Hunters, poachers, stewards. What's in a name? Understanding the drivers of hunting through participatory modelling
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Author
Date
2020Type
- Doctoral Thesis
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Abstract
Hunting is a widespread practice in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It plays a key role in the food and income security as well as the cultural identity of millions of people. Together with habitat fragmentation and loss, however, hunting has been identified as a major driver of biodiversity loss with cascading effects on entire ecosystems. The decline in wildlife poses a dual challenge for both forests and the people whose livelihoods depend on them. In the Amazon basin, most rural and Indigenous communities rely on wildmeat consumption and commercialization for their sustenance. Although cultural identities and Indigenous rights over land and political autonomy are increasingly acknowledged, centralized approaches that alienate local resource users are still prevalent. Hunters are subjected to ambiguous law enforcement that disregard local interests and necessities and that often portrays them as criminals. The stigmatization of hunters and their practices hampers our ability to understand what drives their decisions and strategies. This ultimately risks jeopardizing people’ livelihoods while hindering the development of sustainable wildlife management practices. The current global biodiversity crisis and coronavirus pandemics are likely to further undermine Indigenous hunting habits by reinforcing the general negative perceptions.
The aim of this thesis is to go beyond the status quo and provide a deeper understanding of hunters’ strategies, their drivers, and their adaptive capabilities in the face of uncertain futures. To simultaneously embrace the complex nature of the hunting socio-ecological system and its exogenous and endogenous drivers, I used a participatory modelling approach and examine the system through three different entry points. After a general introduction (chapter 1), in chapter 2 I examined hunters’ strategic response to socio-economic changes. Providing hunters with alternative sources of protein and income can decrease overall hunting effort but might focus it on smaller, more vulnerable areas. On the other hand, legalizing trade might encourage hunters to harvest wildlife for commercial purposes, aggravating the impact on the wildlife, unless competition and taxation come into play. In chapter 3 I looked at the factors motivating people to break the rules and enter protected areas. To achieve voluntary compliance, communication between different sets of stakeholders as well as a resource-abundant landscape are key. Past violations of the protected area and resources’ abundance within its borders can further encourage transgression. Transgression is a multi-dimensional concept. Relying on enforcement to achieve compliance can be both ineffective and counterproductive. In chapter 4 I moved to the ecological dimension of hunting and to the need of closing the gap between modelers and the decision-makers to whom our models are directed. In this method-focused chapter, I outlined the process of building an agent-based model on animal population dynamics while enhancing the participation of the local stakeholders. The overarching aim is to illustrate how to build a tool that hunters will be able to use to negotiate wildlife management strategies and their implications. Finally, in chapter 5, I bring all these dimensions back together and I provide an outlook on the current global stance on hunting. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000456891Publication status
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Contributors
Examiner: Ghazoul, Jaboury![cc](/themes/Mirage2//images/orcid_icon.png)
Examiner: Garcia, Claude
![cc](/themes/Mirage2//images/orcid_icon.png)
Examiner: van Vliet, Nathalie
Examiner: Wardell, Andrew
Publisher
ETH ZurichSubject
HUNTING AND NATURE CONSERVATION; Natural resource use; Decision making; Participatory modeling; Indigenous communitiesOrganisational unit
03723 - Ghazoul, Jaboury / Ghazoul, Jaboury
Related publications and datasets
Is source of: https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00034
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