Conservation Opportunity and Risk Mapping for Carnivores Using Landowner Survey Data from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Large landscape planning for wildlife corridors often requires inclusion of private lands and willing landowners to establish successful pathways to and from protected core habitats. Using mail survey data, we spatially assessed carnivore occurrences, perceptions of carnivores, and landowner preferences toward conservation planning tools from three communities to quantify conservation opportunity and risk related to carnivore movement on the landscape. The mapping of social data illustrates the importance of understanding individuals for conservation planning. The approach has the potential to identify areas that pose risks or present opportunities for the implementation of on-the-ground conservation actions to facilitate long-term wildlife movement across private lands.     

Beliefs about Ecological Impacts Predict Deer Acceptance Capacity and Hunting Support

Ecological impacts of deer overbrowsing often lead resource managers to recommend deer control through hunting, which may be strongly opposed by local residents. Adaptive impact management argues that understanding wildlife impacts of concern to the public can improve wildlife management. However, research on public wildlife acceptance capacity for deer, and on support for hunting, has emphasized concerns about household impacts and deer well-being, general environmental beliefs and attitudes, and beliefs about consequences of hunting, but not public concerns about deer ecological impacts. Our survey of neighbors of urban wetlands shows that beliefs about deer ecological impacts are statistically significant predictors of deer acceptance capacity and of support for hunting, controlling for other factors. Including ecological-impact beliefs adds substantially to the explained variance in deer acceptance capacity, and slightly to the explained variance in support for hunting.     

Economic commodity or environmental crisis? An interdisciplinary approach to analysing the bushmeat trade in central and west Africa

Bushmeat is a large but largely invisible contributor to the economies of west and central African countries. Yet the trade is currently unsustainable. Hunting is reducing wildlife populations, driving more vulnerable species to local and regional extinction, and threatening biodiversity. This paper uses a commodity chain approach to explore the bushmeat trade and to demonstrate why an interdisciplinary approach is required if the trade is to be sustainable in the future.     

广州鳄鱼公园野生动物旅游中的生命权力运作

自然的社会建构是近年来欧美地理学界重新审视人与自然关系的重要理论思潮之一。本文从自然的社会建构视角出发,以福柯“生命权力”的概念为理论工具,通过参与式观察、半结构化访谈和文本分析的方法,深入分析野生动物旅游活动中人与动物互动过程及其权力关系的运作,并展示在此过程中景区、野生动物、政府和NGO等组建的行动者网络。研究发现：① 通过标准化、高科技的管治与保育措施,景区中动物种群的性别、健康与数量等方面得以最大程度的调控,并由此形成了与旅游市场相适应的“生命政治”运作模式;② 景区已经能够熟练地规训野生动物参与各项旅游活动,并在此基础上巧妙地操控游客想要亲近并征服野生动物的双重渴望;③ 不同行动者在协商与制衡中组建的行动者网络,实质上为人对野生动物生命权力的施展提供了合法性与道德性的框架,使其更加紧密地嵌入到社会文化情境之中。研究丰富了野生动物旅游研究的相关理论成果,为人文地理学分析自然与社会的关系提供了新的思考和尝试。     

大辽河口水生态系统服务功能重要性评价

为了维护大辽河口水生态系统的生态功能,实现区域的可持续发展,建立了大辽河口水生态系统功能重要性评价指标体系。运用指标体系评价和专家打分的方法,将研究区划分为低、较低、一般、较高、高5个功能等级.首先对大辽河口的水生态系统单项功能进行评价,然后采用权重加和的方法进行功能重要性的综合评价。最后应用ArcGis软件对结果进行了空间分析。评价结果表明,整个研究区域的水生态系统功能重要性比较高,在空间分布上呈现显著的差异性,其中较高和高级别的区域占据整个研究区域的44.9%。     

Dusky dolphin movement patterns: short-term effects of tourism

Cetacean-oriented tourism has experienced rapid growth in the last two decades, accompanied by increasing concerns about the effects of tourism on target species. Here, we used shore-based observations of dusky dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obscurus) groups near Kaikoura, New Zealand, and generalised additive models to quantify changes in group speed, reorientation and linearity relative to natural and anthropogenic factors. Summer months were characterised by slower speeds and more changes in direction than winter months. Group speeds were higher at the beginning and end of the day, with slower speeds at midday. Speeds were slower when vessels were present, and dolphin groups changed direction more often when aircraft circled overhead. Effects were positively correlated with number of vessels present within 300 m. Short-term changes have potential to lead to long-term impacts, and further acoustic and energetic studies are proposed to elucidate whether these effects are likely to reduce individual fitness.     

Quantity Does Not Always Mean Quality: The Importance of Qualitative Social Science in Conservation Research

Qualitative methods are important to gain a deep understanding of complex problems and poorly researched areas. They can be particularly useful to help explain underlying conservation problems. However, the significance in choosing and justifying appropriate methodological frameworks in conservation studies should be given more attention to ensure data are collected and analysed appropriately. We explain when, why, and how qualitative methods should be used and explain sampling strategies in qualitative studies. To improve familiarity with qualitative methods among natural scientists, we recommend expanding training in social sciences and increasing collaboration with social scientists. Given the scale of human impacts on the environment, this type of nuanced analytical skill is critical for progressing biodiversity conservation efforts.     

Human–wildlife conflict and gender in protected area borderlands: A case study of costs, perceptions, and vulnerabilities from Uttarakhand (Uttaranchal), India

Human–wildlife conflict (HWC) is a growing problem for communities located at the borders of protected areas. Such conflicts commonly take place as crop-raiding events and as attack by wild animals, among other forms. This paper uses a feminist political ecology approach to examine these two problems in an agricultural village located at the border of Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand (formerly Uttaranchal), India. Specifically, it investigates the following three questions: What are the “visible” and “hidden” costs of such conflict with wildlife? To what extent are these costs differentially borne by men and women? How do villagers perceive any such differences? Survey and interview data were collected from over 100 individuals in the study site over a period of 9 months in 2003–2004. It was found that for participants in this study, costs of HWC included decreased food security, changes to workload, decreased physical and psychological wellbeing, economic hardship, and at times an increase in illegal or dangerous activities. The research also showed that although women in the study area bore a disproportionate burden of these effects, roughly half of survey respondents perceived that men and women were equally affected. A possible explanation for this gap considers the relationships between gendered uses of space, work, status, and identity. The findings illustrate the importance of addressing both visible and hidden costs of HWC for members of park communities and support a call for increased gender-sensitivity in HWC research.     

Intensity of competition for forage between livestock and wild herbivores based on grassland carrying capacity北大核心CSCD

放牧家畜与食草野生动物争草(畜兽冲突)是人兽冲突在草原放牧业中的具体体现,其涉及面广,对牧民生计影响明显。畜兽冲突强度研究对完善野生动物损害补偿制度、促进人与自然和谐共生具有重要意义。论文通过地面调查与模型模拟,考虑草地牧草产量、家畜存栏量和食草野生动物种群数量,提出了放牧家畜与食草野生动物争草冲突强度量化方法,评价了三江源国家公园玛多县牧草地畜兽争草强度。结果表明：(1)据2022年样线调查和随机森林模型估计,玛多县藏野驴(Equus kiang)、藏原羚(Procapra picticaudata)种群密度分别为0.2157头/km2、0.1655只/km2,种群数量分别为5307头、4073只,折合23264羊单位(SU),2018年末各类家畜存栏量34.2万SU,畜兽争草相对强度为1/14.7。(2)玛多县高寒草甸、高寒草原的可食牧草产量分别为118.7 g/m2、88.3 g/m2,可承载密度分别为0.2710 SU/hm2、0.1532 SU/hm2,理论承载力52.85万SU。家畜承载率、食草野生动物承载率、家畜+食草野生动物承载率分别为64.7%、4.4%和69.1%。(3)国家公园内的乡镇,草地承载力盈余,家畜承载率低、野生动物承载率高,但畜兽争草相对强度较大,建议完善移民搬迁、野生动物损害补偿制度,强化国家公园体制建设;国家公园外的乡镇,草地超载严重,家畜承载率高,畜兽争草强度不高,建议减畜增效、绿色发展。     

Identifying Common Decision Problem Elements for the Management of Emerging Fungal Diseases of Wildlife

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) of wildlife have characteristics that make them difficult to manage, leading to reactive and often ineffective management strategies. Currently, two fungal pathogens, Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd) and Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), are causing declines in novel host species. To improve the application of management strategies addressing the risk of these pathogens to North American wildlife, we queried wildlife managers about their concerns regarding managing populations of bats and amphibians potentially impacted by Pd and Bsal. Using these responses, we identified aspects of each decision problem that were shared across pathogens, regions and agencies – and found similarities in decision-problem elements for disease management. Reframing management problems as decisions can enable managers to identify similarities across EIDs, i.e. uncertainties within management actions, and improve reactive responses if proactive management is not possible. Such an approach recognizes context-specific constraints and identifies relevant uncertainties that must be reduced in developing a response.