the quantities of illegal resource used are critical for effective conservation management. Previous studies have found the randomised response technique (RRT) to be an effective method for estimating proportions of populations involved in illegal activities, identifying which sectors of the population are involved, and examining spatial variation in illegal resource use. However, RRT does not quantify the amount of resources illegally extracted. We present the first use within conservation or natural resource management of an alternative technique, the quantitative randomised response technique (QRRT), to quantify illegal hunting carried out by eight local communities within a nine-month period in the Western Area Peninsula Forest Reserve in Sierra Leone. We found that although a greater portion of the population participated in illegal hunting in some communities, a different set of communities extracted the greatest number of animals from the reserve. Our results highlight the need to provide more accurate estimates of resource extraction that account for uneven illegal extraction activity across the population in order to properly target conservation interventions.