Applying a social-ecological system framework to diagnose drivers of dingo management practices

Abstract

Social-ecological system (SES) frameworks offer a way of diagnosing the economic, environmental, and social issues driving human-canid conflict, and can assist in the development and testing of management interventions. SES-based approaches to carnivore management in the context of conflicts with humans are limited and highlight a growing need to develop new initiatives involving a broad spectrum of interested parties. To help identify management opportunities provided by using a SES applied to human-canid conflict, we apply the principles of Elinor Ostrom’s multi-tiered framework and develop a SES relating to dingo management in the Australian rangelands. This SES posits variables influencing management practices for dingoes and identifies key management opportunities. We use the framework to categorise first-tier sub-components of the SES, propose second-tier variables specific to the SES (referring to past history or experiences of relevant actors and government resource policies), and identify pathways or interactions for testing (e.g., the influence of scientific evidence on policy, development of educational packages, uptake of new knowledge, and impact of socio-economic status). The proposed SES demonstrates the potential for such approaches to help resolve human-dingo conflict, highlights variables that may influence dingo management practices, and presents opportunities for testing these variables empirically.