Wildlife Management Systems Research Articles

Managing Trade-Offs Between Communities’ Welfare and Nature Conservation: The Case of Wildlife Management Systems in and Outside Protected Areas in Africa

Successfully analyzing and managing trade-offs between community welfare and wildlife conservation are complex tasks that require a multidisciplinary approach and consideration of various factors. Bioeconomic modeling provides a structured quantitative framework for understanding and evaluating the complex interactions between biological systems and economic activities, aiding in the crafting of more effective and sustainable conservation and rural development strategies. Combined with results from other methods such as economic valuation, institutional analysis, impact evaluation, and framed-field experiments, they can provide guidance on reaching the social planner's optimum. The literature suggests significant roles for comanagement, benefit-sharing, and sustainable financing of conservation as the key ingredients for managing the trade-offs between communities’ welfare and nature conservation in Africa. However, comprehensive research tackling multiple problems simultaneously is required to fully understand and manage the trade-offs. Further, mainstreaming gender and climate change in studies of the trade-offs is increasingly becoming an obligation.

COVID-19 could accelerate the decline in recreational hunting: A natural experiment from Northern Italy.

Although many studies highlighted the potential of COVID-19 to reshape existing models of wildlife management, empirical research on this topic has been scarce, particularly in Europe. We investigated the potential of COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate the ongoing decline in an aging population of recreational hunters in Italy. Namely, we modelled spatiotemporal trends between 2011 and 2021 in the number of recreational hunters in 50 Italian provinces with a varying incidence of COVID-19, and temporally delayed waves of infection. Compared to projections from 2011-2019 data, we detected a lower number of hunters who enrolled for the hunting season, both in 2020 (14 provinces) and in 2021 (15 provinces). The provinces with the highest incidence of COVID-19 in the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions were also those experiencing the most marked decrease in hunting participation. Our findings revealed that a wildlife management system based on recreational hunting can be rapidly destabilized by epidemics and their associated public health measures, particularly when the average age of hunters is high, like in Italy. Considered the high incidence attained by COVID-19 in many European countries, where hunters are pivotal for the management of large ungulates and where they were already declining before the pandemic, our findings call for further large-scale research about the impact of COVID-19 on hunting participation.

Slaughter and Processing Infrastructure in Context of Wildlife Harvesting in the State of Amazonas, Brazil

In Brazil, legal extensive wildlife management systems can only be developed by traditional communities in Protected Areas (PAs). Licensed slaughterhouses are mandatory for extensive management products to reach the formal market and this can be a problem if there are few processing options. Thus, this work aimed to evaluate the infrastructure for slaughter and processing of animal products in the state of Amazonas and its potential for use in extensive animal management in PAs. A documentary analysis of environmental laws for harvesting of wildlife in PAs, licensing of slaughterhouses and processing facilities and inspection of animal products were carried out, as well as a survey of existing establishments and PAs in the state of Amazonas. Currently, there are norms only for extensive management of arapaimas and caimans in PAs in the state of Amazonas, and specific sanitary requirements only for fishing products (fish, mollusks, frogs, caimans and freshwater turtles). There are 94 slaughtering and processing facilities of animal products in Amazonas, and 32% of the state municipalities have some facility. There are 50 state and federal PAs for the categories that permit extensive wildlife management in Amazonas, and 58% of the state municipalities have at least one PAs in their areas. Of the total municipalities in Amazonas, 22.5% have PAs and establishments. However, a great number of establishments are located in the state capital, making unfeasible their use for slaughter in extensive animal management, requiring support places for storage and later processing of animal products. Keywords: Protected areas, slaughterhouse, processing. Read more →

Wildlife management system in Komoro City, Nagano Prefecture, and collaboration with the university–Successes and future challenges–

Wildlife management system in Komoro City, Nagano Prefecture, and collaboration with the university–Successes and future challenges–

Integrating and updating wildlife conservation in China

China has about 11% of the world’s total wildlife species, so strengthening China’s wildlife conservation is of great significance to global biodiversity. Despite some successful cases and conservation efforts, 21.4% of China’s vertebrate species are threatened by human activities. The booming wildlife trade in China has posed serious threat to wildlife in China and throughout the world, while leading to a high risk of transmission of infectious zoonotic diseases. China’s wildlife conservation has faced a series of challenges, two of which are an impractical, separated management of wildlife and outdated protected species lists. Although the Wildlife Protection Law of China was revised in 2016, the issues of separated management remain, and the protected species lists are still not adequately revised. These issues have led to inefficient and overlapping management, waste of administrative resources, and serious obstacles to wildlife protection. In this article, we analyze the negative effects of current separated management of wildlife species and outdated protected species lists, and provide some suggestions for amendment of the laws and reform of wildlife management system.

Adaptive capacity in different multi-level governance models: a comparative analysis of Swedish water and large carnivore management

How do different multi-level governance models influence the adaptive capacity of environmental management? This paper examines the connection between different types of governance models, distinguished by diverse institutional features, and elements of adaptive capacity. The task is undertaken through a comparative study of two differently organized management systems within the same national context: Swedish water and large carnivore management. The systems’ governance models are defined through an institutional analysis of polycentric features, logics of design and knowledge arrangements. Assessments of adaptive capacity are based on survey data describing the involved actors' perceptions of the knowledge base, use of an experimental approach and the presence of learning. The empirical results suggest that institutional features influence some, but not all, elements of adaptive capacity. The results lend support to the idea that polycentric governance models, based on an ecological rationale, sustain participation in knowledge mobilization, support the use of an experimental approach and promote learning to a larger extent than more centralized and hierarchical governance models do; while there is no connection between governance model and the perceived reliability of knowledge base. The study contributes to environmental governance research, policy and practice by evaluating the adaptive capacity of current water and wildlife management systems in Sweden and by increasing our knowledge about how different governance models influence the adaptive capacity in environmental management.

Water, ice, and climate change in northwest Greenland

AbstractAlong the coastal areas of northwest Greenland, sea ice is crucial to people's livelihoods. People in the region have long depended on hunting marine mammals such as seals; walrus; narwhal, beluga, fin, and minke whales; and polar bears, as well as fishing for fjord cod, Greenland halibut, salmon, and Arctic char. Terrestrial animals such as reindeer and Arctic foxes have also been of some importance, as have musk ox in some areas. However, the effects of a changing climate on the marine environment are stark, immediate, and tangible. Ice is melting, and coastal waters are warming. Sea ice, glaciers, coastlines, and seas have become sites and objects for new forms of environmental governance shaped by ideas of unique and fragile ecosystems under threat at a moment of planetary crisis. Conservation organizations frame the Arctic as a zone of climate change crisis and have launched campaigns—underpinned by narratives of ruination—to protect what are termed last areas of ice. However, Inuit organizations are also working to ensure that environmental governance and conservation policymaking do not exclude local communities in the region and are campaigning for protected marine areas in which wildlife management systems and community‐based monitoring take note of indigenous rights and incorporate indigenous knowledge.This article is categorized under: Science of Water > Water and Environmental Change Human Water > Rights to Water Human Water > Water Governance Water and Life > Conservation, Management, and Awareness

An essay on wildlife management system adaptable to the depopulating Japan

An essay on wildlife management system adaptable to the depopulating Japan

Working constructively toward an improved North American approach to wildlife management.

Mawdsley et al. (2018) respond disapprovingly to our 2018 review of 667 wildlife management systems across Canada and the United States, which found that many of these systems lacked the scientific hallmarks of clear objectives, evidence, transparency, and independent review. Although we strongly agree with several of Mawdsley et al.'s points about the role of science in management, their response suggests confusion about three elements of our approach that we clarify herein: (i) the selection of hallmarks, (ii) the role of science in wildlife management, and (iii) our engagement with wildlife agencies. We contend that both critics and defenders of the current approach to wildlife management in Canada and the United States similarly desire rigorous management that achieves social and ecological benefits. Our original study-which used a clear approach to define hallmarks of science-based management, employed a reasonable set of indicator criteria to test for them, and was based on data available to the general public on whose behalf management is conducted-found evidence that the current approach falls short. However, it also provided a framework for addressing shortcomings moving forward. We suggest that advancing discussion on the operational role of science in management, including clarifying what "science-based management" actually means, could curtail practitioners and critics of the status quo talking over each other's heads and encourage all parties to work constructively to improve the governance of wildlife at a continental scale.

Challenges and science-based implications for modern management and conservation of European ungulate populations

Wildlife management systems face growing challenges to cope with increasingly complex interactions between wildlife populations, the environment and human activities. In this position statement, we address the most important issues characterising current ungulate conservation and management in Europe. We present some key points arising from ecological research that may be critical for a reassessment of ungulate management in the future.

APPLICATION OF REMOTE SENSING AND GIS FOR ASSESSING LAND COVER RESOURCES VARIABILITY IN THE SELOUS GAME RESERVE, TANZANIA

Purpose: The study was conducted in Selous Game Reserve, with intention of developing GIS and Remote Sensing based wildlife management system in the protected area.Methodology: All habitats were digitised using ArcGIS9.3 in which five scenes of Landsat TM and ETM+ digital images were acquired during dry seasons of the year 2000 and 2010. Band 3 and 4 of the Landsat images were used for calculation of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) for determination of vegetation spatial distributionResults: The NDVI maps of year 2000 to 2010 revealed the vegetation density depletion from 0.72 (obtained in 0.46─0.72 value interval and covering 46.5% pixel area) in 2000 as compared to 0.56 ( found in 0.38─0.56 value interval and covering 8.04% pixel area) in 2010 NDVI maps.Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: It was recommended that there was a necessity to integrate applications of remote sensing and GIS techniques for the assessment and monitoring of the natural land cover variability to detect fragmentation and loss of wildlife species.

Country, cover or protection: what shapes the distribution of red deer and roe deer in the Bohemian Forest Ecosystem?

The Bohemian Forest Ecosystem encompasses various wildlife management systems. Two large, contiguous national parks (one in Germany and one in the Czech Republic) form the centre of the area, are surrounded by private hunting grounds, and hunting regulations in each country differ. Here we aimed at unravelling the influence of management-related and environmental factors on the distribution of red deer (Cervus elaphus) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) in this ecosystem. We used the standing crop method based on counts of pellet groups, with point counts every 100 m along 218 randomly distributed transects. Our analysis, which accounted for overdispersion as well as zero inflation and spatial autocorrelation, corroborated the view that both human management and the physical and biological environment drive ungulate distribution in mountainous areas in Central Europe. In contrast to our expectations, protection by national parks was the least important variable for red deer and the third important out of four variables for roe deer; protection negatively influenced roe deer distribution in both parks and positively influenced red deer distribution in Germany. Country was the most influential variable for both red and roe deer, with higher counts of pellet groups in the Czech Republic than in Germany. Elevation, which indicates increasing environmental harshness, was the second most important variable for both species. Forest cover was the least important variable for roe deer and the third important variable for red deer; the relationship for roe deer was positive and linear, and optimal forest cover for red deer was about 70% within a 500 m radius. Our results have direct implications for the future conservation management of deer in protected areas in Central Europe and show in particular that large non-intervention zones may not cause agglomerations of deer that could lead to conflicts along the border of protected, mountainous areas.

Audio-Based Detection and Recognition of Conflict Species in Outdoor Environments Using Pattern Recognition Methods

<abstract> <bold><sc>Abstract.</sc></bold> Conflicts between wildlife and agriculture are increasing and may result in severe financial losses. The effectiveness of frightening devices is often highly variable, due to habituation to disruptive or disturbing stimuli. An adaptive frightening device, capable of focusing and altering the disruptive stimuli to specific species could potentially reduce the risk of habituation and thereby provide an effective tool against geese and other conflict species. Automated species detection could form a critical component of an adaptive frightening device. In this article we present a method for detection and recognition of conflict species, including rooks and three species of geese, based on their vocalizations. The detection of conflict species is based on a multiple hypothesis algorithm, where conflict species and background are statistically modeled by Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs), which have been trained with labeled data. Subsequent individual species recognition is accomplished through maximum likelihood evaluation of GMMs trained on labeled species data. Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) are used as features for the both the detection and recognition models. The proposed detection algorithm shows strong performance, with a detection rate of 0.98 ±0.01, and the species recognition results in true positive rates from 0.87 to 0.97 amongst the four species evaluated in this article. Accuracy, precision and false alarm rates have been used to evaluate the performance of the proposed species recognition algorithm. Based on high detection rate of conflict species (0.98 ±0.01) and low false alarm rates (0.02-0.04), we conclude that it is possible to implement robust species specific detection, based on vocalizations, and as such, it can be used as an integrated part of a wildlife management system.

Canadian Inuit sustainable use and management of Arctic species

Inuit wildlife management systems have key lessons to offer at a time when the Arctic is receiving tremendous international attention. This article discusses efforts to link Inuit traditional knowledge (TK) and scientific knowledge in management decision-making. Existing dialogue on current and potential relationships between Inuit and their knowledge systems, the scientific community and community-based monitoring efforts show that shared planning is crucial to successful models for collaborative TK-scientific research and conservation efforts in the Arctic.

Survey method choice for wildlife management: the case of moose Alces alces in Sweden

AbstractWe need to monitor wildlife populations to determine whether management goals are achieved and to improve future decisions. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the cost and accuracy of monitoring strategies in the context of management. Using a computer simulation of a harvested population, we tested the relative performance of three survey methods: aerial survey, pellet‐group counts and hunters' observations, to inform about the management of Swedish moose Alces alces populations. Where more than one survey method was used in a single year, we used Bayes' theorem to combine information and estimate population size. We used two measures of performance: the fraction of time in which the population had an ‘undesirable’ size and inter‐annual variation in harvest. Furthermore, we traded these performance measures against their cost. An annual aerial survey was the most costly monitoring method (27,000€) and maintained the population within the desired range 72% of the time. The least expensive monitoring strategy (hunters' observations; 1,600€) maintained the population within a desired range of 66% of the time. A combination of two relatively inexpensive survey methods (i.e. pellet‐group counts and hunters' observations; at an expense of 10,000€) maintained the population within the desired range in 76% of the simulated years. Thus, a combination of annual pellet‐group counts and hunters' observations performed better than annual aerial surveys, but was considerably less expensive. Furthermore, the annual combination of pellet‐group counts and hunters' observations also performed best regarding the inter‐annual harvest variation. Management actions only maintained the population within the desired range 81% of the time, even when population size was observed without error, mainly due to variable net growth rates. In wildlife management systems, where a variety of monitoring methods are used, the overall performance generally improves with monitoring expenditure, but very few studies explicitly account for expenditure. However, our study shows that combinations of inexpensive methods can reduce monitoring costs substantially while yielding an equal or an increased performance.

Personal Perspectives on Commercial versus Communal African Fire Paradigms when Using Fire to Manage Rangelands for Domestic Livestock and Wildlife in Southern and East African Ecosystems

Africa is often referred to as the Fire Continent, and fire is recognised as a natural factor of the environment due to the prevalence of lightning storms and an ideal fire climate in the less arid regions with seasonal drought. On a global scale, the most extensive areas of tropical savanna, characterized by grassy under stories that become extremely flammable during the dry season, occur in Africa. The use of fire in Africa to manage vegetation for domestic livestock and indigenous wildlife is widely recognized by both commercial and communal land users. Research on the effects of fire has been conducted throughout the grassland and savanna areas since the early twentieth century, resulting in the development of effective and practical guidelines for prescribed burning for domestic livestock and wildlife management systems. Generally, the reasons for prescribed burning in Africa are similar for both commercial and communal land users, namely, to remove moribund and or unacceptable plant material and to control the encroachment of undesirable plants negatively affecting domestic livestock and wildlife. In addition, commercial operators use fire to manage wildlife conservation areas. Prescribed burning to control ticks is also widely used in communal communities but is generally not recognised in commercial livestock enterprises. However, research has shown that tick populations can be reduced using fire to alter the micro-habitat for these organisms. Until recently, commercial and communal land users held differing views on the appropriate season for prescribed burning, with the former igniting fires shortly after the first spring rains and the latter burning throughout the dry winter period. Subsequent research has shown that both seasons of burn have similar effects; the key requirement being that the grass sward is dormant at the time of burning to minimise the negative effects on the vegetation. A valuable tentative comparison has been made between fire management practices applied by commercial land users and communal land users, and provides an exciting opportunity for further and essential research to be conducted to gain greater insight into how communal African communities use fire. Based on extensive experience, my aim is to provide a personal perspective on the use of fire by commercial and communal land users for managing rangelands in southern and east African regions of the continent.

Toward construction of integrated wildlife management system

Toward construction of integrated wildlife management system

Hunting with Polar Bears: Problems with the Passive Properties of the Commons

Inuit in Canada’s Arctic conceptualize both human hunters and their polar bear prey as active participants in the hunt and as part of a larger socio-economic system requiring the involvement of both humans and animals. Although often treated through the lens of common-pool resource theory, the Inuit viewpoint conflicts with Western wildlife management systems that typically treat animals, and nature in general, as passive. When polar bears are understood as active participants in the hunt, the rights associated with common property regimes and assumptions about collective-choice decisions in common-pool resource management require significant revision. In this paper we argue that common-pool resource theories which assume natural resources are inherently passive cannot adequately account for the system of active relationships operating among Inuit in Arctic Canada. The co-management system of Nunavut Territory, Canada, uses a flexible quota approach, which, while following conservation guidelines, allows some space for the traditional Inuit-polar bear system to operate. This example shows how common-pool resources may be managed sustainably without the attendant assumption that natural resources exist passively outside of common-pool resource regimes.

It's Not Just About Bears: A Problem-Solving Workshop on Aboriginal Peoples, Polar Bears, and Human Dignity

Throughout the Arctic, the conservation of polar bears (Ursus maritimus), based on the goals and principles of the 1973 International Agreement for the Conservation of Polar Bears and Their Habitat, has long been considered a wildlife management success story (Fikkan et al., 1993; Prestrud and Stirling, 1994; Ross, 2000). Recently, however, a rapidly warming climate and accelerating social changes in the Arctic have raised increasingly difficult questions not only about conserving polar bears (e.g., Derocher et al., 2004), but also about the polar bear management system itself, particularly the roles of northern aboriginal peoples in making decisions about wildlife (Berkes et al., 2005; Tyrrell, 2006; Clark et al., 2008; Dowsley and Wenzel, 2008; Lemelin et al., 2008). Conserving polar bears has now become a complex and sometimes volatile issue with social, political, and ecological dimensions spanning a range of geographic and institutional scales. Multiple competing perspectives are expressed by different participants in a decision-making system that has become increasingly fragmented and symbolically charged by issues such as the 2008 listing of polar bears as Threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Human dignity is important for all people involved with or affected by wildlife management decisions, and it is a policy goal to be considered alongside biological conservation. However, this objective is especially important in the polar bear situation because of northern aboriginal peoples’ subsistence needs and their historical identity as wildlife users (e.g., Keith et al., 2005; Freeman and Wenzel, 2006; Foote and Wenzel, 2009). Over the past three decades, aboriginal people in northern Canada have gained in general a greater measure of authority and control over natural resources through land-claim agreements. The comanagement regimes resulting from those agreements have not only changed the distribution of power in wildlife management systems, but also introduced traditional ecological knowledge, alongside science, as a basis for decision making (Treseder et al., 1999; Armitage and Clark, 2005). In the case of polar bear management, these ongoing trends have led to successes (Brower et al., 2002; Johnson, 2002) as well as controversies (Tyrrell, 2006; Dowsley and Wenzel, 2008; Nirlungayuk and Lee, 2009). Further, different regions have had different experiences as their comanagement systems evolved, and consequently one cannot say that any specific definition of a management problem—or indeed any specific proposed solution—holds across the entire range of polar bears in Canada, let alone worldwide. Similarly, appeals to simply substitute “top-down” management with a “grassroots” approach overlook not only the complexity of situations on the ground and the considerable strengths of the existing management system (Berkes et al., 2005), but also the real and diverse roles that aboriginal people have long been playing in polar bear conservation across the Canadian North. Clearly, as the challenges of conserving polar bears become increasingly complicated, there is an urgent need to build on the acknowledged successes and move beyond the divisive controversies.

Conceptual Design of a GIS-based Wildlife Management. A grid-polygon for biodiversity conservation.

Geographic Information System (GIS) is playing an increasingly significant role for management and conservation of wildlife species on a worldwide scale. However, only a few examples and active researches of the GIS-based wildlife studies have been reported in Japan. Although wildlife management and species diversity conservations have been emerging as a controversial issue, geo-scientific spatial efforts have been hampered by the lack of cohesive sets of data in Japan. We present our concept for the development of a GIS-based wildlife management system and research. This paper briefly explains a use of grid-polygon as an effective data acquisition and ana-lytical tool in the GIS-based wildlife management in Japan.