Poaching
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Decrease poaching frequency
Data collection in progress
Kakheti Steppes
Georgia
Problem: There are four protected areas within the project area, where hunting is illegal. Despite this, poaching events sometimes occur, mainly affecting birds such as chukar (Alectoris chukar), and hares (Lepus europaeus).
Action: SABUKO is providing training to rangers so they can more effectively enforce these protected areas, ultimately reducing poaching activity.
Indicator: A reduction in poaching frequency will indicate successful anti-poaching initiatives and greater protection of species vulnerable to hunting withing protected areas.
SABUKO staff member Zura Gurgenidze installing an Audiomoth, an acoustic sensor that will detect gunshots. Photo: Giorgi Chikorashvili.
Rangers receiving training on how to monitor for poaching activities in the field. Photo: Giorgi Chikorashvili.
Methods
SABUKO is monitoring poaching activity within Protected Areas (PAs) using two approaches. First, they analyse official records of fines issued by the Agency of Protected Areas and Enviromental Supervision for confirmed poaching cases. These records provide a baseline of poaching activity per PA, but official records may not capture all of the illegal activity occurring within PAs, as not all poachers are caught.
To supplement the official records, SABUKO is also deploying acoustic monitoring devices within the PAs, which will record the sounds of gunshots. To avoid overestimating poaching activity (because multiple gunshots can come from one poaching event), they filter their acoustic data by temporal proximity and spatial correlation. If gunshots are detected either too close together in time or space, they are recorded as one event. This data cannot confirm wildlife kills, as does the official poaching data, but will help complement that data to identify poaching hotspots, where rangers should be concentrating their patrolling efforts, as well as seasonal trends.
Results
Baseline data has been collected from official poaching records, revealing 8 poaching incidents all occurring in the Kotsakhura Emerald Network. This included seven chukar and one hare. In the other three sites, no official poaching events were recorded.
Table 1: Poaching events detected in 2023 across Emerald sites in the project area.
Baseline acoustic data is currently being collected; this page will be updated once we have results to share.
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