Complexities of conflict: the importance of considering social factors for effectively resolving human–wildlife conflict - Dickman - 2010 - Animal Conservation - Wiley Online Library

Complexities of conflict: the importance of considering social factors for effectively resolving human–wildlife conflict - Dickman - 2010 - Animal Conservation - Wiley Online Library: "Despite evidence that social factors can be more important in driving conflict than wildlife damage incurred, they are often ignored in conflict studies. Developing a broader awareness of conflict drivers will advance understanding of the patterns and underlying processes behind this critical conservation issue. In this paper, I review a wide variety of case studies to show how social factors strongly influence perceptions of human–wildlife conflict, and highlight how mitigation approaches should become increasingly innovative and interdisciplinary in order to enable people to move from conflict towards coexistence."

Virtuous Circles: Values, Systems and Sustainability

Publications | International Institute for Environment and Development: "This book paints a vivid picture of an alternative future: sustainable and fair systems for the provision of food, energy, fibre and textiles, housing and water that are environmentally benign and involve positive interventions in natural cycles. While their environmental impacts are negligible, non-existent or positive, their socio-economic benefits are multiple and significant. The book is an output of a project known as Designing Resilience, and documents the initial findings from the first phase of Designing Resilience within the Latin America and Caribbean region."

Development AND Gorillas? Assessing fifteen years of integrated conservation and development in south-western Uganda

Publications | International Institute for Environment and Development: "Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park are two afromontane forests considered as extremely important biodiversity areas, with global significance, due to their population of highly endangered Mountain Gorilla. Threats to the two parks include uncontrolled exploitation of forest resources as well as fire damage and the indirect pressures of demand for land. Gazettement of the parks in 1991 caused high levels of conflict and resistance from the surrounding communities, seriously threatening the ability of the protected area authority to manage the parks. In response to these conflicts and threats, a range of “integrated conservation and development” (ICD) strategie"

The survey of living conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA): A comparative sustainable livelihoods assessment

Scopus preview - Scopus - Document details: "The Arctic is a region of the world experiencing extremely rapid climatic and social change. Indigenous communities have faced similar challenges for millennia and have historically demonstrated remarkable resilience to socioecological perturbations. In contemporary contexts, however, it appears that the pace and extent of change is overwhelming the adaptive capacities of many indigenous communities. Scholars recently completed a survey of living conditions spanning the circumpolar Arctic to quantitatively document the impacts of social and ecological stress across regions. The database they created is called the Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic or SLiCA."

ScienceDirect - Ecological Modelling : A linked model of animal ecology and human behavior for the management of wildlife tourism

ScienceDirect - Ecological Modelling : A linked model of animal ecology and human behavior for the management of wildlife tourism

Wildlife tourism attractions are characterized as having intricately coupled human–wildlife interactions. Accordingly, the ability to mitigate negative impacts of tourism on wildlife necessitates research into the ecology of the system and of the human dimensions, since plans aimed at optimizing wildlife fitness must also be acceptable to tourists.

PLoS ONE: Size, Rarity and Charisma: Valuing African Wildlife Trophies

PLoS ONE: Size, Rarity and Charisma: Valuing African Wildlife Trophies: "We explore variation in the prices paid by recreational hunters of trophy animals in Africa and its possible causes, including perceived rarity. Previous work has raised the possibility that extinction can result if demand rises fast enough as a species becomes rarer. We attempt to disentangle this from other inter-correlated influences affecting price."

Home - EcoHealth Alliance - Formerly Known as Wildlife Trust

EcoHealth Alliance - Formerly Known as Wildlife Trust: "EcoHealth Alliance combines the best people, programs, and partnerships in science around the world to solve some of the most pressing conservation and health issues today."

Using learning networks to understand complex systems: a case study of biological, geophysical and social research in the Amazon - Barlow - 2010 - Biological Reviews - Wiley Online Library

Using learning networks to understand complex systems: a case study of biological, geophysical and social research in the Amazon - Barlow - 2010 - Biological Reviews - Wiley Online Library: "Developing high-quality scientific research will be most effective if research communities with diverse skills and interests are able to share information and knowledge, are aware of the major challenges across disciplines, and can exploit economies of scale to provide robust answers and better inform policy. We evaluate opportunities and challenges facing the development of a more interactive research environment by developing an interdisciplinary synthesis of research on a single geographic region. We focus on the Amazon as it is of enormous regional and global environmental importance and faces a highly uncertain future."

Daily Nation:- Poverty and hunger still stalk the land

Poverty and hunger still stalk the land: "The latest review of Kenya’s progress towards eliminating hunger and poverty in line with the global development goals makes depressing reading. This is because about four million Kenyans continue living in conditions of extreme poverty and hunger. This population also lacks access to clean water, healthcare and quality education. The Millennium Development Goals, agreed upon by world governments in 2000, are eight in number and represent the most comprehensive and broad interventions to improve lives."

Essay: What Every Conservation Biologist Should Know about Economic Theory - GOWDY - 2010 - Conservation Biology - Wiley Online Library

Essay: What Every Conservation Biologist Should Know about Economic Theory - GOWDY - 2010 - Conservation Biology - Wiley Online Library: " The last century has seen the ascendance of a core economic model, which we will refer to as Walrasian economics. This model is driven by the psychological assumptions that humans act only in a self-referential and narrowly rational way and that production can be described as a self-contained circular flow between firms and households. These assumptions have critical implications for the way economics is used to inform conservation biology. Yet the Walrasian model is inconsistent with a large body of empirical evidence about actual human behavior, and it violates a number of basic physical laws. Research in behavioral science and neuroscience shows that humans are uniquely social animals and not self-centered rational economic beings."

What Every Conservation Biologist Should Know about Economic Theory - GOWDY - 2010 - Conservation Biology - Wiley Online Library

Essay: What Every Conservation Biologist Should Know about Economic Theory - GOWDY - 2010 - Conservation Biology - Wiley Online Library: "The last century has seen the ascendance of a core economic model, which we will refer to as Walrasian economics. This model is driven by the psychological assumptions that humans act only in a self-referential and narrowly rational way and that production can be described as a self-contained circular flow between firms and households. These assumptions have critical implications for the way economics is used to inform conservation biology. Yet the Walrasian model is inconsistent with a large body of empirical evidence about actual human behavior, and it violates a number of basic physical laws. Research in behavioral science and neuroscience shows that humans are uniquely social animals and not self-centered rational economic beings"

ScienceDirect - Ecological Modelling : A linked model of animal ecology and human behavior for the management of wildlife tourism

ScienceDirect - Ecological Modelling : A linked model of animal ecology and human behavior for the management of wildlife tourism

Wildlife tourism attractions are characterized as having intricately coupled human–wildlife interactions. Accordingly, the ability to mitigate negative impacts of tourism on wildlife necessitates research into the ecology of the system and of the human dimensions, since plans aimed at optimizing wildlife fitness must also be acceptable to tourists. We developed an integrated systems dynamics model for the management of tourist–stingray interactions at ‘Stingray City Sandbar’ (SCS), Cayman Islands. The model predicts the state of the tourism attraction over time in relation to stingray population size, stingray life expectancy, and tourist visitation under various management scenarios. Stingray population data in the model comprised growth rates and survival estimates (from mark-and-recapture data) and mortality estimates. Inputted changes in their respective rates under different management scenarios were informed by previous research. Original research on the demand of heterogeneous tourist segments for management regulations via a stated choice model was used to calculate changes in the tourist population growth rate from data supplied by the Caymanian government. The management attributes to which tourists were responsive also have anticipated effects on stingray ecology (migration and mortality), and vice versa, thus linking the two components.

ScienceDirect - Trends in Ecology & Evolution : Ecosystem stewardship: sustainability strategies for a rapidly changing planet

ScienceDirect - Trends in Ecology & Evolution : Ecosystem stewardship: sustainability strategies for a rapidly changing planet

Ecosystem stewardship is an action-oriented framework intended to foster the social–ecological sustainability of a rapidly changing planet. Recent developments identify three strategies that make optimal use of current understanding in an environment of inevitable uncertainty and abrupt change: reducing the magnitude of, and exposure and sensitivity to, known stresses; focusing on proactive policies that shape change; and avoiding or escaping unsustainable social–ecological traps. As we discuss here, all social–ecological systems are vulnerable to recent and projected changes but have sources of adaptive capacity and resilience that can sustain ecosystem services and human well-being through active ecosystem stewardship.

The Maasai Pastoralism versus tourism in Tanzania - eTurboNews.com

The Maasai Pastoralism versus tourism in Tanzania - eTurboNews.com: "TANZANIA, Africa (eTN) - Grazing their cattle in the barren land of the wildlife-rich Ngorongoro district in northern Tanzania, the Maasai pastoralists are still living a desperate life after a prolonged drought spell that has hit most parts of northern Tanzania with more than 65,000 cattle in the district dead."

Game conservation in Africa: Horns, claws and the bottom line | The Economist

Game conservation in Africa: Horns, claws and the bottom line | The Economist: "Some environmental economists contend that the failure of conservationists to take local cost-benefit analysis seriously has accelerated the loss of biodiversity. They feel strongly that the private sector should step in. “Private management structures are a lot more effective in capturing the economic value of biodiversity,” says Wolf Krug, a German environmental economist. He also criticises some animal-rights groups for campaigning against hunting; that tactic, he says, devalues the animals they are trying to save. When pressed, and in private, a surprising number of conservationists say they would like to see limited hunting to provide an income stream for local communities."

ScienceDirect - Environmental Modelling & Software : Challenging beliefs through multi-level participatory modelling in Indonesia

ScienceDirect - Environmental Modelling & Software : Challenging beliefs through multi-level participatory modelling in Indonesia

A critical challenge for science in times of increasingly depleted natural resources is how policy and management can be improved to attain a pathway to sustainability. This paper argues that facilitating a learning experience for decision makers by employing participatory modelling and explicitly considering multiple tiers of governance can effectively contribute to achieve sustainable outcomes. Decision makers operate on different scales and respond to decisions made on other scales. However, shared beliefs can vary and policy interventions from different levels can be incompatible due to a lack of cross-sectoral and cross-scale coordination. Sustainability is determined by conditions defined by this process of interactive decision-making, and across various tiers of governance.

ScienceDirect - Ecological Complexity : Long-term socio-ecological research (LTSER) for biodiversity protection – A complex systems approach for the study of dynamic human–nature interactions

ScienceDirect - Ecological Complexity : Long-term socio-ecological research (LTSER) for biodiversity protection – A complex systems approach for the study of dynamic human–nature interactions

Regarding biological diversity we explore, in particular, the advantages for improving: (1) ecological-economic modelling, a powerful technique for analysing complex human–nature interaction, (2) the design of choice experiments, a rather new evaluation method for assessing the benefits of conservation and (3) the understanding of biodiversity as complex social dilemma. Regarding the issue of research collaboration, we focus on the geographical scale of LTSER sites and, on a more general level, on the demands of research management in terms of project design, common knowledge and organisation of research teams.

ScienceDirect - Journal for Nature Conservation : Post-normal science and the art of nature conservation

ScienceDirect - Journal for Nature Conservation : Post-normal science and the art of nature conservation

Nature conservation may be considered a post-normal science in that the loss of biodiversity and increasing environmental degradation require urgent action but are characterised by uncertainty at every level. An ‘extended peer community’ with varying skills, perceptions and values are involved in decision-making and implementation of conservation, and the uncertainty involved limits the effectiveness of practice. In this paper we briefly review the key ecological, philosophical and methodological uncertainties associated with conservation, and then highlight the uncertainties and gaps present within the structure and interactions of the conservation community, and which exist mainly between researchers and practitioners, in the context of nature conservation in the UK.

ScienceDirect - Ecological Economics : Bridging ecological and social systems coevolution: A review and proposal

ScienceDirect - Ecological Economics : Bridging ecological and social systems coevolution: A review and proposal

"Social and Natural sciences have, for the most part, ignored the existence of interlinked/interdependent evolutionary processes between cultural and biotic systems, both embedded in an overall dynamic biophysical environment. In this paper, we explore the potential of filling this gap by further developing a common coevolutionary framework based on earlier work in ecological economics. Our main concern is to contribute to the understanding of socioecological coevolution in two ways: (1) to find a general framework that accommodates advances in the explanation of sociocultural evolution in social sciences and, (2) to identify the specific mechanisms that could link this knowledge to what is known in the biological sciences."

BioOne Online Journals - Landscapes Shaped by People and Place Institutions Require a New Conservation Agenda

BioOne Online Journals - Landscapes Shaped by People and Place Institutions Require a New Conservation Agenda: "Landscape patterns provide a multiscalar “theater” in which humanecological interactions play out. The regional landscape context in which a new conservation agenda might be developed recognizes the fragmented matrix as a variety of patterns of not just ecosystems but human communities with various private lands or resource tenures, including agricultural and other working landscape elements. Each element of the mosaic influences other elements. Scientists from diverse disciplines are now recognizing that human history and policy are critically entwined with ecosystems and should be examined as social-ecological systems."

Game conservation in Africa: Horns, claws and the bottom line | The Economist

Game conservation in Africa: Horns, claws and the bottom line | The Economist: "The value of rhino horn in China, ounce for ounce, is higher than gold. It is likely to keep rising with an ageing population; in Chinese medicine the horn is ground into a powder to alleviate fevers and pain, particularly for terminally ill patients. With more Chinese contractors working in Africa, the risk of poaching seems to have increased. Market forces are insistent. Even at Ol Pejeta, which is protected by electric fences and armed guards, the horns of the four northern whites have had to be filed down to limit the risk of poaching. An inside job at one private ranch in Kenya last Christmas saw a rhino killed and its horns hacked off. The Kenya Wildlife Service later tracked down the culprits and recovered the horns, along with $8,500 in cash the poachers had been paid, with the balance payable on delivery. Sold in 10g increments in Guangzhou, the seven kilos of horn would be worth $250,000."

CDC - PHIN Communities of Practice - Resource Kit - Home

CDC - PHIN Communities of Practice - Resource Kit - Home: "Communities of Practice (CoPs) are working to strengthen the exchange of electronic information as members collaborate, share, and focus on issues prioritized by the public health community. The Communities provide a participatory environment for members to learn, share expertise, and develop solutions to improve public health’s capacity to use and exchange information electronically.

The Communities of Practice Program (CoPP), in its role of supporting the public health community, developed this Resource Kit to provide members and interested parties with information about CoPs and their function within the public health. The Resource Kit offers a program overview, templates, and guides that can be used to develop a new community or enhance an existing community. Within this kit, you will find guidance for all stages of CoP development—from planning to evaluation!"

ScienceDirect - Ecological Economics : Applying methodological pluralism to wildlife and the economy

ScienceDirect - Ecological Economics : Applying methodological pluralism to wildlife and the economy

Methodological pluralism is important when we study complex systems. We aim to show that methodological pluralism yields additional insight by applying it to a specific question: how are the economy and wildlife related in developed and developing countries? We identify three possible ingredients of methodological pluralism: (1) using both qualitative and quantitative information; (2) tapping the potential of history to illuminate slow-moving variables; and (3) explicitly synthesizing either individually or in groups, by thinking about the corresponding system. We illustrate with examples.

ScienceDirect - Encyclopedia of Ecology : Socioecological Systems

 

Few ecosystems are free of extensive human influence. Landscapes change constantly from natural and anthropogenic drivers, and land use and land cover changes by humans have been identified as a primary effect of humans on natural systems. These changes underlie fragmentation and habitat loss, which are the greatest threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services. The complex interactions between development decisions and ecosystems, and how the consequences of these decisions may then influence human values and subsequent decisions is an important area of study.

ScienceDirect - Encyclopedia of Ecology : Socioecological Systems