Measuring Motivations as a Method of Mitigating Social Values Conflict

Abstract

Alaska's Western Arctic Caribou Herd is an important subsistence resource for communities along its migration path and provides opportunities for sport hunting. Members of local communities have expressed conflict with sport hunters' actions including dispersing caribou away from their communities, failing to salvage meat, and trophy hunting. We measured sources of conflict among village residents and sport hunters' motivations for hunting. A cluster analysis of the motivations revealed four groups: general experience (40%), social hunter (25%), family hunter (13%), and trophy hunter (21%). Results illustrate not all sport hunters are hunting primarily for trophy and may share similar values with locals (e.g., family and nature). This information can be used in outreach material by the Bureau of Land Management (the managing agency) to mitigate conflict. This method can be applied to other cases in which social values conflict is present, allowing agencies to respond to this conflict adaptively.

Keywords:

• social values conflict
• motivation
• subsistence hunting
• caribou
• Alaska

Acknowledgments

We extend thanks to the residents of Kiana and Noorvik for hosting us in their villages and for taking the time to participate in the focus groups and interviews. We also thank the non-local hunters who completed the survey. Jim Dau and Charlotte Westing with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Kotzebue Field Office provided valuable input in study design and crucial assistance with the mail survey. All views expressed in this article are those of the authors. SNRAS Publication No. 2012-001.

Notes

1. Inupiat is the plural form of Inupiaq, and is used to refer to people collectively. Inupiaq can be used to describe a single person or as an adjective to describe culture (see http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/languages/i/ for more information).