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The role of risk perception and affect in predicting support for conservation policy under rapid ecosystem change

St John, Freya A.V.; Mason, Tom H.E.; Bunnefeld, Nils

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Authors

Freya A.V. St John

Tom H.E. Mason

Nils Bunnefeld



Abstract

Conservation conflicts are damaging for humans and wildlife, with differences in people's objectives fuelling challenges of managing complex, dynamic systems. We investigate the relative importance of economic, psychological (affect, trust and risk perception) and ecological factors in determining farmers' management preferences, using Greenland barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) on Islay, Scotland, as a case study. Barnacle geese reduce agricultural productivity on Islay, negatively impacting household economies. Since 1992, farmers have received partial compensation but a new culling scheme has escalated conflict between conservation and agricultural interests. Using a questionnaire, we collected data from 75% of the farmers receiving goose payments. We found that affect was a strong driver of both risk perception and management preferences. However, we revealed complexity in these relationships, with trust and economic factors also influencing decision‐making. Psychological and economic factors surrounding wildlife management must be understood if we are to achieve conservation objectives in human dominated landscapes.

Citation

St John, F. A., Mason, T. H., & Bunnefeld, N. (2021). The role of risk perception and affect in predicting support for conservation policy under rapid ecosystem change. Conservation Science and Practice, 3(2), Article e316. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.316

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 21, 2020
Online Publication Date Nov 11, 2020
Publication Date 2021-02
Deposit Date Nov 17, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Conservation Science and Practice
Publisher Wiley Open Access
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 3
Issue 2
Article Number e316
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.316

Files

Published Journal Article (Advance online version) (2.3 Mb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version © 2020 The Authors. Conservation Science and Practice published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.




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