Social and Perceptual Factors in Endangered Species Management

Abstract

This paper describes the importance of socioeconomic and perceptual factors in the management of endangered species. Most endangered species programs tend to emphasize biological assessments and technological solutions. Additionally, attempts to consider the societal context of endangerment are typically narrow in perspective and inclined to stress economic and monetary problems. Despite the mandate of the Endangered Species Act to consider aesthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreational, and scientific values of wildlife, most endangered species efforts omit consideration of these values. The problem of assessing societal factors in endangered species programs is increasingly complicated when the imperiled species are invertebrates and the location of the problem is primarily in developing countries of the tropics. Unfortunately, the possibility of massive species extinctions will primarily involve invertebrate species in the tropics. This paper reviews some of these difficulties, particularly the differential perception of endangered species and the protection of endangered wildlife in developing countries. J. WILDL. MANAGE. 49(2):528-536 A compelling rationale and an effective strategy for protecting endangered species will require an increasing recognition that most contemporary extinction problems are the result of socioeconomic and political forces. This socioeconomic basis of the problem is evident when assessing the causes of most species declines and should constitute an important consideration in the formulation of recovery efforts. The extinction and endangerment of most of Hawaii's endemic avifauna is a classic example of the importance of these social forces (Banko 1979, Berger 1981). In the majority of cases, human-related factors were the primary causes for the decline of these bird species. Principal factors included agriculture, grazing and forestry-related habitat destruction, the impact of feral herbivores and carnivores, competition with introduced birds, and overharvesting for meat, sport, and feathers. Although Hawaii's endemic birdlife was biologically vulnerable to these impacts, socioeconomic forces, for the most part, created the contextual basis for this de-