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This chapter reviews international evidence on community-based natural resource management in three sectors: forestry, irrigation, and wildlife management. It asks how and in what way decentralized natural resource management has contributed to improved livelihoods and better resource management. It identifies key challenges faced as governments promote resource management through local communities and user groups.

In this chapter, Curt Meine introduces the discipline by tracing its history. He also highlights the inter‐disciplinary nature of conservation science. Conservation biology emerged in the mid‐1980s as a new field focused on understanding, protecting, and perpetuating biological diversity at all scales and all levels of biological organization. Conservation biology has deep roots in the growth of biology over several centuries, but its emergence reflects more recent developments in an array of biological sciences (ecology, genetics, evolutionary biology, etc.) and natural resource management fields (forestry, wildlife and fisheries management, etc.). Conservation biology was conceived as a “mission‐oriented” field based in the biological sciences, but with an explicit interdisciplinary approach that incorporated insights from the social sciences, humanities, and ethics. Since its founding, conservation biology has: (i) greatly elaborated its research agenda; (ii) built stronger connections with other fields and disciplines; (iii) extended its reach especially into aquatic and marine environments; (iv) developed its professional capacity for training, research, and field application; (v) become an increasingly international field; and (vi) become increasingly active at the interface of conservation science and policy.

This chapter discusses the importance of conserving native trees and natural areas in order to maximize biodiversity. Strategies are listed for how residents in neighborhoods can manage trees and conserve natural areas. For developers, highlighted conservation strategies and examples are presented for the design, construction, and postconstruction phases of development. Wildlife ecology and management are discussed in detail in order to maximize biodiversity conservation on a site. Strategies for policy makers that promote tree and natural area conservation are also detailed, and examples of these strategies are given.

Declining Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) populations and habitat trends warranted concern for their long-term viability by state and provincial wildlife management, land management agencies, and conservationists by the mid-1990s. Management authorities reacted to these trends by enhancing conservation efforts, adjusting hunting seasons, redirecting funding, and entering into cooperative agreements for coordinated management. Additionally, an assessment of sage-grouse population trends and habitat was prepared, as was a range-wide conservation strategy. Concern about sage-grouse and sagebrush population declines also caused citizens, non-governmental organizations, and industry to respond significantly by beginning or cooperating in conservation activities that benefit sage-grouse and sagebrush habitats. This chapter summarizes existing petitions filed to list Greater Sage-Grouse under the United States Endangered Species Act. The purpose is to document laws, regulations, policies, executive orders, judgments, findings, conservation planning and efforts, organizations, industry, and governments that frame the conservation status of greater sage-grouse.

This chapter presents case studies of wildlife management in Australasia to explore the goals of animal welfare science and animal conservation science with respect to wild and free-living animals. It highlights the trend in Australasia (as embodied by the Australasian Wildlife Management Society) to treat symptoms (invasive or presumed overabundant species) rather than examining causes (habitat change, loss of connectivity), restricting avenues of decision making that lead to nonlethal solutions. Lack of consideration for individual well-being is rife from pest management to environmental restoration projects. The chapter emphasizes the need for a paradigm shift by presenting examples of wildlife management of macropodid marsupials to tease out the implications of adopting individual well-being in conservation and management. It also provides guidelines for policy/paradigm shifts necessary to bring about compassionate conservation in Australasia and sets out future objectives.

This chapter begins by reviewing important national and international policies that set the institutional context for the Serengeti ecosystem. Though the greater Serengeti ecosystem contains portions of Tanzania and Kenya, the discussion focuses on Tanzanian national policy. Policies determined at the national level in Tanzania define allowable human uses in various land designation categories. On the international level, the most important policy that affects the Serengeti ecosystem is the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species. The chapter also examines the influence of changes in human population on the Serengeti ecosystem. The household model developed in Chapter 10 is used to simulate the impact on the Serengeti ecosystem of three potential changes in policy, economic, and demographic conditions. In particular, it explores the effects of: (1) changes in antipoaching policy; (2) the establishment of wildlife management areas; and (3) changes in human population dynamics.

This chapter examines two local collaborative initiatives in southwestern Alberta that sought to engage wildlife scientists, ranchers, conservation organizations, and other stakeholders to reduce conflicts between wolves and ranchers and conserve wolves on and around ranchlands. Both initiatives made initial progress toward their goals, but neither managed to effect substantial long-term improvements. We use the policy sciences framework and criteria to evaluate the decision-making processes of these initiatives and draw lessons for wolf conservation in southwestern Alberta and other settings at the interface between public lands and ranch lands.

This chapter describes the disturbance of wildlife done by ecotourists and enumerates their negative effects on the population viability of some species. It reviews recent wildlife disturbance research studies to determine the influence of the new field of conservation behaviour. It addresses the adequacy of the methodological approaches taken from past studies to assess the impact of anthropogenic disturbance on wild animals, and determines if the quality of the research in these published studies is adequate for wildlife management and conservation policy-making. The chapter also aims to motivate animal behaviourists in offering their services to conservation efforts, and highlights the importance of behavioural science in the protection of natural areas and species.

Managing wildlife humanely with learned food aversions describes experiments investigating the potential of learned food aversions for managing human–wildlife conflict without culling. First the chapter demonstrates that Conditioned Taste Aversion (CTA) using a colour cue can manipulate food preferences for untreated eggs among captive magpies and crows. However, captivity may influence animals’ motivation to feed, so, having demonstrated the principle, the chapter examines with free-ranging badgers protection of untreated maize cobs, this time using CTA and an odour cue. Despite promising findings, there are numerous practical difficulties with extrapolating CTA to full-scale applications, including identification of an aversive agent that is suitable for use in the environment. Finally, the chapter describes using a bitter taste to develop Generalised Aversions (GA) among foxes towards untreated food. While GA might avoid the difficulties of identifying a CTA agent, GAs are likely to provide only short-term protection of untreated foods. Learned food aversions merit further investigation.

This chapter focuses on evaluating the effects of hunting with dogs on wildlife populations and the importance of these impacts for conservation and wildlife management. It examines scenarios in which the use of dogs can bias harvests towards one sex or the other, or to a particular age category in the prey population. It also considers the documentation of the effects of hunting with dogs on the habitat use and ranging behavior of wildlife populations.

This chapter provides an overview of the biophysical and socio-political dimensions of large carnivore conservation in North America. We describe common challenges and discuss myths, symbolism, values, political polarization, and other factors. To be successful, carnivore conservation requires well-designed public decision-making processes (governance) that can integrate or balance contesting interests and find enduring common ground. The conventional approach of “scientific management” has proven inadequate for the task. We describe an alternative integrative and interdisciplinary approach to carnivore conservation—including a conceptual framework and evaluation criteria—used throughout this book to analyze, understand, and develop strategies to overcome problems associated with carnivores, people, and governance.

This chapter presents the story of Adak Island, which implicates many of the questions that environmental law is designed to address. The first part of the story considers the wildlife management issues that are colored by the designation of the wildlife refuge and the history of the island's uses. The second part of the story examines how the military changed the island's landscape, and how the departure of the military prompted a cleanup dictated by the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)—also known as the Superfund law. The rest of the island's story considers how the law awarded the abandoned property to native Alaskans and how the law is struggling to help Adak develop a sustainable fishery.

This chapter focuses on environmental conservation, a relatively new branch of biology that has one foot firmly set in science and the other firmly set in economics and politics. It discusses the technical aspects about anaconda management that can be used for conservation of anacondas and conservation of biodiversity in general. The most common methods of extractive wildlife management are farming, harvesting, or a combination of both. In a farming model, animals are kept in captivity, with all their needs provided by the keepers. Farming anacondas in a closed system is unlikely to be successful. However, the possibility of an open farm system exists; this has more potential of being used as a conservation tool as it requires a natural environment where the animals live. On the other end of the spectrum is harvesting or cropping. In a cropping system, animals are harvested from the wild; thus, a direct link exists between the economic activity and the conservation of the species and its habitats. The economic incentives the locals receive are directly linked to the habitat, producing clear reasons for them to protect and not overexploit natural areas. Thus, cropping has real potential to be used as a conservation tool, but like open farming, it is not conservation by itself. The author then addresses holistically the problem of conservation in Latin America and beyond.

The first section of Trash Animals gives an overview of the topic of urban wildlife and invasive species. It also gives summaries of the essays included in the text. The introduction also defines what it means to be a “trash animal” and if such an animal has worth.

This chapter focuses on the lessons that can be drawn from the case of salmon in wild rivers and grizzlies in Yellowstone National Park in terms of wildlife management and conservation of endangered species. It considers the reasons for counting wildlife as well as alternatives to restoring populations of endangered or threatened animals to their “once-was” abundance, along with the concept of minimum viable population size. It also looks at the insights provided by whooping cranes and the California condor as well as sea otters, sea urchins, and abalone for conserving and managing natural resources. Finally, it discusses wildlife conservation and management in the twenty-first century and suggests that they still mainly follow the old ways and old ideas about nature.

This chapter reviews the overall messages of this book, using examples from the case studies and other chapters to illustrate recurring malfunctions in decision making (governance) and to inform recommendations for improvements. We summarize the factors that make carnivore conservation particularly challenging, including the doctrine of scientific management, conflicting myths and perspectives, symbolic politics, power and politicized decision making, bounded rationality at the individual, institutional and collective levels, multiple and hierarchical decision processes, unique contexts, and impediments to innovation and diffusion. We outline five main strategies to improve governance in carnivore conservation: focus attention on the quality of decision-making processes, build new platforms for dialogue and problem solving, develop leadership and capacity, participate constructively in the social process, and be pragmatic and reinforce positive trends and conditions.

Keeping wild animals in captivity has a long history extending back to ancient civilizations. However, zoo and aquarium conservation programs did not emerge until the twentieth century when wildlife conservation in general became important to society. Significant individuals, publications, legislation, and programs pertinent to the evolution of zoo and aquarium conservation efforts are discussed in this chapter. Together, they represent the historic and cultural foundation of the earliest zoo and aquarium efforts to conserve endangered wildlife. How zoo and aquarium conservation programs were affected by society’s broader conservation interests and their role within these broader interests is also considered in this chapter. It is upon these early conservation efforts that the current zoo and aquarium conservation programs rest. This chapter considers whether the current programs are effective and whether they will eventually be successful. It also suggests what zoos and aquariums need to do in the future.

In this essay, Kelsi Nagy examines the disparity in attitudes over prairie dogs, which wildlife biologists view as an important keystone species and farmers, ranchers and land developers view as an inconvenient varmint. Nagy’s essay examines the controversy and myths surrounding public perceptions of prairie dogs and their management.

The involvement of badgers Meles meles in the transmission of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle in the UK, and attempts to control the disease in cattle by killing badgers, has been among the most controversial issues in wildlife disease management globally. Here, the chapter reviews the evidence, before interpreting aspects of the epizootiology of bTB in the context of badger behaviour and ecology (as detailed in Chapter 4). Specifically, the chapter introduces the perturbation hypothesis, and details two case studies which document the individual behavioural responses of badgers in populations subjected to culling, and interpret these in the context of a large-scale experiment, the randomized badger control trial (RBCT). The evidence for perturbation is strong, and provides both an explanation for why attempts to control bTB in cattle by killing badgers have generally been unsuccessful, and why they continue to be unpromising. The chapter therefore considers alternative options, including improved biosecurity on farms and vaccination, either of cattle or badgers, and call for a more holistic approach to bTB management.