New Research Approaches and Policy Ideas for Human–Wildlife Interactions: An Introduction

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

Much the most well-known, sustained, and massive effort to mobilize cooperative efforts by scientists around the world to understand global environmental change is that undertaken by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). See www.ipcc.ch. The IPCC was given its first task by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 1988. Another massive and impressive effort and one more closely related to biodiversity and wildlife conservation is the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program hosted by UNESCO and at work since 1970. MAB's work has concentrated on the development of a World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR). The biosphere reserve concept, developed initially in 1974 and substantially revised in 1995, has to date yielded designations of more than 560 sites in some 110 countries. IUCN through its Species Program maintains the Red List, the most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species, based on a set of criteria for evaluating the extinction risk of thousands of species and subspecies. Trust and confidence in the Red List is sustained through the collaborative efforts of more than 7,500 experts associated with IUCN's Species Survival Commission, working through more than a hundred species specialist groups (SSGs). See http://www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/species/about_ssc/ For initial access to the organization and work of the World Commission on Protected Areas, see http://www.iucn.org/about/union/commissions/wcpa/

A set of seven such local efforts spread across Texas, California, Florida, and Arizona are analyzed and evaluated in Judith Layzer, Natural Experiments: Ecosystem-Based Management and the Environment (2008). This fascinating analysis by Layzer also makes the further point that even when good scientific information on the status of species of concern, as well as other ecosystem attributes, is available to stakeholders trying to work together locally it is sometimes not used to good effect and in some circumstances is not used at all. For a book length treatment of a single local experience, see Holly Doremus & A. Dan Tarlock, Water War in the Klamath Basin: Macho Law, Combat Biology, and Dirty Politics (2008).

N. Pinter-Wollman, Spatial Behavior of Translocated African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) in a Novel Environment: Using Behavior to Inform Conservation Actions, 146 Behavior 1171–1192 (2009); N. Pinter-Wollman, L. Isbell, & L. Hart, Assessing Translocation Outcome: Comparing Behavioral and Physiological Aspects of Translocated and Resident African Elephants (Loxodonta africana), 142 Biol. Cons. 1116–1124 (2009); N. Pinter-Wollman, L. Isbell, & L. Hart, The Relationship Between Social Behavior and Habitat Familiarity in African Elephants (Loxodonta africana), 276 Proc. R. Soc. B 1009–1014 (2009).

D.A. Giles & R. Cendak, An Assessment of Vessel Effects on the Cohesion State of Southern Resident Killer Whale Groups, Report to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Contract AB133F-07-SE-3026) (2009); D.A. Giles, Rose Cendak, & Kari Koski, Measuring Vessel Compliance with Washington State Vessel Regulations and Local “Be Whale Wise Boating Guidelines,” Report to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Contract AB133F-07-SE-3026) (2010). Copies available from the corresponding author: [email protected]

R.W. Osborne, A Behavioral Budget of Puget Sound Killer Whales, in Behavioral Biology of Killer Whales 211–249 (B. Kirkevold & J.S. Lockard, eds., 1986).

The research project on killer whales by Katherine Ayres featuring the dog is described and illustrated at http://conservationbiology.net/research-programs/killer-whales/

Graduate Group in Geography, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Graduate Group in Geography, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Department of Population Health and Reproduction, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. E-mail: [email protected]