Room 6.23 - Kramer Law Building

Dr Annette Hübschle is a senior research fellow in the Global Risk Governance programme in the Public Law Department at the University of Cape Town. She is responsible for the Global Risk Governance programme’s Environmental and Planetary Futures research group. Her research group is currently conducting research on illegal flows of collectable wildlife (the TRANSFORM project: a five-year project funded by the European Research Council), COVID-19 impacts on the wildlife economy of southern Africa  (USAID Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) grant) and design principles for pragmatic conservation. She is also part of a multi-disciplinary international consortium undertaking research into the intersectionality of wildlife trafficking and biosafety from zoonotic pathogens.

Annette holds a PhD in Social Sciences and Economics from the International Max Planck Research School on the Social and Political Constitution of the Economy and the University of Cologne and a Master of Philosophy in Criminology from the University of Cape Town. While studying towards her PhD, Annette was a member of the Illegal Markets research group at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Germany. In the past, Annette worked as a senior researcher for the Institute for Security Studies, a pan-African applied policy institute. She led and conducted research into organised crime and terrorist financing in Africa. Annette has worked as a researcher, consultant, and practitioner on a variety of organised crime, environmental security, and broader African security issues. She also acts as a senior research advisor to the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime and is a member of the South African Department of Environmental Affairs-appointed task force against wildlife poisoning, the IUCN Green Criminology Specialist Group, IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy and IUCN Species Survival Commission on Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Group, Environmental Restorative Justice Network and several academic and policy review boards.

Teaching and Supervision

Annette supervises Masters and PhD students in the Law Faculty and teaches seminars on wildlife crime, securitisation and community-based conservation.

Research Interests

Annette Hübschle’s current research focuses on the governance of safety and security with a specific focus on the structure and functioning of illegal markets, environmental restorative justice and natural resource extraction (especially oil and gas) and the illegal wildlife trade, as well as the interface between licit and illicit economies and criminal networks. 

Publications (recent)

Annette and Clifford Shearing are working on a joint book project that explores why African rural communities might participate in illegal and legal wildlife economies and how alternative, community-oriented strategies can build community resilience against organised wildlife crimes. Governing wildlife security: Towards pragmatic conservation will be published by Routledge in 2023.

Books

• Dewey, M., Dohmen, C. Engwicht, N. and Hübschle, A. 2019: Schattenwirtschaft: Die Macht der illegalen Märkte. Berlin: Wagenbach.
• Hübschle, A. 2016. A Game of Horns: Transnational Flows of Rhino Horn.

Book Chapters

• Dore, A., Hübschle, A. & Batley, M. 2022. Towards Environmental Restorative Justice in South Africa: How to understand and address wildlife offences. In: Pali, Brunilda; Forsyth, Miranda and Tepper, Fecility (ads.)  Palgrave Handbook on Environmental Restorative Justice
• Mackenzie, S., Hübschle, A. and Yates, D. 2020: Global Trade in Stolen Culture and Nature as Neocolonial Hegemony. The Emerald Handbook of Crime, Justice and Sustainable Development. Emerald Publishing Limited. 
• Hübschle, Annette, 2019: Fluid interfaces between flows of rhino horn. In: A. Amicelle, et al. (eds.), The Policing of flows: Challenging contemporary criminology. London: Routledge.
• Hübschle, A. 2017. Contested illegality: Processing the trade prohibition of rhino horn. In Beckert, J. and Dewey, M. (eds) The Architecture of Illegal Markets, Oxford University Press.

Reports

• Hübschle, Annette, 2022. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown regulations on wildlife poaching hotspots and trafficking routes in southern Africa. VukaNow & USAID

• Hübschle, Annette, 2021. Community and community practitioners' attitudes, perspectives and perceptions of protected areas, conservation and community safety in the context of illegal wildlife trade. White River: WWF Khetha & USAID.  (with Bakholise Jojo)

• Hübschle, Annette, 2021. Guidelines for research in communities: A methodology for understanding community attitudes, perspectives and perceptions of protected areas and community safety in the context of illegal wildlife trade. White River: USAID & WWF Khetha.

• Hübschle, Annette, 2019: Wildlife poisoning in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area White River: WWF Khetha & USAID.

• Hübschle, Annette with Mafaro Kasipo. 2018. Gendered perspectives in law enforcement and fisheries crime: A Global South perspective. Vienna: LE Femmes, Pesca Dolus.

• Hubschle, A., with Shearing, C. 2018. Ending wildlife trafficking: Local communities as change agents. Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. 1-48.

Journal Articles

• Hübschle, A., Dore, A. & Davies-Mostert, H. 2021. Focus on victims and the community: applying restorative justice principles to wildlife crime offences in South Africa. The International Journal of Restorative Justice, 4(1) :141-150 doi: 10.5553/TIJRJ.000068

• Magliocca et al. 2021. Comparative analysis of illicit supply network structure and operations: Cocaine, wildlife, and sand. Journal of Illicit Economies and Development. 3(1): 50-73. http://doi.org/10.31389/jied.76 

• Gore, M.L., Hübschle, A., Botha et.al. 2020. A conservation criminology-based desk assessment of vulture poisoning in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area. Global Ecology and Conservation.
• Hübschle A. 2017. On the Record: Interview with Major General Johan Jooste (Retired), South African National Parks, Head of Special Projects. South African Crime Quarterly 60: 61-68.
• Hübschle, A. 2017. Organized environmental crimes: Trends, theory, impact and responses. South African Crime Quarterly (with Andrew Faull).
• Hübschle, A. 2017. Fluid interfaces between flows of rhino horn. Global Crime 1-20.
• Hübschle, A. 2017.  Economy of Rhino Poaching: Of Economic Freedom Fighters, Professional Hunters and Marginalised Local People. Current Sociology. 65 (3): 427 - 447.
• Hübschle, A. 2016. Wildlife Crime: Why Do Local Communities Poach? Analyzing Organized Crime Blog.
• Hübschle, A. 2015.  Sociology and opportunities for organised crime research. Economic Sociology: The European Newsletter, Vol. 16(3).
• Hübschle, A. 2014. Of Bogus Hunters, Queenpins and Mules: The Varied Roles of Women in Transnational Organized Crime in Southern Africa. Trends in Organized Crime, 17:1–2.
• Hubschle, A. 2012. Organized crime and law enforcement in Southern Africa: The challenges confronting research. SADC Law Journal, Vol. 2(2). (co-authored with Elrena van der Spuy)
• Hubschle, A. 2011. From Theory to Practice: Exploring the Organised Crime-Terror in Nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa. Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 5(3-4):81-95. 
• Hubschle, A. 2010. Organised Crime in Southern Africa: First Annual Review, ISS Special Report, 2010.

Teaching Module

Hübschle, A. 2022.  Sustainable livelihoods and community engagement. UNODC module on Wildlife Crime.