Conservation Conflicts Flashcards

1
Q

Why Conflicts?

A

Why Conflicts?

The human population is growing

Human influence spreads into most ecosystems

Contact between people and wildlife leads to conflicts

Competition over limited resources leads to conflicts

Differing value systems lead to conflicts

Conservation success can result in conflicts

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2
Q

Why Conflicts?

A

Conflicts can have positive outcomes

More often they are costly
Time, Money, PR, Trust

So understanding causes and consequences of conflicts important for environmental management

Conflicts are “one of the most intractable
problems facing conservation”

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3
Q

Conservation conflicts are “situations that occur when two or more parties with strongly held opinions clash over conservation objectives and when one party is perceived to assert its interests at the expense of another”
TREE 28: 100-109 (2013)

A

Redpath et al., 2013

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4
Q

Two types of conflict

A

Human-wildlife conflicts:
- conflicts involving direct interactions between people and wildlife

Biodiversity conflicts
arguments between people seeking to conserve species and those with other goals

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5
Q

Human-wildlife conflict

A

crop-raiding
predation of livestock and game
injury or death of people

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6
Q

Case Study
Human-Carnivore Conflict

Treves, A., & Karanth, K. (2003). Human-carnivore conflict and perspectives on carnivore management worldwide Conservation Biology 17: 1491–1499

A

Carnivore-related threats to: human life
economic security
recreation

Conflicts pit people against carnivores, and against other people who want to conserve carnivores

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7
Q

Carnivores eat livestock

A

Wolves and bears eat sheep (Europe, N America)

Pumas and jaguars eat cattle (S America)

Tigers and leopards eat livestock (Asia)

Smaller carnivores eat game species, crops, fish, poultry

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8
Q

Conservation can drive conflicts

A

Carnivores are often conservation icons

Restoring habitat can bring carnivores closer to human settlements

Restoring and reintroducing carnivore populations increases the chance of contact

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9
Q

Livestock depredation by large carnivores in the Indian trans-Himalaya

Mishra

A

Madhusudan

Living amidst large wildlife:
livestock and crop predredation in South India

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10
Q

Linking snow leopard conservation and people-wildlife conflict resolution: grassroots measures to protect the endangered snow leopard from herder retribution

A

Livestock depredation has become a significant problem across the snow leopard’s range in Central Asia. Such predation, especially incidents of “surplus killing”, in which 5 to 100 more sheep and goats are lost in a single night, almost inevitably leads herders to retaliate by killing rare or endangered carnivores like snow leopard, wolf, and lynx. Such loss can be avoided by making the night-time enclosures predator-proof, improving animal husbandry techniques, educating herders on wildlife consrvation and the importance of protecting the natural prey base, and by providing economic incentives like handicrafts skills training and marketing, along with carefully planned ecotourism;

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11
Q

Large carnivore depredation on livestock in Europe

A

Each bear kills an average of 82 sheep annually, each wolf 41, and each lynx 9

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12
Q

Managing wolf conflict with livestock in NW USA

A

Wolves were once common but deliberately exterminated because of livestock depredations. Sixty years later the gray wolf was listed under endangered species act. Natural recovery and reintroduction has resulted in an expanding wolf population. Minimise conflicts between wolves and livestock to build human tolerance for restoring wolf populations

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13
Q

Sandstrom et al., 2015

Meta-analysis of studies on attitudes towards bears and wolves

A

“Across Europe, people’s attitudes were more positive toward bears than wolves. Attitudes toward bears became more positive over time, but attitudes toward wolves seemed to become less favorable the longer people coexisted with them. Younger and more educated people had more positive attitudes toward wolves and bears than people who had experienced damage from these species, and farmers and hunters had less positive attitudes toward wolves than the general public.”

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14
Q

Navarrete et al., 2016

Moral dimensions of human-wildlife conflict

A

“Most respondents attributed intrinsic value to wolves… Leveraging agreement over intrinsic value may foster cooperation among stakeholders and garner support for controversial conservation policy.”

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15
Q

Case Study

Hen Harriers and Red Grouse

Thirgood, S., & Redpath, S. (2008). Hen harriers and red grouse: science, politics and human-wildlife conflict Journal Of Applied Ecology 45: 1550–1554

A

The context
Many heather moorlands in the UK are managed
for grouse

Management involves burning heather, and
controlling parasites and predators

Killing raptors illegal, but continues and is the
main limiting factor to harrier populations

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16
Q

Hen Harriers and Red Grouse

A

The conflict

At high population densities, harriers do limit grouse populations

This reduces shooting bags

Which causes economic losses (c. £100K on
one moor in one year)

17
Q

Potential solutions

A

Diversionary feeding

Legal limit on harrier densities

Conservationists prefer no control

Hunters prefer legal culls

No agreement results in illegal killing of raptors

18
Q

“The problems are 99% political, we need no new data to know what to do” Jeremy Jackson

Redpath et al. (2013) TREE 28: 100-109

A

“Progress… occurs when ecologists work with sociologists and economists, not when they do more ecology” Sybille van den Hove
“There is no silver bullet, but there are silver
principles - engaging people is key to success”
Juan-Carlos Castilla

19
Q

People: the common thread

all proposed solutions involve engaging people

people are (by definition) central to human-wildlife conflicts

A

Conservation Conflicts

some conflicts are all about values
not simply health, safety, livelihood or economics

not simple ecological problems

people arguing about conservation and policy priorities

20
Q

Case Study

Hedgehogs and Ground-Nesting Birds

Webb, T. J., & Raffaelli, D. (2008) Conversations in conservation: revealing and dealing with language differences in environmental conflicts Journal of Applied Ecology 45: 1198–1204

A

Hedgehog population exploded from 4 to >5000

Hedgehogs vs. Waders

Decline in internationally important breeding colonies of wading birds

Ecological evidence of causation very clear

SNH solution: cull the hedgehogs

Cue howls of protest from animal rights groups, celebrities, print and broadcast media

21
Q

Solutions Do a New Zealand?

Implications
Immediate conservation problem solved
Could lead to a legacy of mistrust
SNH already referred to as a ‘so-called ‘conservation’ quango’
Perhaps OK if restricted to animal rights activists Less so if spread through the press

A

Restoring the Auckland Islands: Eradicating pigs and cats

Wild animal control and biosecurity services

22
Q

Hedgehog threat to wading birds (BBC 1998)

A

Death knell for island hedgehogs (BBC)

Hedgehog death squads get ready to exterminate invaders (Independent)

£5 for every hedgehog saved from extermination (Independent)

Islanders net £4000 in bounties as hedgehog rescuers needle SNH (Scotsman)

HEDGEHOG CULL FURY (Gloucestershire Echo) HEDGEHOG TAX FURY (Sunday Mail)
Hedgehog massacre planned on Scottish Islands (New Scientist)
Hedgehogs Must Die (Telegraph)

23
Q

Birds vs. Hedgehogs

A

Birds vs. Hedgehogs

This conflict typifies many conservation conflicts
Disagreements between groups which do ‘value nature’

Valuing a wildlife spectacle (rights of species)

Valuing the rights of individual animals

24
Q

Perry, D., & Perry, G. (2008) Improving interactions between animal rights groups and conservation biologists Conservation Biology 22: 27–35

A

Eradication of invasive species vs. animal rights groups

25
Q

Case Study

North Sea Cod Recovery Programme

A

Cod Recovery Plan Context

CRP introduced in 2004 in response to North Sea spawning stock biomass of cod decline from 250KT in 1970s to 39KT in 2002
Cod quotas cut, days-at-sea restrictions imposed, various monitoring requirements

Less than ICES recommendations (which included a closure of the fishery in 2003 and zero catch from 2003-2007)

26
Q

. . .in the name of trying to restore cod stocks to unattainable levels, fishermen have to stagger on year after year under an increasingly unsupportable burden of restrictions. At most risk this year are the prawn fisheries, which the EU Commission shows every sign of wanting to restrict as part of its ‘Cod is God’ campaign (Fishing News, editorial, 21/10/05, p. 2).
It’s plain for all to see that ‘cod is still God’ to Joe and his cronies across in Brussels (Skipper Alex Flett, Fishing News, 28/10/05, p. 7).

A

[I am not prepared to contemplate] what some people have called a ‘sod the cod’ policy. (Ben Bradshaw, then UK Fisheries Minister, Fishing News, 16/12/05, p. 7).
The message from Brussels is now clear—cod is being written off as a priority stock worth conserving. With each successive year of tinkering with the problem, this perception of ‘sod the cod’ is gaining currency. (Dr. Euan Dunn, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Fishing News, 5/1/07, p. 4).

27
Q

Two different perspectives. The cause of cod declines:

Overfishing vs. climate change

Conceptual: the purpose of ecosystem-based management:

Maintain ecosystem within range of natural variability vs. adapt to ecosystem change by fishing different species

Political governance structure:
top-down regulation vs. participatory management

A

Solutions Policy Consensus Building

Building consensus:
Cod Symposium held in 2007 Major attempt to build consensus With some notable success

Cod Symposium Consensus

Cod decline was caused by both overfishing and environmental factors

At least some recovery of North Sea cod is possible

Any recovery plan for cod should not impinge on sustainable fisheries for other stocks

Movement in the right direction more important than hitting specific biomass targets

28
Q

But…
Some differences just too deep to resolve Fishers will always want to fish

Sod-the-codders favoured increased quotas, to avoid discards of mature cod

A

Cod-is-godders felt otherwise, e.g. “…all the scientific advice still points to the need for much less fishing effort if cod stocks are to
recover” (Defra)

29
Q

Consensus may be unattainable:

People may just plain disagree

Management requires that difficult decisions be made

Not everyone will be happy with any decision

A

Consensus should be sought:

Efforts to address points of contention important

Speaking the same language is a good start

Open official channels for participation - the alternative is often protest

30
Q

The Science of Conservation Conflicts

Such engagement is often uncomfortable for scientists

But applied ecology is judged on impact

And providing management advice is just the start

Impact only occurs when policy is implemented

A

Conclusions

Conservation is about conflict, consensus, and compromise

Understanding the values and priorities of stakeholders is vital to effective conservation action

The emerging interdisciplinary natural-social science of conservation conflicts is set to be an important tool

31
Q

Difficult choices must be made about the most effective ways of conserving biodiversity in an increasingly crowded world,

A

while considering the legitimate livelihoods and well-being of affected humans.
Redpath et al. (2013) TREE 28: 100-109