Identifying drivers of illegal goose hunting and evaluating the effectiveness of management strategies to avoid conservation conflicts

Abstract

Combining social research with modelling tools to simulate decision making, can help identify potential win-win conservation strategies that address the needs of biodiversity conservation and local people, thus avoiding potential conservation conflicts [1]. The migratory Lesser White-fronted Goose (LWfG) is globally threatened and under international protection across the flyway. Illegal hunting, including at important staging grounds in Central Asia, has been identified as a major cause of LWfG population declines. However, the economic, social and demographic drivers of goose hunting in general across the region, and illegal hunting of LWfG in particular remain unclear, thus hindering our ability to address this conservation conflict effectively. Using the staging grounds of Northern Kazakhstan as a case study, we used specialised questioning techniques to interview hunters and elucidate the potential social, economic and demographic drivers of goose hunting across the region [2]. We then identified and incorporated important social, economic and demographic parameters into models of LWfG population dynamics and stakeholder decision making under different hunting management scenarios using the newly developed Generalised Management Strategy Evaluation (GMSE) tool [3]. Through combining a detailed understanding of the system’s ecology and socioeconomics, we identify potential hunting management strategies that consider the needs of species conservation and local people, thereby reducing the potential for conservation conflicts in rural Kazakhstan.

[1] Redpath, S.M. et al., 2013. Understanding and managing conservation conflicts. TREE, 28(2), 100-109. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2012.08.021 [2] Nuno, A. & St. John, F. 2015. How to ask sensitive questions in conservation: a review of specialized questioning techniques. Biol. Conserv. 189, 5–15. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.09.047 [3] Duthie, A.B. et al., 2017. GMSE: an R package for generalised management strategy evaluation. Methods Ecol Evol (in review). Preprint available on bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/221432