Abstract
Conservation conflict is widespread, damaging, and has proved difficult to manage using conventional conservation approaches. Conflicts are often “wicked problems,” lacking clear solutions due to divergent values of stakeholders, and being embedded within wickedly complex environments. Drawing on the concept of wicked environmental problems could lead to management strategies better suited to tackling conflict. However, it is unclear whether managers are embracing ideas from the wicked problems concept. There is currently a lack of guidance for applying strategies to tackle particular wicked problems, such as conservation conflict. We explored the suitability of wicked problems‐inspired management, using eight contemporary conflict case studies. Conservation conflict was managed predominantly using conventional approaches suited to tackling single objectives in simple environments, rather than balancing competing objectives in complex environments. To deal with different characteristics of wickedness, we recommend that managers develop strategies combining distributed decision‐making, diverse opinions, pattern‐based predictions, trade‐off‐based objectives, and reporting of failures. Recent advances in conservation conflict research have focused on improving interactions among stakeholders. We believe that such stakeholder‐focused approaches would dovetail with the whole‐system focus of a wicked problems framework, allowing conservationists to move toward a holistic strategy for managing conservation conflict.
Highlights
Conflicts over natural resources and conservation are widespread globally (Redpath, Gutiérrez, Wood, & Young, 2015), and can be highly damaging to UN Sustainable Development Goals such as biodiversity and food security (D'Harcourt, Ratnayake, & Kim, 2017)
Conservation conflicts occur when individuals or groups have differing objectives regarding biodiversity management and one party is perceived to assert its actions at the expense of others (Redpath et al, 2013)
They invariably involve interacting ecological, economic, and sociopolitical elements, with dynamic relationships driven by the attitudes, values, and power of the associated actors (Bunnefeld, Nicholson, & Milner-Gulland, 2017). This complexity distinguishes conservation conflicts from the more straightforward problem of biodiversity impacts (Young et al, 2010) and has led to conservation conflicts being identified as “wicked problems” (Parrott, 2017; Redpath et al, 2015): intractable problems embedded in complex systems that are difficult to define and lack clear solutions (Rittel & Webber, 1973)
Summary
Conflicts over natural resources and conservation are widespread globally (Redpath, Gutiérrez, Wood, & Young, 2015), and can be highly damaging to UN Sustainable Development Goals such as biodiversity and food security (D'Harcourt, Ratnayake, & Kim, 2017). Conservation conflicts occur when individuals or groups have differing objectives regarding biodiversity management and one party is perceived to assert its actions at the expense of others (Redpath et al, 2013) They invariably involve interacting ecological, economic, and sociopolitical elements, with dynamic relationships driven by the attitudes, values, and power of the associated actors (Bunnefeld, Nicholson, & Milner-Gulland, 2017). This complexity distinguishes conservation conflicts from the more straightforward problem of biodiversity impacts (Young et al, 2010) and has led to conservation conflicts being identified as “wicked problems” (Parrott, 2017; Redpath et al, 2015): intractable problems embedded in complex systems that are difficult to define and lack clear solutions (Rittel & Webber, 1973). We explore these unknowns for eight conservation conflicts spanning five continents by evaluating the current and potential application of management approaches consistent with wicked problem thinking (hereafter “wicked approaches”)
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