Applications of human behavioural ecology to sustainable wildlife conservation and use programmes in developing nations

Abstract

Human behaviour probably evolved within the confines of small social groups whose members were closely related or interacted repeatedly over long periods of time. Patterns of behaviour regarding use of natural resources reflect this. It would appear that humans also tend to perceive as more urgent environmental problems occurring over a relatively short period of time, at relatively local spatial scales, and which affect them directly, rather than those occurring over greater spans of time and space. If so, then conservation strategies may be planned accordingly. This hypothesis is explored in the context of species conservation by the presentation of a country case-study (Nepal) and by a review of selected conservation programmes from several developing nations. There has been a general lack of research efforts that examine the effect of societal scales in this context, and more such efforts are needed to achieve conservation goals.