I have just uploaded three videos that describe how to use data from ivory seizures records to learn about trends in the illegal ivory trade. The videos describe some of the issues and biases with these data, the methodology used – in non statistical language – and the results. These summarise our PLoS One paper Dissecting the illegal ivory trade: An analysis of ivory seizures data with Bob Burn and Tom Milliken.
The first summarises the introduction. There is a description of the trade chain for illegal ivory shipments.
The conceptual map of the relationship between illegal ivory seizures data and illegal ivory activity is shown. This is used to discuss why and how illegal ivory seizures data need to undergo bias adjustment to provide insights into trends in the illegal ivory trade.
The second describes the results of bias adjustment and demonstrates how the bias-adjustment works.
The global Transactions Index and Weights Index are introduced.
The third describes the Transactions Index for each of six ivory classes (raw and worked ivory for small (less than 10kg), medium (between 10 and 100kg) and large (greater than 100kg)) and identifies some of the key countries in the trade.
The discussion is also summarised.
I hope you find them useful. If you have any questions please post them below send me a tweet.
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