Freya A.V. St John
The role of risk perception and affect in predicting support for conservation policy under rapid ecosystem change
St John, Freya A.V.; Mason, Tom H.E.; Bunnefeld, Nils
Authors
Tom H.E. Mason
Nils Bunnefeld
Abstract
Conservation conflicts are damaging for humans and wildlife, with differences in people's objectives fuelling challenges of managing complex, dynamic systems. We investigate the relative importance of economic, psychological (affect, trust and risk perception) and ecological factors in determining farmers' management preferences, using Greenland barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) on Islay, Scotland, as a case study. Barnacle geese reduce agricultural productivity on Islay, negatively impacting household economies. Since 1992, farmers have received partial compensation but a new culling scheme has escalated conflict between conservation and agricultural interests. Using a questionnaire, we collected data from 75% of the farmers receiving goose payments. We found that affect was a strong driver of both risk perception and management preferences. However, we revealed complexity in these relationships, with trust and economic factors also influencing decision‐making. Psychological and economic factors surrounding wildlife management must be understood if we are to achieve conservation objectives in human dominated landscapes.
Citation
St John, F. A., Mason, T. H., & Bunnefeld, N. (2021). The role of risk perception and affect in predicting support for conservation policy under rapid ecosystem change. Conservation Science and Practice, 3(2), Article e316. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.316
| Journal Article Type | Article |
|---|---|
| Acceptance Date | Oct 21, 2020 |
| Online Publication Date | Nov 11, 2020 |
| Publication Date | 2021-02 |
| Deposit Date | Nov 17, 2020 |
| Publicly Available Date | Nov 17, 2020 |
| Journal | Conservation Science and Practice |
| Electronic ISSN | 2578-4854 |
| Publisher | Wiley Open Access |
| Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Article Number | e316 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.316 |
| Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1285666 |
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Publisher Licence URL
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Copyright Statement
Advance online version © 2020 The Authors. Conservation Science and Practice published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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