Effective protection of parks, forests, and preserves in the global era requires new enforcement tools. Among these are:

• The ability to predict changes in threat intensity, allowing managers to deploy their work force for the greatest conservation effect.


• Understanding how resources attributes and violator behaviors interact to make specific sub-populations at greater risk.


• Information systems linking protected areas with resources in common.


• Research to identify and resolve work force safety risks.

     Developing these tools requires careful research combined with the experience of field officers. In many cases, this research and development with be interdisciplinary. Academic fields such as economics, botany, information technology, and criminal justice may be focused on resolving a conservation problem.

     Examples of such good work includes the following:

Violator Behavioral Analysis

Officer Assault Study

Designing More Effective Law Enforcement Programs

Management Reports

     Developments in the global law enforcement profession are worthy of careful consideration in the conservation law enforcement arena. Among the most important research and development fields are:

Information Driven Policing

Spatial Mapping and Analysis of Crime

     The smaller volume of research conducted within the conservation law enforcement field is also informative:

Protecting Parks, Refuges, and Forests

     Persons interested in moving towards fact based management of conservation law enforcement will find this document helpful:

Researching a Policing Problem